2D Communication in a 3D world

This has been a subject of debate recently on some of the discussion boards and online networking groups I'm a member of. How best to communicate in the 2D world of words – especially in electronic format – email, chat and text messaging.

You might think you know what you’ve said, but have you? The message you write isn’t necessarily the message that gets read by the other person. What you intended to say it isn’t necessarily what comes across.


A few simple guidelines:

• Be as professional in your 2D communication as you are in any area of your business, don’t use inappropriate language, shortening acronyms like BTW (by the way) or emoticons.

• DON’T SHOUT – using capitals is seen as shouting in the online world.

• Read through the message before you send it to make sure it makes sense and check your spelling, punctuation and grammar. Read it with fresh eyes not reading what you think you wrote. It can be a bit scary when you read back what you've sent to see what you actually wrote.

• Use email for simple, short communication. Long emails are hard to read and more likely to be ignored. If you have a lot to say - add it in an attachment and provide an overview in the email.

• Use emoticons (those cute little faces and expressions) sparingly. They can help to highlight amusement rather than sarcasm but leave them out of purely business communication.

• Be clear if you are expecting a response or specific action from an email.

• Don’t use complex formatting in emails, which will be unreadable. Not everyone receives email in HTML.

• When replying to an email – only include the relevant part of the previous message if it’s useful to the flow of the communication. Don’t automatically tag on all of the previous messages if they’re not needed.

• Also, don't automatically reply to everyone if it's not relevant.

• When sending an email to multiple users – don't use the cc field, use the bcc field – this way the email addresses aren’t seen by everyone else and could also be forwarded to third parties.

• Only cc relevant people on emails. Don’t blanket copy everyone unless they really need to see what you’ve said.

• Not everyone has high-speed connections or endless space in their mail systems – keep attachments as small as possible.

• NEVER forward virus warnings and chain-letters however convincing they are – www.breakthechain.org.

This is not a definitive list by any means and we don't expect to get it right all the time but a few simple things should avoid mis-understandings. If you have any of your own - add a comment.

If something important needs to be communicated – don’t leave it just to email or text.