April 26, 2007
Email etiquette: What every tomato needs to know but was afraid to
ask.
Does this sound familiar? You open up your inbox and are delighted
to see emails from friends and family-- until you start opening them. There are several emails sent to you and at least twenty other
“best friends” of the sender. You hit delete. Then you start to open more of your emails and find they have been forwarded
so many times that it would take a zillion clicks to actually get to the message. You hit delete. Or you get an email for about the
100th time warning you of some dire danger that turns out to be pure myth. You hit delete.
Well if you’re like The Three Tomatoes, you would really like to say something
to these well intentioned folks who you know are just trying to keep in touch, and you don’t want to offend them, so you just keep
deleting. Well last week, a Three Tomatoes daughter finally had enough and sent the following email to the worst offenders. We
think you’ll enjoy it as much we did!
Dear Friends
I am going to sound cranky writing this, but I often times get hundreds
of emails a day and try to weed through junk mail vs. real communication, and I’m hoping you can help me out. I really enjoy being able
to stay in touch with friends and family and, although impersonal, it is sometime the easiest, fastest way to get in touch. I’m also
sure I am not the only one thinking this, but I am going to take advantage of full fledged pregnancy hormones to speak openly here.
- Please do not send me emails that ask me to forward on to 5
“special people in my life.” If you do, I’ll send it back to you 5 times to show you how much you mean to me.
- Please do not send me emails that have “IMPORTANT”
product information on why I should get rid of X because it will cause some hideous disease and turns out via a quick Google search
that it’s a hoax. Prior to sending these, please check out Urban Legends , otherwise your insides may rot-out from
specified “banned” product:
- Please do not send me forwards-of-forwards: prayers, smiley
faces, email petitions, etc. They are well meaning, but I’d rather have you send me a quick “Hi—how ya’
doing?”
Do you know Make-a-Wish has had to establish a special toll free hotline in response to the large number of
Internet hoaxes abusing their good name and reputation? I’m sure they would like to spend their time doing other things. Also,
email petitions aren’t valid. And, big companies don't do business via chain
letters--Disney is not giving you a free vacation, you will not receive a free case of M&Ms, and neither Old Navy nor the GAP will send you a
coupon. Sorry. I wish I can say it is true. This is the online equivalent of “I’ve got a bridge to sell
you.”
It is all about Netiquette. I’ll enjoy jokes, an
invite for a night out, a recommendation on something you saw online at a discount, a real product recall substantiated by a reliable source (not
just because it says so in the email) and anything other than the above.
BTW (“by-the-way”, for those of you who don’t know), COPY
and PASTE this email and send on to 10 people you know and you: will receive $1,000 from Google, receive a night out because your
husband will actually watch the children, will look 10 years younger, get hit on by hot-young guys in sports cars trying to pick you up when
you are stopped at a traffic light (regardless of the mini-van or car seats in the back), get proofed when buying cigarettes/ liquor, and anything
else your little heart desires. :)
Wow, those pregnancy hormones are as powerful as the menopausal ones!
The Three Tomatoes Three Simple Tips to better email
etiquette.
So, here are a few simple little tips that will make all our inboxes a little happier
everyday.
1. Sending Group Emails: When you send a group* email
(unless the group needs to respond as a group), use the “Bcc” (blind carbon copy) line for your email recipients instead of
the “To” line. That way, each individual will feel special that you’ve only sent this to her. If you
don’t see the bcc line, hit the “cc” line and the bcc line should appear. That’s where you type
in your email addresses.
*A group is more than five people.
2. Replying to Group Emails. If you receive a group email
and want to reply, use the “reply to sender”, not the “reply to all” (unless of course there’s a
need for the entire group to read your reply.) This will help minimize all our inboxes.
3. About Forward. We know it’s so easy
to just forward on something you think we’ll all enjoy, but there are times we’ve received emails that have been forwarded so many
times that it takes 4 to 5 times of opening the forwards before we get the message. So, usually we just delete any email that says
Forward. Here’s what to do if you receive something you really want to pass along. Highlight the body of the email, then use your
edit button and click copy. Then open a new email, and go to edit and hit paste. Then send that to your list of friends (preferably
using the Bcc) line. (Another way is to hit forward, but then delete the forward line in the subject, and delete all the addresses in the original
email until you get the actual message.)
If you’d like some more info on this topic, here’s an article we found that covers a lot of the basics.
Okay, now forward this email (once only please) to any friends you think need to
read this (just make sure you put their addresses in the bcc line.) Better, yet just use the send button on the top right of this
email.
Here’s to happy inboxes,
‘til next week
The Three Tomatoes
Copyright© 2007. The Three Tomatoes. All rights
reserved.
