Transcript Email Etiquette: - Cecelia Munzenmaier: Online Portfolio

Looking Professional Online:
Why Facebook isn’t
always your friend
Only friends see pictures
of your party.
 True
 False
"Within a short period of time, you
could find these 83 photos on
every search engine on the Web,
and these 83 photos could be
attached to your name for the rest
of your career." (DeMello, owner of
False.
Ziggs)
In 2006, 20% of employers searched
Facebook.
In 2009, 60-75% do.
Emails to friends sent from a
work computer are private.
 True
 False
“Legally, a boss is allowed to
monitor all email conversations
that occur in his or her
workplace via company-owned
and operated email clients.”
False.
Employment Law Firms
About 43% of American companies
monitor email. Sixty-six percent monitor
Internet connections.
You can be fired for using
ALL CAPS in emails.
 True
 False
“Ms. Walker’s employer
determined that her e-mail,
making use of ‘all caps’ …
was the equivalent of “shouting”
at the employees.” (CCH
True.
WorkDay)
Vicki Walker was fired for “confrontational”
emails. A message on filling out claim forms
used capital letters, bold fonts, and red type.
Hitting Delete makes posts
or emails go away.
 True
 False
“Once you put stuff up, it is out
there, and it is gone. You
cannot get it back.”
(M. Sciola)
False.
“People who use social sites should understand
that any information that appears online is there
forever and cannot be deleted. Even material
that is withdrawn from the Web is cached by
search engines and Internet archives.” (Lewis)
Levels of formality/privacy
Rank these in order of importance:
personal use alcohol/drugs
provocative photos
poor communication skills
bad-mouthing employers/coworkers
lies about qualifications
discriminatory remarks (race, gender, religion)
unprofessional screen name
link to criminal behavior
posted confidential information
Disconnect:
• 60% of employers believe they
have a right to know how their
employees present themselves
online
• 53% of employees say “No way”
Different media
 Texting
 Email
 Social
networking sites
 Blogs
 Websites
formal
Texting
 Audience
likely to be friendly
 Perceived to be private
 Fast and informal
 Can be forwarded
Texting
 14%
of teens surveyed think it’s OK
to break up with someone
by sending a text message
 67%
would not use text messaging
to discuss serious issues
–Harris Poll
Email
 Audience
is more varied
 Can be formal or informal
 Is considered most urgent
 Can be misdirected
or forwarded
More Tips: Watch address
Insulted by a general email from the boss,
an employee sent an angry comment to a
colleague (she thought): “Does she think
we’re stupid?”
The reply (from her boss): “Yes, I do.”
# companies monitoring email
Over half of all employers fire workers
for E-mail and Internet abuse.
 43 percent of companies monitor
workers' E-mail
– 73 percent use automatic tools
– 40 percent assign someone to review
the E-mail manually
•
Tip: Spelling still counts
This is an actual email.
Purposal
I can beat almost anyones
price and almost promise you
success and if I don’t reach
it, we wont charge you after
the time we say we can
achieve it until we do.
Tip: Spelling still counts
• Sloppiness is one of “seven deadly
e-mail sins”
• 81% have “negative feelings” about those
who send email with bad grammar,
misspelling and disconnected arguments
• 41 percent of senior managers said badly
worded e-mails implied laziness and even
disrespect.
‒CNN.com
Who gets the message?
An officer convicted of beating Rodney King
sent this email:
Oops. I haven’t beaten anyone so
bad in a long time.
A transcript was used at his trial.
Social networking sites
 Audience
chooses to visit
(pull, not push)
 People perceive as exclusive, but not
 Employers do snoop
 Posted information is hard to remove
Be careful who you friend
 Max
Sopo was on the run from bank
fraud charges
 He posted about life in Cancun:
JUST HERE TO HAVE FUN PARTEEEEEEE
 Posts
were private;
friends list not
Blogs
 Audience
is public
 Posts are more formal
 Posts are available over a long time
 Others may send people to post
 Comments are hard to remove
Top 10 turnoffs for employers
 References
to drug abuse
 Extremist/intolerant views
(racism, sexism)
 Criminal activity
 Evidence of excessive alcohol use
 Inappropriate pictures
Top 10 turnoffs continued
 Foul
language
 Links to unsuitable websites
 Lewd jokes
 Silly email addresses
 Membership in pointless/silly group
Blogging cost job offer

Lis Riba interviewed at a nonprofit.
 She blogged about her intent to move on
as soon as she found something better.
 Someone from the nonprofit read her blog.
• ''I really believe I lost that job offer
because of careless blogging," said Riba,
35, of Melrose. ''It was something I hadn't
considered, and it taught me a lesson
about discretion.”
Websites
 Audience
is widespread
 No expectation of privacy
 Most formal
 Represents professional
identity
Possible solutions





Don’t blog
Blog under a pseudonym
Require password protection
Omit identifying details
Follow Colonel David Russell’s rule:
Never say [or show] anything in an electronic
message that you wouldn't want appearing, and
attributed to you, in tomorrow morning’s frontpage headline in the New York Times.

Follow basic netiquette
At work: “Litmus test”
 “If
my boss was looking over my
shoulder right now, would he or she
approve?”
—Laurent Duperval,
president Duperval Consulting
Wired Manifesto
 Give
credit
 Be respectful
 Don't pose as someone else
 Choose your friends wisely
 Respect privacy
One rule for social media?
#1
One rule for social media?
Be yourself, but don’t be a jerk (Cole).
 Tweet others the way you want to be tweeted.
 It’s about relationships (Fields).
 Never say [or show] anything in an electronic
message that you wouldn't want appearing, and
attributed to you, in tomorrow morning’s front-page
headline in the New York Times (Russell).
 Networking with people on social media sites works
just like in our real physical world except the party
is a LOT bigger with a LOT more people attending
(Phares).

Suggested resources

Available on the web
– The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook
(Weinberg)
– 11 Rules of Social Media Etiquette (Brantner)
– 11 Ways to Lose Friends and Followers Online
(Borders)
– PR101 –Lesson 17– Cole’s Rules of Social Media
Etiquette
– Etiquette in the Age of Social Media (Brogan)