•  New communication technologies make it important to practice good netiquette. •  Learn the golden rules and master the technology

One of the best things about the New Economy is the way it has put business executives on the spot about technology. In the Old Economy, the CEO could refuse to deal with email and wear his ignorance of technology like a badge of honor. But in the technology-driven New Economy, people who refuse to deal with email don't get jobs -- let alone get to be CEO.

Success in business has always demanded good communication skills. New communication technologies have set the bar higher. Email has become universal, and you've got to be able to use it to communicate effectively and persuade forcefully. Instant messaging applications and chat rooms are increasingly common communication tools for businesses, as well, and they've proved that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Email has been around so long that it seems everyone has an understanding of its pitfalls and problems by now. But the need for Netiquette -- electronic displays of good manners and consideration for others -- is as great as ever. Using electronic communication effectively begins with an understanding of its basic nature:

• It's literate, but it's not literature. Writing an email is nothing at all like writing a letter. In fact, if you use regular business letter style for emails you will sound stuffy and bore your readers into a coma with messages that are too long. Think of an email as a taxidermied conversation -- a live, wild thing that's been caught, stuffed and mounted. If you read your email over and it doesn't sound like you talking, fix it. On the other hand, you are using written words, so use them correctly. Bad grammar and poor spelling can make you look sloppy and unintelligent.

• It's mail, but it's not always first class. Email is too easy to send, so people send too much of it, which makes it too easy to ignore. The value of email can be degraded by overuse. Spam of all kinds clutters in-boxes and makes it harder for real communication to get the attention it deserves. If you want your messages to be attended to properly, don't dilute the value of your brand -- make sure that every message with your name in the "From" line is something the reader needs to get.

• It's personal, but it's not private. A little paranoia is a good thing when it comes to electronic communication. Be careful of what you're sending, and be careful of who you send it to. Once you hit the send button the message is out of your control. It can be misaddressed, copied, forwarded, intercepted, subpoenaed. Write every message as if it were going to appear on the nightly news -- because it just might.

Electronic messaging is communication stripped down to the bare bones. It's lost all the implicit meaning conveyed by visual cues (your expressions and gestures) and aural cues (tone of voice and nonverbal emphasis like "hmmms" and chuckles). It's also lost its context: The events that engender an email will be lost in time and space before it stops circulating. All that's left is the words, and they may convey only a small percentage of what you mean to say.

The solution is to be as explicit as possible. Say what you mean, no more, no less. Don't exaggerate -- it will be taken literally. Don't try to be funny -- it may be misconstrued (and it makes your messages windy). Don't assume your reader understands your intentions. Spell them out.

Good Manners Aren't Enough

Netiquette (etiquette for the Net, in case you hadn't figured it out) requires more than good manners. Good manners means not telling Smith in an email that he's an idiot. Netiquette means not telling Jones in an email that Smith is an idiot because it is the nature of email that Smith will inevitably get a copy.

Netiquette requires kindness. It not only protects the reader, it protects you. Your reader may interpret what looks like honest communication to you as harsh. If you have hard truths to deliver, don't use email to deliver it. Use email to call a meeting and deliver it there.

The bottom line for email is the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That means:

• Keep it short. Remember, email is a conversation. Say what you've got to say, then let the other party talk. If a message runs longer than several paragraphs, warn your readers at the top and give them a summary.

• Use the "forward" command sparingly. Don't forward anything more than twice. If the right arrows build up in the left margins of your emails, the message you're sending is that you can't think for yourself.

• Use the "reply" command liberally. It's an easy way to create context for your message. But don't get lazy. If the original was three pages long and your answer is "yes" don't force your reader to deal with all three pages again. Edit the original down to the questions, then write your answers.

• Write a descriptive subject line. If you make your readers guess at what the message is about, they may guess they'd rather not read it.

• Protect yourself by sending no email before its time. If the content of your message is way up near the "Abject Flattery" end of the scale, hit the send button immediately. If it's anything less, let it age a bit while you think it over. The more strongly you feel about the subject, the longer you should wait. Sending an email message that isn't well thought out can come back to haunt you.

Master the Technology

The real reason most old-fashioned execs didn't use email wasn't that they were too busy. It's that they didn't understand the technology and did things like typing EVERYTHING IN CAPITAL LETTERS, which is the email equivalent of shouting. Or forgetting to attach attachments. If you want to look smart in email, you have to be smart about email -- particularly about what's happening at the receiving end:

• Keep attachments small. If your readers connects to their email servers over a dial-up line, attachments over 20K or so will slow them down, and attachments over 100K are just too big. Check the size of the file before you send it.

• Use alternatives to attachments. If a file is large, don't send it as an attachment. Post it on the Web as a downloadable file, and send just the URL to your recipients. If you don't have a Web site to use as a host for files, create one: Geocities is just one example of a free homepage service that has good tools for uploading files.

• Watch attachment formats. It's always a good idea to use Rich Text Format, for example, for word documents. Most word processors, whatever their vintage, will save and open rich text files. For spreadsheets try CSV or SYLK formats. There's no similar lingua franca for presentations, so if you aren't sure what application and version your reader will use to open an attached file, ask before you send it.

• Format messages for clarity, but don't overdo it. You wouldn't send out a business letter that was an ugly, unreadable blob of text, so don't do it in email, either. You have to be careful with email software: Programs that can produce fancier features like bulleted lists generally send the message in HTML format. Not all mail programs can handle HTML, though. It's still safest to send plain ASCII, even though it lacks text-formatting features. Just remember that white space is the best formatter of all. Use it liberally.

• Use spell check -- every time. It can only make you look smarter.

Instant Messages are No Different

Real-time messaging applications like AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ and even chat rooms are gaining acceptance as business communication tools, driven by a new generation of workers that has grown up online. They have all of the problems of email, and introduce some new ones of their own.

• Don't cry wolf. Messenger use by definition intrudes on what the recipient is doing. Make sure your communication is worthy of being disruptive, or pretty soon recipients will begin to ignore you in self-defense.

• Don't ignore buddies. On the other hand, if you've added somebody to your buddy list, don't consistently ignore his or her messages. Netiquette says if you can't chat, you still owe your buddy the courtesy of an explanation. Simply type a short sentence like, "I'm on the phone. Will get back to you."

• Be kinder than usual. It's even easier to flame someone in an instant message than in email -- and you're more likely to take out your frustrations on the innocent.

• Put up an "I'm working on it" message. Don't let a long period of time elapse if you need to take some time to reply to an instant messenger. Otherwise, the recipient may think you're ignoring him.

Netiquette Is the Future

Electronic communication is driving the future of business, and this will have profound impact on the future of business leadership. Executives who refuse to master new communication technologies on the horizon will find themselves in the same boat with those old-line CEOs who refused to read their email. New communication skills will be required -- and Netiquette will be more important than ever.