C u l8er: writing right rules
With email and SMS becoming increasingly accepted ways to communicate in business, it was only a matter of time before deals started being done in this modern shorthand. But with the new time-poor style of business comes a new style of etiquette: you can’t after all, do a big deal with a few flippant words. So how do you conduct yourself in email and SMS when you’re trying to impress? And are there downsides to doing business this way? Well, one professor, Terri R. Kurtzberg, an associate professor of management and global business at Rutgers Business School conducted a study in conjuction with America’s DePaul and Lehigh Universities and found that people are more likely to lie in an email message than when they converse on paper. People don’t ask questions as well online and are less likely to reveal their true interests, she said. So some deals may actually be better done in a face-to-face negotiation. On the other hand, email is good for things such as real estate deals, because everyone involved can keep abreast of developments as they happen. In fact, one of the biggest advantages to email negotiation is that information can be shared quickly and with everyone involved, so vendors, clients, brokers and anyone else who wants to know in the loop.
The issue with these short, sharp messages though, is that they can sometimes be too short and too sharp - hence it pays to properly articulate what you’re trying to say as you would in a business letter, rather than reverting to quirky shorthand and an informal style. Lastly, be courteous. Compose your messages as if you were standing opposite the recipient in the street.
As more and more communication migrates towards the laptops and BlackBerrys and away from the phone it pays – sometimes quite literally – to write the right thing.
