Most Realtors have caught the e-mail bug. Not only because e-mail, when properly used, represents a tremendous yet inexpensive marketing tool, but also because it's a quick and easy way to communicate with associates and clients. And advertising one's e-mail address demonstrates to clients that you're not only making a concerted effort to keep up with technology. You're using technology to improve your level of service; your clients may reach you at any time -- or any place, if you own a portable computer and carry it with you outside the office.

While e-mail provides us with unprecedented freedom, this method of communication, if approached incorrectly, can be annoying to recipients. For Realtors, that translates to lost opportunities. Matthew Ferrara, technology chair of the Real Estate Educators Association, has a few tips to pass along to Realtors before they embark on e-mail marketing campaigns. Because Ferrara spends his time traveling throughout the country, teaching Realtors how to effectively incorporate technology into their daily business practices, he's aware of effective e-mail strategies -- and blunders, which he calls "e-irks."

Did you know that in 1997 more than 3.7 trillion e-mail messages were exchanged on the Internet? That sounds like quite a lot, when you consider that only 100 million or so Netizens were doing the talking. Yet some messages were sent -- and received -- better than others. Was it because some Netizens had faster Internet service than others? Or that some of us had newer browsers and e-mail software? Perhaps some of us were able to type faster than others?

Actually, none of these reasons had any impact on those e-mail messages that were better received than others. What was the cause, then? Simple. The best messages were written better than the rest of the chatter in cyberspace.

Another spelling and grammar lesson, you groan? Well, not exactly. Yet after receiving more than 20,000 messages myself last year, I thought it would be fun to highlight some of the best -- and worst -- e-mail irks (we call them e-irks) that you can learn from to refresh those common-sense etiquette ideas that to make your messages better this year.

The basics

Let's start with the number one e-irk: one-liner messages. Nothing is worse than receiving (or sending) a message that looks like this:

Please tell me more about it.

I seem to be getting a lot of these messages lately. What is "it"? What page or item on my home page was the sender looking at? What "more" would they like to know, considering all of the content I've already jammed onto the Web page?

And worst of all, who are "they"?

This type of message accounts for about 2 percent of the inquiries that I receive from my home page. It's encouraging that such prospects are taking the time to send me a message for more information. The problem is that I simply do not know how to respond. For starters, I do not know how to salute the sender. Are they male or female? An individual or a corporation? Should I say "Dear sir" or simply "To whom it may concern"? Do they think that their clever e-mail addresses (usually something like "supersales@aol.com") are going to help me figure out who they are? At least they could sign their names (and please, not just their initials).

Interestingly, nobody would ever send a letter or even leave a voice mail without identifying themselves. Even if they said something like "I was in one of your classes two years ago in Idaho," I'd at least have a lead to track down who I was communicating with. The one-liner is simply bad form; it's no way to communicate and makes it unlikely that the sender will get a reply with the information they want the first time, defeating the purpose of time-saving e-mail inquiries.

Who said what?

Related to the problem of the one-liner message is the even more pernicious one-worder reply. It looks like this:

Yes!

Now the fact is that this type of message is usually sent by someone you know. You may already have been swapping messages on a topic for a while and have a general understanding of the topic of conversation. Yet these e-irks often are sent in reply to a message which may have had more than one question or proposition in it. So, is it "Yes!" to my fee or to the date of our meeting?

To avoid sending the one-worder reply, use the original message quoting feature found in all e-mail programs. This is the best form of e-mail reply since it can incorporate the original message's questions into your responses. So a message reply should look like this:

In message dated 03-29-98, Dianna wrote: Are you interested in speaking for our association this summer?

Yes!

They are hoping to have the meeting in July; would you be available?

No. I will be in Italy in July. How about August?

Here, you see that the original message is quoted with marks (">" symbols) that help your response fit together into the original question -- forming an actual conversation. It also makes perfectly clear that "Yes!" you are interested in speaking for the group, but "No!" you cannot make it in July. There is little risk or miscommunication or error if you incorporate the original into the reply. It also makes it easier to keep accurate records for your files!

Please send more ifnormation!

The biggest e-irk that abounds in cyberspace is the proliferation of spelling errors (we will not even broach the subject of grammar here -- there is simply no hope!). Now, granted that most of us are on the go, typing e-mail as fast as possible, and probably make normal spelling errors even in our daily correspondence, the question becomes one of courtesy more than spelling excellence. Why? For those of you who still do not know how to perform a spell check, well, take a class or something! If you haven't noticed that cute little button with the check mark on it hanging around your tool bar lately, then you probably never will. It's a no-brainer -- it simply takes an extra moment of time -- to be courteous and to catch all those little mistakes (which are probably typos, anyway, not signs of poor spelling skills!). And if you are trying to impress a prospect or new client, nothing will do more damage than a message that looks like this:

Thakn you for your intrest in our product! I will be sneding you some more ifnormation in the mail and hope that you will check our demo files on teh web. If you need more help in the meantime, please feel free to email me. THanks! 

So check those messages! In fact, programs like Microsoft's Outlook Express can be setup to check spelling automatically before sending your messages -- you do not even have to click yourself on the spell check button! Simply configure the system (Tools, Options, Spelling) to check all outgoing messages -- and violį -- I mean, voilą!

OK, Wiseguy! Now you've said it!

One of the hardest skills of e-mail -- and one that often leads to the most offensive e-irks -- it the attempt to be funny in writing. The best comics in the business have a hard enough time being funny on stage, let alone on paper. Yet so many of us try -- and fail -- every day in our e-mail. So let me one suggestion to improve your ability to convey any emotion in your e-mail messages: Say what you mean (really).

There are two methods to communicate emotions in your e-mail that work well, especially since e-mail seems to induce Netizens to put strong emotions into their messages, as if they were trying to speak to their recipients. So if you are going to emote, let's do it right! Use these tricks:

Learn to write Chinese!

Well, not exactly. But the first time you see the Emoticons on your screen, you will think that the sender was trying to speak to you in Chinese. Emoticons are a separate language of their own, like hieroglyphics or pictograms, and require some knowledge of the language to be used effectively, especially if you do not want your intended audience to misunderstand your emotions! Some common Emoticons are: :>   Smile, happy):-):-):-)   Loud guffaw:<   Frown, sad;>   Wink, sly:-J   Tongue in cheek:0   Oh! excited, surprised:-! Foot in mouth

There are literally thousands of Emoticons. A good list of them can be found at  http://www.primenet.com/~vez/neti.html, including some other good e-mail etiquette ideas. The basic idea is to use common typewriter symbols to imitate a facial expression. It works well, if the recipient is either well-versed with Emoticons or understands them in the context of your text. The problem arises when the recipient is either unfamiliar with Emoticons or perhaps unfamiliar with the language or facial expressions of the sender. So Emoticons can work both ways, and you need to be careful.

Another method of incorporating emotions into your e-mail is simply to use parentheses with the intended emotional word. For example, the phrase:

I really wish you would not do that

can be transformed into two different sentences with opposite emotional connotations by adding:

I really wish you would not do that (grin). I really wish you would not do that (frown).

There is little chance of misunderstanding if you put your actual emotions into words in parentheses. It works well and is easier to remember than thousands of Emoticons!

STOP THAT!

Finally, a little e-irk that needs to be said -- again -- is the admonition NOT TO TYPE YOUR E-MAIL MESSAGES IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS! This is known as SHOUTING and should be reserved for words you may want to emphasize or stress. It is physically harder for the human eye to read all capital letter messages and is simply poor form. Considering that nobody ever wrote a normal letter entirely in capital letters, users should NOT type their e-mail messages that way, either.

I am sure there are many other e-irks out there, some yet to be discovered. As another 4 trillion e-mail or more get ready to be transmitted again this year, be sure to do whatever you can to avoid poor e-etiquette and improve your communications. After all, it's the difference between being read and deleted by your recipient!

Published: April 14, 1998

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