The Business Value of Digital Etiquette

There is business value in Digital Etiquette! Quite simply, the way you communicate digitally matters.

You are either making a positive deposit to a business relationship or you are making a withdrawal from a business relationship. This can have significant implications on your ability to sell and your ability to retain clients as well as the interest in a vendor retaining you as a customer overtime.

I dive into a number of examples of bad Digital etiquette as well as give specific tips on ways you can enhance your Digital Etiquette in email, social media, and blogging.

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VIDEO: The Business Value of Digital Etiquette

Diving into the Details: The Business Value of Digital Etiquette

I’m a firm believer in the importance of and value in communication.

Communication makes or breaks personal relationships…and business relationships! It can cost you sales but more often when you get careless it can cost you the retention of clients. Don’t take your customers for granted and stop with good digital etiquette.

The issue is that we can get sloppy with our communication digitally. We get used to “text message” and “DM” shorthand and it creeps into our business communication where it should not. We have to grasp the gap that exists in purely digital communication versus live communication. So much is lost!

Gaps in Digital vs Live Communication:

ToneGesturesVolumeBody languageContext

All of these items above and more are missing in digital communication and so the reader is left to “interpret” what we share if we do not articulate and communicate enough. It’s said that in live in-person communication nearly 80% of the message is communicated non-verbally!

So think of that, if you are losing 80% of your total communication message in digital communication, what do you need to do to lessen this? That’s the key!

Digital Etiquette Defined

How we communicate online is what I define as “Digital Etiquette” and it has power beyond what you might expect! It involves the adjectives, punctuation, and full message that you share. With digital communication, less is not typically more!

Good digital etiquette can lead to increased sales, retaining customers for life, and great customer service. The converse is also true, not taking time to pay attention to your digital communication patterns and methods can lead to losses, challenges, unhappy customers and more! It can lead to higher team member turnover and breakdowns that cost companies significant amounts of time and money.

Tips for Good Digital Etiquette

In this episode I break down a few specific bad examples of digital communication that I received via email and I then summarize key things that are important such as:

Greet the person by name to begin the email. I do like “Hello Sam!” (note the exclamation. I’m happy to be reaching out to him)Establish tone with a warm adjective and/or personal note (“I hope you are doing well today.”Use punctuation such as “!” vs “.” to communicate more meaningCAPS IS TRULY SCREAMING. Do you really want to scream? I don’t think so. Digital communication is not really the best communication method to scream! If it’s that bad, at least pickup the phone if not meet in person or do a videoconference.

A general rule is to start with a warm greeting and be intentional to be personable and set a warm tone. Communicate what you need to communicate and not more than it needs but not less than is required. Reaffirm the relationship and the goals moving forward. Do NOT take people or understanding of a message for granted.

You need to listen to the episode to hear the bad examples. You may be doing some of these and need to improve your digital etiquette!

Final Takeaway

Take some time and evaluate your Digital Etiquette today! Start with your emails. Are you taking time to set a warm tone? Are you being friendly? Are you reinforcing the value the relationship has to you?

That’s a wrap this time!

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Why the Halftime theme Mike?

I’m an Indiana Hoosier native where basketball is the top sport. Every team heads to the locker room at halftime to evaluate the first half and create an updated plan for the second half. That plan includes adjustments based on reviewing what worked and what didn’t. The “halftime” is a key review point where the game stops, the team pulls away to huddle in the locker room away from the fans, and they come out prepared and ready to succeed in the second half.

That’s what this podcast is all about, taking the time to pull away for a bit to evaluate, learn, and set some strategies for your business to succeed in the second half. Join me by subscribing and let me be your “business halftime” to help you find great success going forward!

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