Netiquette, or “Net Etiquette,” is a set of guidelines that you should follow in your electronic business communications. We have related them to e-mails here, but they are appropriate for other types of electronic communications such as discussion groups or chats. The list below is adapted from “RFC Netiquette Guidelines,” which contains a listing of business netiquette (http://www.atra-tr.org/netetiquette.htm)

• Be considerate to others – think about how you would respond if you received the message that you're about to send.
• Let the recipient know how you obtained their contact information – Reminding them where you met or that you got their email address from a website may make them feel more at ease with you
• Always include a description in the Subject box of your e-mails – Some e-mail programs treat e-mails with no subject as junk.
• Be careful of attachment size – Don't send attachments, especially large ones, unless you have asked the recipient first.
• Use proper grammar and capitalization – Unless you have a good relationship with your recipient, don't use poor English just because it's easier. Especially don't use all lower case or all caps.
• Be brief but complete – Short notes are best, but the recipient must understand the note.
• Don't use “smileys” – Many people use smileys, or emoticons, to indicate their intentions or feelings. These are not appropriate for business communication. :-(
• Maintain anonymity - When sending to multiple recipients, consider hiding the recipient list. Some recipients may not want others to know they are receiving this information. Additionally, many probably don't want their e-mail address provided to potential spammers.