Are you minding your email manners?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Aretha said it right. It should be the golden standard when communicating on a professional level. Showing a little respect to your peers goes a long way, but all too frequently, we click “send” without thinking of the people on the other end, their inboxes and their schedules.

Our friends over at Bisnow passed along this post dedicated to the seven sins frequently committed by PR pros. Drafted after a particularly “maddening evening” of clearing out a clogged inbox of oversized attachments and pitches unrelated to her beat, the reporter offers tips on the best ways to show respect and interest to reporters through email.

We all make mistakes, but these are great reminders on email etiquette not only in dealing with reporters but colleagues of all types. Check out Amanda Marsh’s post. 

UPDATE: The disasterous end-result when you're rude to a reporter? You become the news! Techcrunch publishes email chain from PR pro Timothy Johnson, who definitely forgot his manners. See it here.

This post was contributed by Vicky Smithee. 

Are you minding your email manners?

Availability and Freedom of Information

Starting at midnight on January 27, 2011 in Cairo and Alexandria, political protests against the Egyptian government led to the government enforcing Internet censorship, followed by a blockage of international Internet access between Egypt and the rest of the online world. Since then, we watched the unrest in Egypt unfold through online news, blogs, tweets and emails – while the entire country of Egypt was without access to the Internet.

Before the Egyptian government “turned off” the Internet, Facebook saw six times more traffic than Google inside the country, according to the MSNBC Technolog. Then the outages came, followed by the protests. Two weeks later, the 30-year ruling of Hosni Mubarak ended. As of February 2, normal connectivity and freedom to information was restored. Did the Internet bring down a dictator?

We couldn’t help but think back over the last five years and consider how much the Internet, specifically social media, has globally changed how we live, work and most recently, how it empowers the masses to shape the government.  As PR folks, freedom of information, connectivity and the ability to interact with others through the Internet is crucial. What do you think? Check out Public Relations Society of America’s “Considerations for global PR professionals.” How has the Egypt unrest, fueled by social media and information restriction, impacted the way we view the power of the Internet? 

This post was contributed by Lauren Venegas

Availability and Freedom of Information