Although the impact of email is overall very positive, there are however some negatives that we have to cope with. The volume and frequency of email messages can be overwhelming. Junk mail has been replaced by spam. And despite the increased volume and frequency of our communications the quality may be lower.

Here are 10 tips to improve your email experience:

1. Make sure you are virus protected

You are most vulnerable to viruses through your email. Make sure you have a good virus protection program and keep it up to date.

2. Organise your emails into folders

You don't file all your paperwork in one file, so why keep your emails in one folder? Filed carefully into appropriately named folders, your "Inbox" can be a very powerful storage and retrieval system. Add the use of rules (see next point) to make this even more effective.

3. Use rules as much as possible

Most modern email systems allow you to create "rules" for the handling of emails. For example, you may communicate regularly with a certain company. By setting a rule you can a) store all emails from the company in one folder automatically and b) instruct your email client to warn you when a message comes in from that company.

Other use of rules could include automatically deleting junk mail; automatically forwarding certain emails to a colleague when they arrive in your inbox and much more.

4. "Sign" your messages

Before emailing became so pervasive, business correspondence consisted largely of letters and faxes. Both of these documents usually contained a logo, address and telephone information. And they were normally signed along with the person's designation. You cannot always tell from an email address who the author is. It is therefore important to set up a "signature" that is automatically inserted into the email message. The following is an example:

5. Formatting is not everything

Use fancy formats in your emails sparingly. Many of your recipients will be using email clients that cannot read anything other than plain text. Fancy formats will not appear, and worse, they may actually distort the message. Special "stationery" may look good to you, but may look terrible on the computer of the recipient of your message.

6. Don't be a novelist

Messages should be concise and to the point. Think of it as a telephone conversation, except you are typing instead of speaking. Nobody has ever won a Pulitzer Prize for a telephone conversation nor will they win one for an email message.

It is also important to remember that some people receive hundreds of email messages a day - they will not read your entire email message if it is too long. This may result in important points not getting across.

7. Construct your email messages carefully

One of the biggest mistakes that people make is that they tend to get careless in how they formulate their messages, because emails tend to be more informal. Remember emailing is a form of communication, and the biggest problems in any human relationship is communication.

Emails can easily be misunderstood, so we have to work much harder to make sure that we communicate correctly. If you are in any doubt as to whether you have portrayed the right message, phone rather than email.

8. Don't print out your email messages

One of the goals for email usage is to eliminate (or greatly reduce) the shuffling of paper, but what chance does that have if a significant number of people are going to print every message they receive. I'm not saying that all messages should not be printed. I'm saying that too many messages are printed for no reason (a lot are printed and never retrieved from the printer). Rather store you messages in folders, then back up your emails at least once a week. If you do this you will have an incredibly powerful filing system.

9. Emails are not private

Don't make the mistake of thinking that your email is private.

With some email systems, the email administrator has the ability to read any and all email messages.

Some companies monitor employee email. The reasons for this obtrusive behavior range from company management wanting to make sure users are not wasting time on frivolous messages, to making sure that company secrets are not being leaked to unauthorised sources.

Email software is like all software in that occasionally things go wrong. If this happens, you may end up receiving email meant for another person or your email may get sent to the wrong person. Either way, what you thought was private may not be private anymore.

10. A powerful marketing tool

Email is a powerful and cost-effective tool to communicate with your customers. Use it to build relationships and promote your company. However, be careful of abusing it.

Piers is the Managing Director of Saratoga Software (Pty) Ltd., the holding company of Bizland.

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