New Social Etiquette: Part 2 - Emoticons

Maybe when you first saw this ;-) or this :-( little guy in one of your emails you thought, that's cute. Or maybe you asked yourself, is that appropriate to add to the end of a business email? Now quite colorful and animated, emoticons have grown more acceptable but should definitely be used with caution. For example, while the classic smiley face is ok, a kissy face is certainly not. And you may think it funny to add a wink to the end of a slightly humorous email, but be sure to leave out the emoticon sticking out its tongue since we're no longer in grade school. Also, consider the fact that the tone of email is always open to interpretation (over a voice on the phone) so forget about using angry or indifferent faces as a client or vendor may think this is how you feel towards them.

New Social Etiquette

I was amazed to learn that there’s a whole world of social etiquette for IM, (instant messaging) text messaging and sending email. But before learn it you have to enter a world where a) you actually care to learn it, and, b) you have someone to use it with.

To give you an example: LOL, is an abbreviation for Laugh Out Loud. Now that makes sense. But here are some abbreviations which border on mind numbing. Ready? OK see if you know what these abbreviations stand for: ILYBYFIWH, DTMITY, IHACBOH and YMMFS.

Do you know?
ILYBYFIWH is: I Like You But Your Friend Is Way Hotter
DTMITY is: Don’t Text Me, I’ll Text You
IHACBOH is: I Have A Clean Bill Of Health
YMMFS is: You Make My Fingers Sweat.

Easy abbreviations to remember: BRB (Be Right Back); JK (Just Kidding) and GA (Go Away)!!

But really, for anyone keeping up on this stuff, I say: STBY (Sucks To Be You).

To learn more on the New Social Etiquette visit: heliosocial.com.