The #1 Email Mistake that Could Cost You Friends and Customers

Posted on March 2nd, 2010 by Keith Ferrazzi

Pinging - a quick check in via email or text - is an invaluable tool to keep yourself on the radar of the people who you care about. Sometimes pinging needs to be one-on-one to build the relationship. Other times you can SCALE your outreach, sending a message to multiple contacts.

Group pings are a recommended practice, provided that you don’t make the NUMBER ONE MISTAKE IN PINGING: Lack of transparency! Don’t try to mask a group email as a one-on-one communication. Always be completely clear who’s receiving your message. That doesn't mean you should cc everyone; always be careful to keep other’s emails private by using bcc, with your own email in the "To" line. Just make the fact that you're writing to a group clear in your writing.

A couple more rules to make sure that your scaled pings are building the relationship, not damaging it:

•    Make sure the message is of interest to everyone who gets it
•    Balance this less personal outreach with a level of one on one contact appropriate to the relationship

BTW, pinging is covered in an entire course in my Relationship Masters Academy, launching soon.

Have you ever accidentally made a pinging faux pas? - or been on the receiving end of one?

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2 comments // In Relationship Development Skills
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2 Responses so far | Have Your Say!

  1. My friend sent an email to me and some of his other friends discussing a low-blow type political move during the Obama/McCain campaign season. All of us were of the same political viewpoint so I decided to send a bit of a raging email full of swearing to everyone to vent. This would have been okay had it been only people my age, but I failed to realize that his parents received my email too...until an hour later when it hit me. I emailed my friend and he said it wasn't a big deal and they wouldn't mind.

    It still made me feel bad, and now I always check exactly who will be receiving my group email replies.

  2. Sara Grace says:
    March 3, 2010 at 8:46 am
    Reply

    Oh no! I did something similar once. I made some kind of "between girlfriends" sexual reference... and then realized parents were on the list. (It was wedding related...)

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