Instant Messaging It is becoming more and more common for businesses to use instant messaging so that employees can communicate quickly and efficiently with one another. These qualities lend a character to IMs that would be considered totally inappropriate in other settings but that are acceptable in this setting (however, this is not to suggest that in instant messaging, anything goes).

Some etiquette rules to practice:

Responses: Short or terse responses such as “heading to lunch - respond later” are both common and acceptable, and should not be taken as short or terse per se. However, you may not want to be so informal with superiors.

Status Settings: Respect a ‘Busy’ or ‘On the Phone’ setting status by not repeatedly sending an IM. Trust that the recipient will get to your IM when they can.

Emoticons: Use emoticons sparingly. While they may cut down on time by expressing an emotion or an opinion, but they are not always representative of a professional communication.

Multiparty sessions: Only include others in a multiparty IM session with the approval of others participating in the session. As in meetings and discussions, not every person should be privy to the content.

Grammar and spelling: Ideally, every IM would feature perfect grammar and spelling, but this would defeat the purpose of IMs—to quicken communication and make it more efficient. However, along these same lines, extremely poor spelling and grammar can be confusing—leading to time lost—and they can contribute to a misperception of your intelligence.

Keep co-workers and personal relationships on separate im apps. For obvious reasons, this could get tricky.

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