When you communicate digitally

- Annabel Acton, a Forbes contributor, said she likes her email like her dentist visits, short, to the point, and only when necessary. That's great advice for most of our digital communication. Use these tips when emailing, texting, or messaging. Consider your communication building blocks, starting with people. Who really needs your message? If action is not required by your reader, do they really need this? What do you want your reader to think, feel, and do? What preconceived notions do your readers have about you or the topic of this message? Your answers to these questions clearly define what you hope to achieve. If you plan to use an AI writing assistant, this clarity helps create an effective prompt and very specific instructions. Next, think about which channel is best for your message. Chat, or text for very short updates or requests like, I'm ready, or, can you meet on the 15th? Chat is so informal that it's tempting to ignore customary grammar or punctuation, don't do it. Clarity and professionalism are your goals, always. It's okay to use an occasional emoji to express emotion with the right reader, but do so sparingly. Use your company's collaboration apps for messages connected to specific projects or when you need feedback from lots of people. If some of your intended readers aren't great about checking the collaborative space, use @ mentions with their names so they get notifications. Include a read me first or table of contents document in collaborative spaces that have lots of files and messages. Writing a summation document is something that your AI writing assistant could do well. When sending email, write short subject lines, just four to five words that tell the reader the most important information like response needed by Wednesday, or agenda for litigation meeting. Your reader should be able to find your message with just a quick scan of their inbox. Regardless of the channel you choose, carefully organize your thoughts. Most written communication can follow this pattern, message first, action next, and details, third. Isha, a project manager, sent this message to her team. Your activity report is mandatory and due Wednesday. Now this is the bottom line message of interest to her readers. Then in her very next sentence, she makes the action clear and easy to follow. Complete the attached report and email it to me by noon on Wednesday. She thought about ending here, but Isha is aware that some people on her team think these reports are a waste of time. She decides to add a claim and some evidence from an expert to back up her claim. I spoke with the VP who assures me that these reports are used by our managers during performance evals. Include enough evidence to convince your reader that your claims are correct. Supporting evidence can be an example, expert opinion, voice of the customer data, financials, or case studies. Isha organized for action and supported for credibility. Before sending, though, she edits for tone and accuracy. She changes one pronoun, your activity report, to our, then she changed one adjective, she deleted mandatory, and she adds a please. Voila, the tone is now still direct, but also polite. Finally, don't forget to format wisely and to proofread. Add formatting like bullet points, bold font, headers, or text boxes and lines to draw your reader's attention to key ideas. It's easy to skim right over mistakes, seeing only what we meant to write. Make it a game to find mistakes so that your proofing protects your credibility. Let's remember Anabel Acton's analogy and aim to make our written communication as efficient and impactful as a quick dental visit.