IM What IM

As I walk around my office I can see my colleagues’ instant message boxes on their computer monitors – they’re usually in the upper left. While no doubt many are chatting with friends, an increasing number of them are talking with clients and colleagues. Instant messaging is hardly a new technology, but using IMs to communicate with colleagues and clients is a new challenge many of us are, or soon will be, facing. A 2006 survey from the American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute claims 35 percent of employees already IM at work.  Just as with e-mail, IMing with colleagues and clients is prone to all sorts of abuse and misuse, and I’ll leave the details of those discussions to lawyers, security experts, ethicists, and your boss. Writing IMs with colleagues and clients can be fraught with land mines, though, so follow these rules so none of them blow up in your shana punim. Official policies: If your office has them, dude, follow them. Sensitive information: Instant messages not only aren’t ephemeral, they’re subpoena-able, and they can be saved and sometimes even archived, so obviously you want to limit, if not totally avoid, exchanging confidential or sensitive information. Gossip: As tempting as it can be, don’t say bad stuff about other people even if they are bad people. (Follow Alice Roosevelt Longworth’s advice – “if you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me” – and go dish in person.) Nasty language: Don’t use racist, sexist, homophobic, obscene, threatening, intimidating, or harassing language. If you wouldn’t say it out loud to my mother (a lovely 82-year-old who does tai chi three days a week), don’t write it in an IM. Let’s (not) get personal: Don’t get all chatty Cathy and personal – it’s especially easy to do while IMing and before you know it you’ve got a coffee date set up for Saturday with your client contact.  Style and formatting: While you don’t need to follow AP style or Strunk & White, you do need to maintain a professional demeanor: use a simple font (save the Curlz MT for another time) in black (magenta went out of style in eighth grade), avoid emoticons (the occasional smiley to connote tone is ok), and limit acronyms to the usuals (CYL, BTW, TTYL, etc.). If you find yourself using LOL a lot, you’re having too much fun. Gone but not forgotten: Use your away status when you’re away and don’t write BRB and go to a four-hour meeting or a three-martini lunch or a two-day conference or a one-week stay at Canyon Ranch. Create specific away messages – on the phone, at lunch, suffering ennui, cowering beneath my desk, surfing Monster.com – so  people know not to expect an immediate response. Screen names: It might be hot to be known among your friends as BikerBabe or SixPackAbsGuy, but keep your extracurricular activities extracurricular and restrict yourself to a name that won’t embarrass you when you see your colleague in the ladies room or your client at a trade show. Your name – really, your name with maybe a number attached, as in Santow82 – works nicely. Finally, if you're IMing with a client in the upper left of your screen and with your girlfriend in the lower right, yikes, be careful (actually, I'd suggest not doing it, but, sadly, I'm not in charge). Nothing's worse than getting mixed up and asking your client if he's going commando and your girlfriend if the PowerPoint slide is ok. Generally speaking, with friends, friends-with-benefits, boyfriends, and girlfriends, while at work avoid online flirting, seducing, cooing and wooing. Remember, you're at work – go work.

Comments

[b collins]

your mother is NOT 82. and i'm going to tell her you said that.

[Allison]

Dan,

As a current college student, I can definitely see issues with IM etiquette influencing the way young professionals do business.

IM is often overlooked (especially by more senior professionals) as a communication tool between industry professionals and their clients. It will be the current wave of college graduates tapping into this outlet more and more.

The hard part will be transitioning between AIM lingo with friends and proper business IM style!

[Edel]

^^ Wow, I love this post.
People have different perspectives and I respect ur opinion. But this doesn't really apply to me because...well...IMing for me is just...IMing. For me (a junior high school student) it's all about the ttyl, the brb or the "she did this.." When I'm older I'll probably need to reference to this post >.>
But yeah, we should be careful about wat we say. Both online and offline =]