As Seen at IBS75: When Doing Follow-up, should you call, text, or email?

TRANSCRIPTION:  Hey, I’m Carol Morgan coming to you from Denim Marketing as part of Kimberly Mackey’s IBS 75th Anniversary Special, and I’m here to talk to you about Netiquette. The class I presented at IBS was Netiquette 3.0. Netiquette is where etiquette meets the internet. You all know etiquette used to be kind of easy; there was Emily Post and Amy Vanderbilt, and they told us what color shoes we could and couldn’t wear after memorial day, and the same for pants, and which fork we could and couldn’t use, and all that. Netiquette is a whole new frontier. The real question is, and what this class answered is, “Do I text, do I email, or do I call?”

We are going to do a little survey here in the office because we have almost every generation represented. Mandy, who is behind the camera, is going to be Mandy the Millennial, and I’m going to ask, “Hey Mandy, do I text, email, or call you?” Mandy, “I’d probably ignore a call first off, and text after that, so text is number one for me.” Carol: Text is number one for Mandy our Millennial.

Gen X. I (Carol) get to be Gen X, so I’m going to ask myself, “Self, do I text, do I email, or do I call?” My go-to is always going to be email or text. Either one of those-especially, if it’s business related, is going to make me happy. Gen X is pretty diverse. We either invented the technology or we have had to use it on the fly. Gen X, like all other generations, you are always going to want to ask them which they prefer.

Representing Gen Z today, we have Kate here with us. Carol to Kate, “Do I text, email or call you?” Kate, “Honestly, just send me a picture. That’s good enough.” Send her a picture! She’s just my son who is in Europe right now. He takes pictures on his phone and doesn’t send me anything else – just pictures, and I’m supposed to guess what it is.

For our Boomers out there, they’re probably the hardest group to figure out of all because a lot of them have adapted to new technology. So, you have to ask them what they prefer. My mother texts, and she calls, and she kind of emails. I would say she actually texts better than she emails. It’s going to vary from person to person, and there are even Boomers out there who are very adept as Skype and GoToMeeting, and all of the different sites.

Always ask everyone – with your clients, with your prospects, with your partners. Ask them, “Should I text, should I email, or should I call?” Maybe ask them what you do first and what you do second because it may be different.

Mandy is going to zoom in and show something (on the computer screen). This class covered email etiquette, and I think this was everybody’s favorite part of the class. With email etiquette, you want to make sure you are succinctly stating your subject line. Here at Denim what we will do is give all of our clients’ codes. If I am emailing our friend, Kelly Fink, at the Providence Group, the primary subject is going to be, “TPG – The Providence Group.” My secondary subject is going to be “News Release”. My third subject is going to be what the news release is. Is it “Pratt Stacks”? My very last thing is going to be, “For Approval.” or “For Your File.” Kelly is going to know immediately when she gets my email that I am emailing her a news release for approval or for her file about Pratt Stacks. That’s very helpful for all of us because then you can go back through your email and find things in the future. Email becomes this giant bog of stuff. That was probably the best takeaway from this class. *Kelly Fink works for The Providence Group. They are a builder/developer in the Atlanta area market and Pratt Stacks is one of their communities.

Then we spent a lot of time discussing emoticons or “emojicons”. Do you use them? Do you not use them? That’s that love/hate relationship I think, and it varies in every single generation. We had people from all generations in the class, and everybody either loves or hates them. I think that’s personal preference, so you have to realize they don’t always translate. That cute little smiley face that you send someone on this device (smartphone) might show up as something completely different in their email. In business use, it’s still a little bit controversial, but on social medial it’s huge. Definitely use them on social media. It will increase your readership greatly.

If you like these tips, and you want to know more, you are in luck. I am teaching this class again through Professional Women in Building as a webinar. That will be on June 27th at 2:00 eastern time. REGISTER HERE. I hope you’ll tune in and have lots of questions for me. Thanks.

Carol Morgan, president of Denim Marketing, focuses on marketing strategy and integrating public relations, social media, content and creative to tell engaging stories for clients that garner measurable traffic and show ROI. Denim Marketing is proud to celebrate its 20th Anniversary in 2019.

Carol is the author of four books, including her latest “Social Media Marketing for Your Business,” published by Builder Books. She is the creator of the nationally-ranked and award-winning www.AtlantaRealEstateForum.com^SM Atlanta’s most popular real estate news blog. Her Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio podcast launched in 2011 and features the movers and shakers in the Atlanta real estate industry, as well as nonprofits, attractions and things to do on the Around Atlanta edition.

Carol serves as one of NAHB Chair Greg Ugalde’s advisors. She is a member of the Associates Council and past Membership Chair and past chair of NAHB’s Professional Women in Building Council, Carol was awarded the prestigious 2016 Woman of the Year from the Professional Women in Building. She is a graduate of Oglethorpe University and the recipient of the 2008 Spirit of Oglethorpe Award, PRSA Georgia Chapter’s George Goodwin Award, the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association’s 2008 Associate of the Year and 2012 Council Chair of the Year. Carol holds the MIRM (Masters in Residential Marketing), CAPS (Certified Aging in Place Specialist) and CSP (Certified Sales Professional) designations from NAHB.

In her free time she manages a 20 acre farm with multiple critters, is the mother of an incredible son, gardens, rides dressage and explores various recipes.