Email etiquette: BCC, CC, automatic messages, and read receipts

Have you ever accidentally included the wrong person on an email or sent an email before you finished writing it? It is the worst feeling ever. Or have you ever been included unnecessarily in an endless email thread between other people, that not only does it clog your inbox, but you forgot the original topic and you wonder why you were included in the first place? Selecting the appropriate categories for recipients helps protect the information you're sending and the recipient's privacy. So let's go through the choices you have when it comes to address fields and automatic messages. You may already know these things, but I'll share these tips with you so you can be more strategic. We'll start with the three main address fields; To, Cc, and Bcc. Use "To" for primary recipients, use "Cc" or carbon copy to send a copy to indirect recipients, and use "Bcc" or blind carbon copy to send a copy to indirect recipients without showing they were included. Couple of things to remember: If you're copied or blind copied, you're not expected to respond because you're not a primary recipient. When sending emails to a confidential list or a large group of people, use Bcc to protect others privacy and prevent their email addresses from being seen by others. You can also create a group like marketing team, which signals to recipients that others are included without sharing the details of who. When copying someone into an existing thread, note within the body of the email that they've been copied. This alerts others that someone else has been added and encourages recipients to use "Reply All" when responding. Now when the "Reply All" option is used, those in the Bcc field will not receive any replies, whereas those in the To and the Cc field will. So placing recipients in the Bcc field, especially when the thread is no longer relevant to them, protects them from receiving excessive, irrelevant, or confidential responses. Here's another pro tip: Insert all email recipients last after drafting the body of the email so you don't accidentally send the email without finishing it. Having all information written first also helps you choose wisely who needs to receive the email. Now on to automatic messages. A large part of communicating professionally is being responsive even when you're gone from work. General etiquette is to respond to business emails within 24 hours. Holidays, time off, travel, and inability to respond for more than one day are excellent moments to set your out-of-office or vacation responder message. Carefully check all settings as you set it up and remember to disable it when you return. Finally, you may want to know when someone else has read your email and be sure it isn't sitting in their inbox unread. The read receipt feature lets you know when a person opens your email. I suggest using this feature sparingly and only for critical and time-sensitive emails, or if business reasons dictate it, like sending contracts or legal documents that might expire. Read receipts may be more of a nuisance than a benefit, particularly for emails that don't warrant it, so it's best to simply keep the feature off for most emails. Instead, if you'd like to know if someone has received your email, include a line within the initial email that asks the recipient to let you know they received the email. Share why you're requesting this, and consider including a timeline for when you'd expect acknowledgment or a response. For example, "Please acknowledge receipt of this email" or "Please reply by Thursday, March 5, at 5 pm Eastern." You can also give the person a chance to respond and if you don't hear back, send a follow-up email to ask if they received it or make a phone call, mention it in conversation, or send a quick friendly IM, easy. When sending emails, add all recipients with thoughtfulness and care to ensure you don't end up sending the email by accident or to the wrong person. This way, you can save yourself from embarrassment or having to explain why you sent an email with the details about your lunch to the entire accounting department.