Where Are Your Manners? Is Social Media Killing Simple Etiquette?

The media, advertising and marketing community is being plagued by a lack of simple etiquette. Are your e-mails being ignored and phone calls not returned? Are you inviting clients to your events, parties and presentations and not receiving the common courtesy of a response… not even a simple "no thank you?"

More than 80% of personal invitations and personal e-mail requests receive no response at all. They are simply ignored. Follow-up phone calls more often than not are going into voice mail and are never returned. Never in the history of business have executives been so inundated by phone calls, e-mails, Facebook and LinkedIn outreach, eVite invitations and requests for meetings. Never before have executives been so desensitized to the responsibility or obligation that comes with being part of a community. Never before have assistants been so empowered to filter messages without either adequate knowledge to sort the important from the irrelevant, or the basic training to respond with common courtesy. Consumer research response rates, which once required a minimum 50% response, are now considered successful if the response rate exceeds two percent (following more traditional direct marketing response rates). Business-to-business research, which in the past would generate a response rate averaging 30% to 40%, now rarely results in a legitimate response rate of more than 10%.

In today's report to corporate subscribers, I share Ten Rules for Improved Response to E-Mails and Invitations -- ideas to improve the effectiveness of your communications and generate increased response to your e-mails and invitations.

To communicate with or to be contacted by the executives and/or companies mentioned in this column, please email your information and the column headline to Jack directly at jm@jackmyers.com.

This post originally appeared at JackMyers.com.