Week 1: Clear

Netiquette is a set of guidelines and standards on how to interact with others over the internet. Many of these guidelines are common sense, but others can be very useful for users new to various online communities. Netiquette changes from various environments. How a person behaves on twitter and facebook is different from the way a person should conduct themselves while sending intra office emails.

Some general netiquette guidelines include:

• Be respectful of those you are interacting with. 
• Check information for accuracy before sending an email or posting to a website. 
• Be helpful and add to the community. 
• Don't self promote too much. Interact and promote the work of other deserving people.  

In the business environment, netiquette is becoming more and more important. Companies are increasingly computerized. Social networks are being incorporated into nearly all businesses. Twitter and facebook are becoming more important for the publicity of many companies, while customer support emails continue to greatly affect the public image of these companies. No matter the online medium, netiquette can make or break a company's image. 

Recently, the company Ocean Marketing committed many significant blunders in customer service by ignoring nearly all standards of netiquette. Through a single strain of emails to a customer, Paul Christoforo, the owner and single employee of the company, destroyed his company's image and will likely not get any work for a long time in the marketing industry. The series of emails can be seen here: http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/27/ocean-marketing-how-to-self-destruct-your-company-with-just-a-few-measly-emails/