Back in the 1960s, Albert Mehrabian discovered that when interpreting someone else's communication messages, we "rely" much more on the gestures, facial expressions, and tone of voice of our interlocutor than on the actual content of the words – especially when we are talking about content that is somewhat more emotionally charged. And in business correspondence (and essentially in any other correspondence), when we are separated from the interlocutor by a mobile phone or laptop screen, we do not always have insight into the elements of their nonverbal communication, which increases the likelihood of misinterpreting the content and can essentially only complicate things.
However, this does not mean that the text content of a message alone cannot convey a strong impression to the reader – quite the opposite! Each of your emails, posts on social networks or messages on Whatsapp and Messenger creates a micro-image of you in the eyes of the person reading it, while the set of those same messages and posts cumulatively over time creates an impression of you. This is usually the first thing people say after you mention your name. For example: “Ah, Marko! Yes, he…” (continue the sentence)
I'm sure you can pull out at least ten bad examples of emails and social media posts that you've read in the past few years that left a pretty bad impression of the person who wrote them. Sometimes it's grammatical errors, so the post, no matter how professional and valuable it may be, simply can't be taken seriously because that unfortunate finland whatsapp data grammar "stings" in your eyes. Sometimes it's the excessive use of jargon and foreign words - you may have understood them, but someone else reading that post may have found themselves "drowned" in all the different Croatian-English derivatives. Sometimes it's a horde of smileys that unnecessarily distract from the text, or the lack of them in a post that would have been useful, so the whole message gives the impression of being strict and "cold as ice". Sometimes it's too much text, so in the post we read Marko's homilies and worn-out phrases that we all already know very well (and that often make our hair stand on end). And sometimes these are messages that are simply unclear and the reader doesn't really know what to do after reading it.
There is essentially no right or wrong answer – it is up to each of us whether we will switch to “you” when communicating with someone, use emojis or how much text we will write in an email. However, what can be useful is, before we press the “send” button, to ask ourselves a few things. Do I want to evoke an emotion in my reader (and if so, which one)? Is there a possibility that some of my words (or even the entire message) will be misinterpreted? If I came across this message on social media, what would I think? And ultimately, what is the underlying thought that I am trying to convey with each of my messages? Do I want to show how expert I am? Do I want to entertain the audience? Just inform them? Make them feel comfortable reading my post? Or something completely different?
I'll say it again – there is no right or wrong answer. However, one thing is for sure – keep it authentic. Keep it in line with who you are. Want to switch to "you" with someone? Feel free to ask if you're allowed. Want to put a smiley in your message? Put it in and see what the reaction is. Or you decide that you're not going to leave things to chance and you'll still opt for the voice or video message option.
Every email and post you send is an opportunity to create an impression of yourself and position yourself among others - take advantage of that potential.