A huge number of people continue to use email as their primary social sharing tool in the workplace, but are completely ineffective at using it properly.

As a result, these emails never get read, never get applied, and even worse, end up as completely unneeded and annoying inbox clutter.

Anyone agree?

I’m sure at least some of you are nodding your heads right now.

It’s a shame that so many of these emails are so terrible (sorry, but it’s true).

Who knows, maybe the article or blog post being shared could have sparked an amazing new idea, or maybe that video or infographic could have really helped someone’s professional development, or perhaps that news story could have provided some great fodder for conversation with a client.

There can be tremendous value in sharing information with coworkers and colleagues, so when emailing that information, try to maximize the chances of your email getting read, so that the information therein can be absorbed and put to use.

Here are 6 tips to ensure that the content you share with colleagues and coworkers via email actually gets read, applied and responded to:

1 – WRITE A GREAT SUBJECT LINE

Give your recipients a sense of what you’re sending in the Subject line and a reason to pay attention to what you’re sharing. If people don’t know what it is that you’re sending, they’ll have no reason to open it, and your email will be ignored.

2 – KEEP IT SHORT BUT GIVE CONTEXT

Sending nothing but a link is useless. Tell them why you shared what you did. Tell them what you think they’ll get out of it. Tell them how it can be applied. Tell them exactly what they need to know, and please (PLEASE!) don’t send an email devoid of any context.

3 – MAKE IT EASY TO CONSUME

Ensure that the body copy of your email is easily scanned for key information and takeaways. Feel free to include bulleted or numbered lists, bold headings, underlines, different font sizes, colours, wingdings or starbursts*.

4 – MAKE IT EASY TO CONSUME: PART II

If you’re sharing a 900-page research deck and you’re actually hoping for some information therein to be absorbed, do everyone a favour and summarize a few highlights of particular interest. Nobody has time to get through something like that.

5 – INCLUDE A CALL TO ACTION

CTA’s aren’t just for consumers. If you’re hoping for whatever it is that you shared to spur some sort of action, make that clear.

6 – MAKE SURE THE CONTENT IS WORTH SHARING

Obvious, I know. But really, make sure that what you’re sharing is going to add some value. If you send too many irrelevant or useless pieces of content you’ll be blacklisted by your coworkers, and your future emails will be swiftly sifted into their junk box.

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Do you share content with coworkers and colleagues via email?

How else do you share content with your coworkers and colleagues?

What types of information do you view as being valuable to share internally?

As always, it would be great to chat with you more about this in the comments, or on Twitter @RGBSocial

* Don’t actually use wingdings or starbursts. Never. Don’t use them.