Which is why WorkSnug, which helps mobile workers find the best available work spaces near them, launched their ‘Coffee Shop Code of Conduct.’ Holding out the prize of 10 new smartphones and headsets for the most popular ideas, WorkSnug solicited coffeehouse denizens to offer up their top coffee shop pet peeves and vote on others’ suggestions. More than 6,000 heeded the call to complain (and hopefully help shape up the behavior of the digital nomad community).

We encouraged you to gripe about your top annoyances, now we’re reporting the results, presented in a handy infographic by WorkSnug:

Which coffee house sin is the worst in your book? The most frequently committed?

Image courtesy of Flickr user LOLren.

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And what about the special plight of the coffee shop-dwelling, laptop-toting, mobile worker? Free range workers who conduct their business out in public face a whole host of new issues, from how many coffees to order to keep the wait staff happy, to how quiet to keep your calls in aid of your fellow workers’ concentration. The rules are under construction, and there’s no consensus on what constitutes good manners.

Sticky conundrums and confusion abound, so WorkSnug, a tool to help mobile workers find work spaces nearby, is crowdsourcing tips and suggestions to keep everyone content and companionable working together in coffee shops.

To participate in their “Coffee Shop Worker Code of Conduct,” just go to their website by the end of October and suggest your own rules of good behavior for remote workers, or vote on which ideas others have submitted you like best. To get you thinking, the current top 10 includes not yelling like you’re on a construction site, not hogging electrical sockets (you know who you are, and you should be ashamed) and helping to promote the coffee shops you frequent.

“The whole company is based on a pet peeve, frankly,” explained coffee shop veteran and WorkSnug founder Richard Leyland. “There wasn’t a central reviews-base of places that are the best to go. It’s not much of an extension to think, well, what are the rules of etiquette?”

So express yourself over on WorkSnug, and we’ll be posting the final results here on WebWorkerDaily once they’re out in early November. If your idea makes it into the top 10, you win a Plantronics Discovery 975 headset and an ultra-compact Nokia E6 QWERTY and touch-screen smartphone. And maybe your fellow coffee shop denizens will even cut out some of their most annoying behavior.

What’s your coffee shop etiquette pet peeve?

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Communication has evolved with technology, but many of those now IMing colleagues cut their teeth writing internal memos on typewriters. Cultural and generational clashes are both common in distributed collaboration, and more damaging than they might be if the working relationships had a face-to-face component.

Many have discussed email etiquette, but for the average web worker, the notion of politesse can seem archaic — or even counterproductive in some circumstances. Here, then, are five golden rules for respectful, productive digital communication, whether you’re using email, IM, video chat, phone, or other communications tools like document sharing and time tracking systems.

1. Have an agenda, and meet it

To keep digital exchanges functional, set an agenda. Whether it’s a one-line email, or a one-hour video conference, your interaction will be more productive if you stay on track. Your colleagues will appreciate it, because it shows respect for their time. And it’ll let you identify any part of the exchange that’s off-topic, and end it — perhaps suggesting an alternative time to address it — before it gets out of hand.

Having an agenda helps cut down on time-wasting, but it also encourages responsiveness, since your collaborators know what you need, and don’t need to wade through the waffle to give it to you.

2. Don’t spam

In this context, spam is any form of unwanted or unnecessary communication. It doesn’t need to involve multiple recipients: leaving your colleague a phone message, then sending a text, and following up with an email, is example of spam. Sharing your new document with a colleague who’s on your team, but doesn’t need to use it, is an example of spam.

Spam overwhelms us. It makes us stressed and cranky, and it makes maintaining focus difficult. Be astute in working out what to share with which team members, and learn to differentiate between information for information’s sake, and necessary communication.

3. Respect time constraints

Having respect for the time constraints of your colleagues governs a range of collaborative behaviors.

Give collaborators time to receive your communication, digest it and formulate a reply around the other work they’re doing before you bug them for their response. Prioritize your communications points so that colleagues know what’s most important, and tell them if something’s urgent. Conversely, don’t earmark a task or communication as urgent if it’s not. As well as indicating the reason for your communication, identify your expectations of a response timeframe, so your colleague can prioritize your request.

Remember: while digital communications tools may seem immediate, we’re only human, and none of us can be in two places at once.

4. Be clear

Clarity and directness underpin digital collaboration. But, particularly in written or very short communications, choose your words carefully. Short can very easily come across as terse. Speak in a way that’s appropriate to your colleague, and your relationship with them, as well as the communications medium your using.

Choosing the right tool for the job can influence your ability to communicate what’s needed. Limits on length, or attachments and other inclusions, can hobble communications, so make sure you choose the medium that suits your needs best. Don’t try to wedge a phone conversation into a voicemail, for example — your garbled, rushed message will just add to the “noise” to your colleague’s day. Instead, just explain why you’re calling and ask them to call you back. Explain the details in person when they do.

Being clear is particularly important in shared, multi-party systems like document sharing and contact management systems. Stick to the guidelines your team has set for aspects like naming and storage conventions — it’ll reduce confusion and communications noise, and generally make life easier for your colleagues.

5. Be open

Digital workers can end up hiding behind a smokescreen of task managers, email autoresponders, and voicemail all too easily if they feel overwhelmed. Lead by example. If you’re asking a team member for something, be available to answer their questions about your request. Be diligent about responding to colleagues in an appropriate way using the foundations outlined here.

Accept that good digital collaboration takes time and mutual understanding — it is, after all, communication between people. Relegating a colleague whose communications approach annoys you to the back of the queue is rarely productive; the best way to encourage others to collaborate with you in the way you want is to take the time to explain your preferences to them.

That conversation could eradicate the kind of uncertainty that undermines good distributed working relationships, and cement the foundations for ongoing productive collaboration.

Image courtesy stock.xchng user JR3.

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While I think Joel’s advice is useful, I’d go further and say that if you really want people to pay attention to your email ground rules, you should put them in the body of the email itself rather than in your signature, possibly as the last line of the email before your sign-off – people often don’t bother reading email signatures, particularly if they are lengthy. If the email you’re sending doesn’t  require a response, you could also add wording to the subject line (such as “FYI” or “For Information Only”) to make it even clearer. It’s also important to try to cut down on the number of unnecessarily open-ended questions you pose in group emails (“what time should we meet?” for example), as that’s much more likely to result in back-and-forth reply-all responses, again increasing the volume of email that everyone has to deal with.

While it may take a few extra seconds to formulate and type out that includes explicit instructions, you’ll be saving the time of everyone copied on the email, and over time you may actually end up educating a few colleagues on better email usage.

Looking for some more information on how to improve email efficiency? Dawn shared her favorite tips for reducing email overload recently.

Share your tips for reducing email overload below.

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Connecting

I use Twitter for connecting with media and developing new business. You’re able to gather real-time, personal information about the people you’re seeking that they themselves have pushed out. That’s great; it might even be better than relying on a static, infrequently updated LinkedIn page.

So you have all this information, but how do you break the proverbial ice without seeming like a weirdo? Start off by being subtle. Follow the journalist, blogger, startup CEO or biz dev VP you’re trying to engage. After that, wait. Think about what their inbox would look like with a follow notification and a “howdy!” email arriving within the same minute. Give them a day or two to see who you are. (Side tip: It might make sense to do your following on off hours when the people you’re trying to reach are, say, commuting on the train and therefore perhaps haphazardly browsing through their smartphone. A new email during those time periods might have a better chance of getting noticed. Just an idea.)

Now say the person you’re trying to woo follows you back. First, calm down. Don’t rush to DM them. The best, most subtle option might be to just mention them in a public reply later on.

Here’s an example:

A writer at the Wall Street Journal wrote a story on iced coffee, related techniques, products, etc. She’s someone I’m interested in connecting with for a variety of reasons, beyond my interest in iced coffee. So I followed her that morning. Later that afternoon, I tweeted a public reply to her: “My coffee consumption is entirely based on outdoor temp. Above 65F, we’re going iced. Below, hot. Nice story.” The idea was to show her that I actually took the time to read her article. She saw it, and then retweeted me (most likely to further the promotion of her story, which is totally fine). As a result, she followed me back. Sweet, right? Now we’ve got something.

This is all sort of a soft way to open up the door in a way that’s polite, calm and, above all, not annoying. How effective would it have been if I simply I tweeted a public reply that said, “Great article. Mind following back so we can DM?” Not very, that’s for sure. Consider each action, each communication as a date — the overzealous are rarely rewarded. Bottom line, when using Twitter to connect with new people for a specific purpose, subtlety is key. Think about — and respect — why they use Twitter. And respect their time.

Promoting

“We’ll set up a promo campaign on Twitter too,” says the PR account executive in the strategy meeting. (Note: I’m not ripping on PR account executives. I used to be one.)  Well, this idea is good, but there’s a wrong way and right way to go about promotion on Twitter. Some brands/products have been awesome at it. Others… not so much. A lot of it comes down to balancing a polite, convivial sense of etiquette and respect with the actual promotion. (It also helps if what you’re promoting is actually useful to a specific audience). A few tips:

• Start with those who care. When you turn on a promo campaign on Twitter, start by following people you know will be interested in your content. Do a keyword search and find out who cares. For example, I’m helping out an author friend promote his latest book. It’s a fictionalized account of some rather interesting true stories surrounding Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. So in starting up a Twitter effort, we found every Sherlockian and Holmesian we could (yes, there’s a difference between the two and yes, there are a lot of them). If we were to just fire off random follows, that would have been showing bad form. You wouldn’t follow someone you weren’t interested in would you? So don’t do the same. The point is, build your following with people you’re relatively certain will be receptive to your product. And then give them some love that will increase the likelihood that they’ll help you out (i.e., #ff them, retweet content that’s relevant, etc.).
• Participate. Especially at the start, when your numbers are low, you must respond and engage with your followers. If someone DMs you, you DM back. Ask their opinions. Find out what they’d be interested in. Not only is this polite, but it shows you’re actually paying attention and not just tweeting to hear yourself tweet. Remember, the conversation is two-way and listening is a big part of it.
• Accept and respond to negativity. If someone is harping on whatever you’re promoting, acknowledge them. See what their gripe is and do everything you can to win them over. Don’t turn on the corporate speak (I’m looking at you, banks). Instead, maintain a conversational tone. Not only will you make good with that individual, but others watching will hopefully see your efforts. It’s worth noting that this sort of individual attention is easier said than done — especially as your follower base grows. Just try to be helpful as often as you can.

Servicing

Twitter has taken on a customer service functionality — especially for consumer brands.  If a consumer has an issue, question or complaint, bringing it up on Twitter is now an acceptable action. People usually do this for one of two reasons: either simply to vent their frustration to their social community with no desire to be helped by the brand (hint: that’s a prime opportunity) or they do it specifically to attract the attention of the brand, usually by tweeting a public @reply to the brand in question.

Here’s a little story. I had an issue with an online flower vendor and a third party “membership affiliate.” It was a pretty serious issue that involved nefarious online tomfoolery that is now subject to legislation. I vented my fury on Twitter after getting nowhere with the call center. My intent was to get the attention of said company and, I admit, to rage a bit. Anyway, it took the flower brand a while, but they eventually connected with me on Twitter in a very cordial manner, followed me back and we then took the conversation to DM and ultimately email. I consider that a social win for the company, in part, due to the way they conducted themselves. They could have taken defensive stance, but instead, they engaged with a positive tone.

So if you’re a brand that uses Twitter as a customer service desk, the following etiquette path might be helpful when engaging with a not-so-happy patron:

• Acknowledge
• Follow and ask for a follow-back,
• Be polite, be human, offer to help in any way possible
• If things get testy, offer to take the conversation out of the public stream (DM, email, etc.).

Norms and examples  of Twitter etiquette certainly exist beyond the aforementioned use cases.  What say you, WWD readers? What elements of Twitter etiquette do you abide by? Which breaches irritate you?

(Note: The Emily Post Institute actually does use Twitter. Seriously, check it out: @emilypostinst. It even tweets about Jersey Shore etiquette. Heh.)

Dave Clarke is the Communications Strategist at Churnless, a digital strategy and production company that helps businesses satisfy, delight, and keep their customers. Follow Dave on Twitter: @thedaveclarke.

Photo by Flickr user Muffet, licensed under CC 2.0

Here’s a sampling of its advice:

• How quickly must you respond to an email? Real Simple’s experts all agree that you should reply as soon as possible, certainly by the end of the day. You should also be consistent; if you can’t respond as quickly as you normally would, use an out-of-office message to explain.
• Are emoticons appropriate to use in office emails? Yes, although you shouldn’t be the first to use them in an email exchange with someone you don’t know.
• Can you ignore someone who “friends” you? Yes, especially since sharing personal information can be a safety issue.
• Should you always accept a request from a colleague on a professional-networking site? Only if you know them well and the connection would be professionally advantageous.
• You Google someone you’re about to meet for the first time. Is it gauche to bring up what you learned about her? Discussing the kind of recent good news that could have been reported in a newspaper — a new client or a promotion, perhaps — shows that you’ve done your homework. But bringing up a lot of personal information would sound creepy.
  

One thing that is clear from reading this manual is that while in many cases etiquette may seem like common sense, there are not always clear-cut answers; sometimes even the pros don’t agree on the correct course of action. For example, Real Simple’s assembled experts don’t agree on whether it’s OK to omit a salutation when closing an email.

For more advice on appropriate tech manners, check out our previous posts on style and etiquette.

Do you agree with Real Simple’s etiquette advice? What other tech etiquette conundrums do you struggle with?

Photo by Flickr user Muffet, licensed under CC 2.0

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Conferences and events: For most events, using a laptop or phone falls within the boundaries of acceptable behavior. We use our devices to take notes, blog or tweet about the event, and keep up with our email and other work during these events. Possible exceptions to this rule could be where the event is small and intimate, or where most of the attendees are not computer-savvy and so someone typing on a laptop might seem out of place.

Company meetings: In this case, it depends on the company or the situation. In several of the technology companies where I have worked in the past, everyone brought laptops to meetings and used them to take notes or keep up with important emails during the breaks. In some companies, you might find that laptops are only acceptable in meetings where they are absolutely required: Bringing your devices to these meetings would likely be frowned upon. It also is usually inappropriate to bring your devices to very small meetings with only a couple of people.

Client meetings: You should expect to keep your laptop closed and your phone put away during important meetings with clients (you know, those people who pay you to do stuff for them). This was the biggest adjustment for me when I became a freelance consultant. I’d spent years working at technology companies where I could always open the laptop to take notes or add items to my task list. I had to (gasp!) start carrying a pad of paper and a pen to use for my notes during client meetings. Exceptions can be made when you need to show the client something, or if you need to take a lot of notes (first ask if they mind if you take notes on your laptop).

Important meetings: For important meetings with executives, interviews or other critical meetings, play it safe and keep the devices put away. You don’t want to blow a great opportunity by doing something silly.

Social settings: It depends. When I am hanging out with my techie friends, it isn’t unusual for over half of us to be sitting with computers or our phones while also engaging in conversation. However, with other friends, the devices stay put away. In general, take your cues from the other people in the room to decide whether you should be texting or reading email.

These are some of the things that I think about when deciding whether or not to open the laptop or pull my phone out of my pocket. As you can see, there are no hard-and-fast rules, and I have probably made a few mistakes with my own device usage. I like to be connected, and I probably push the limits of acceptable behavior in most cases.

Where do you draw the line between acceptable and rude behavior with your electronic devices?

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But the web is such a great place to discuss political ideas and candidates, you may not want to rule out political discussion online entirely. You may seek authenticity and transparency in the way you conduct yourself online — that’s an attitude common to many web workers — and you may enjoy honestly expressing your opinion about issues that matter. If you do have an urge to join into the political conversation, however, you need to do it in a way that doesn’t create a long-lasting reputation for extremism or rancor.

Do you join into political conversation online? If so, how?

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