CC email best practice. (Carbon Copy Email)

Chances are that you cc people in an email from time to time. It is also possible that you cc (carbon copy) half your company in just about every email that you send. And when you are reprimanding someone, you may always even cc your boss!

When use cc (carbon copy) in your email?

This field should be used when you are not addressing the cc recipient directly, but you want to make this person or group of people aware of the message.  It also means to the recipient that this email is of less importance to them then emails where they are addressed directly. For example, I have a separate cc inbox setup in my email program and created a rule so that all email where I am in the cc goes into this email box. I check this cc inbox only once per day, and just scan through it quickly.

I also setup my PDA to not receive any of my cc emails. This means my PDA is now a lot less distracting! Note that I did setup a rule as well that if it is the president of our company that sends an email and I am in the cc, I do get it on my mobile.

Some general guidelines of cc email to keep in mind:

1. Try not to use it sparingly.
2. Don’t cc your boss on all emails to show him how good (or bad) you are.
3. Don’t cc too many people in one email.
4. Make sure the cc recipient understands why he/she is receiving a copy.
5. When multiple people are “replying to all”, consider a short meeting to eliminate the email over-usage.

All in all, the cc email field is useful to keep someone in the loop, but not to be overused.
Read more email etiquette tips.