BCC can backfire when a hidden recipient accidentally hits reply-all and exposes themselves. Instead, send the email normally, then forward it from your Sent folder to anyone who needs to see it. Avoid BCC to keep email volume down.
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All right. Hi, everybody. It's time for another of the new email etiquette microlearning series videos. And in this video, if you remember the last video, I talked about the ridiculousness of reply all. Well, let's call this video the be careful communication of BCC, blind carbon copy. You have to be careful with that communication tool. Now, in the last video, I talked about how blind carbon copy can really be helpful in stopping unnecessary reply alls because if you put the majority of the distribution list in the BCC field and people try to hit reply all, it doesn't go to everybody, it just goes to the people in the to and the CC field. But I want to go back to blind carbon copy and give you a major watch out with blind carbon. Um, the problem with BCC, and I've actually done this myself once or twice, and I've had people do it with my email emails once or twice. Um, if you blind carbon somebody on a message, it's typically done so that you have a third party that you want to make aware of that email secretly, privately, not to the knowledge of the recipient. That's why it's a blind carbon. But here's the big problem that I've seen happen multiple times utilizing that capability. The person that you blind carbon on the If they're not paying attention, they might hit reply all and thus let the original recipient know you blind carboned the other person, which can really damage trust. So if you're trying to maintain a trustful relationship with the recipient and then the person you blind carbon does a reply all, that's sort of will hurt that trust account quite a bit. So you want to be very careful on this. I actually think a better strategy would be to, instead of blind carboning the person on the message, send the message, then go to your Sent folder and forward that message to the third party and let them know, hey, I just sent this message. I'd like you to be aware of what was discussed in this email. But that takes away so much of the risk that person is going to just hit reply all and make it clear and evident to the recipient, the original recipient, that you were BCCing people without their knowledge. All right, so just definitely be careful with the blind carbon. Some people way overuse it. And, um, you know, if you're just blind carboning somebody to let them know something was done, um, there might be better ways because, um, that's another email they have to deal with. You know, even if they're just the BCC recipient, that's yet another email that they have to go through their processing strategy and handle. And less email is better. So, um, hope you like this one. Watch for another one of these email etiquette videos coming soon. And, um, hope you have a wonderful summer. Bye now.
