Post: #1

This is something I have consistently noticed over the years, which is that when I email somebody (whether it be personal, work, or school-related), I usually get a first response from the person. Then I follow up with a comment or question (something that warrants a reply, of course), which often times never gets a response. Of course, there are those people who are always very responsive and prompt, but this happens to me enough that I would like to figure out a way to reduce the frequency of this happening.

If it's someone I know well, I usually will just end up contacting them again at some other point in the future about something totally unrelated and more likely than not this never gets mentioned.

Of course when it's just with your friends, it's not a big deal and this whole thing may seem trivial. But if you're emailing a professional contact you just recently met or for some other important thing, it would be more imperative that the person responds to your emails.

I have also noticed that the time in between responses makes a difference (at least in my experience). For example, if I send the initial message today, and the person responds tomorrow, I sometimes may take two days instead to send a follow-up instead of the day after, because I sometimes sense that the person does not want to get stuck in a semi-obligatory back-and-forth exchange every day. Maybe they are busy and don't want to set a precedent where they will have to correspond with you daily.

What is your guys' experience with this, has anybody else noticed this sort of pattern? And if so, how do you deal with it?

Post: #2

Email ettiquette is even worse than normal ettiquette, because you're not face to face