Have you ever barged in on an important meeting a co-worker pal was having with your CEO to let him know about a cool new video on YouTube?

Likely not as it isn’t a great career move - but in the world of IM communications, it happens all the time.

I’m certainly guilty of this; I forget that I have no idea of what’s happening with the person I want to speak to. They could be sitting their idly or they may have just gotten the news that their best friend died.

Once upon a time I’d ask anyone if they had a minute to spare when IM’ing them - nowadays I tend to just fly into the question, comment or instruction. When you think about it, it’s pretty rude.

I’ve also caught myself having IM conversations with 3 or 4 people simultaneously - but I’m accidentally ignoring the conversation with the person I’d originally started chatting to. Again, rather rude.

Google has posted up some tips for IM etiquette in their “Ping or not to Ping” post - I also published an article on instant messaging and live chat etiquette tips a while back - I think it’s time for me to take a refresher course :)

Like my mother used to say - “good manners cost nothing, but can bring many rewards”.