New ‘Online Engagement Guidelines’, published by the MOD today, make clear that Forces and MOD personnel can make full use of websites such as Facebook and YouTube as long as they follow the same high standards of conduct and behaviour online as would be expected elsewhere.

In an interesting development staff are being encouraged talk about their work online without prior authorisation from their chain of command, as long as they stay within the advice. Whether this will continue remains to be seen but for now this development should be welcomed.

• MOD online engagement guidelines
• Factsheet: UK defence and the armed forces on the web
• Defence news blog
• Defence headquarters on YouTube

Don’t get me wrong email is useful for certain types of communication activity. My point is that it is not suitable for all types of communication activity. In fact, when used as the default or only tool for all communications it can cause significant productivity drain within teams. The table shows the breadth of technologies at our disposal and most importantly describes appropriate usage scenarios. When adopted I have seen profound outcomes achieved such as increased productivity, reduced stress, improved communications competence and better work satisfaction.

I personally prefer to see emails as a form of letter. I use them for formal correspondence where an audit trail is required. Plain English, accuracy, spelling and grammar are vital. The suggested technique of using agreed headings at the beginning of all email subject lines to help the recipient to quickly determine the action they should take is very simple but very very powerful. Another technique I like to adopt is to open my email client for half an hour at the beginning and end of each workday. The rest of the time I use the other technologies as they are more effective and efficient in supporting the communications activities I am undertaking.