There is one thing you may want to touch more than everything else every day. This “thing” may be something you touch more often than even a regular desktop or laptop keyboard. This thing is the cell phone keypad or keyboard, and you most probably touch it intensively to send text messages.

Today, you and I are going to learn about texting effectively. It is very easy to simply send a single word or an essay via a text message. It may, however, be a bit hard to realize what the proper etiquette of text messaging are. After you understand and realize these 10 important ways to send effective text messages, your text messaging habits can actually change to make text messaging another part of the common sense part of your life.

How you can send effective text messages in 10 ways

Here are ten simple ways to keep in mind when texting anyone. These tips can help you become effective at both sending texts and communicating effectively through text messages.

1. Keep any greetings in the beginning of a text, if your message is short. That way, a person can quickly know what you want to say, while also realizing that you are being polite.
2. If your message is long and ends up getting divided into multiple texts, try to include the actual message in the beginning and the greeting at the end. This way, the actual part of the main message you want to convey will have fewer chances of being cut off and separated.
3. Keep your text within 140 characters for new people and co-workers. With new people and co-workers, you may want to keep your communication length short in the beginning when conveying a message before you realize what their comfort zone is.
4. Always include your name in texts to new people. The same way you may want to let new people, who may basically be strangers in different part of your life and vice versa, realize who you are when you call or e-mail them, you may also want to let them know who you are in text messages. A simple name and any reference to where you met may work, like:
   

   Hey there! Letting you know that I’ll be at Jack in the Box around 4:30, thanks. – Bes [from the "Let's stalk & shun all Teletubbies!" party last night]

5. Find out, if possible, about the text message plan the other person has. That way, you can realize if it would be better for you to send a single text message sporadically, or if you can send multiple text messages at will. It should all depend on the other person, if possible, to ensure, among other things, that you avoid creating a high cell phone bill for the other person.
6. Ask for permission before sending texts. Even if the other person has an unlimited text message plan, they may not want 20 text messages from you in one day, or every 5 minutes. Find out what the other person prefers by asking them if you can text message them at an interval or rate of your choice.
7. Realize that text messages may have the same notifications as phone calls for many people. The same way a phone ring may wake someone up in the middle of the night or bother someone in a restroom or during a meeting, a text message may also make a notification sound or vibration, and bother someone just like a regular phone call ring. Keep this in mind when sending text messages, and realize that whenever you send a text message, the actual way that other person may find out about it may be the exact same as that other person finding out about phone calls.
8. Inquire about the texting trend preferences of the other person. Ask the other person if they are comfortable getting text replies immediately, if they prefer full words or text message abbreviations, if they prefer texts only during certain times, if they prefer e-mails over texts when it comes to asking questions or sharing website addresses, what text message length they are comfortable with, and anything else related to text messages that comes to your mind.
9. Avoid forwarding text message spam. During the Obama/McCain elections, someone from Mississippi forwarded me a text message that said the following:
   

   Doing our own taly of who’s voting4who. Add 1 in front of who u suport.

   Obama 111111111 McCain 11111111

   Pass it on! Its ur responsibility.

   I love the idea of patriotism, bashing, and number tallying via cell phones. It gives me more material to think and write about. It also tells me that the elections of 2008 were rigged. The text message above later on was forwarded to me a second time by a different person, and by then McCain was winning by a landslide. Why is Obama the president now? We should have a recount in light of the two text message evidence my phone currently has.

10. Treat a text message like an actual phone call. The same way you would not usually call someone a second time within 5 minutes after calling them and leaving them a message, you may not want to text someone after you have already called them, or vice versa. Multiple text messages with the same message within a short amount of time, or at all, may also fall into this point.

The above 10 ways actually allow you to realize how your texting habits may avoid annoying other people, and thus how you can communicate more effectively through text messages.

What are your txting rules and preferences?

How often do you text message others? Do you like sending multiple texts or shorter txts? Do you like getting many txt messages from the same person in a single day? How fast do you usually reply to text messages? Do you prefer a phone call over a text message? What kind of a text messaging plan do you have, if you have one?

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments or thoughts about this topic or article in the comments below or by e-mailing me directly. I have to stop here and see who sent me text messages because my phone is flashing.

Thank you for reading. I really appreciate it.