All of what I'm speaking about revolves around corporate work stuff. It really only matters in that environment and until you are the boss. Once you are only emailing people below you, it seems to not matter. Older generations care more than younger ones, and bosses who have worked hard to be top-dog care more than minions. At the very least, it's a good habit to get into, shows you are aware of the pecking order, have respect, etc. It's one of those things no one notices until they do and no one cares about until you get it terribly wrong. All three arrive in the inbox of the person in any of the fields. As a recipient, depending on my email client, it'll show like this: BCCs aren't shown, which is key. To: This should be the people who need to read, reply, or do something contained in the email. ie: "Taylor - take out the trash" should have "Taylor" in to field. CC: This should contain the people who should skim the email and be aware of what is happening but have no need to reply or do anything. If they don't read it, it shouldn't have any real impact on anything. This is like "FYI-ing" someone in on the conversation and is usually used to keep other team members informed on the ongoing status of the project. ie 1: If the email "Taylor - take out the trash" had my brother CC'd on it, he would know that he didn't have to take out the trash. He doesn't need to reply to the email or do anything. And, if he didn't read it, it wouldn't be the end of the world. ie 2: I write to the Project Manager with new scripts that affect the due date of a project and ask for him to update the schedule accordingly. I CC my team member and the Account Manager so they know that there are new scripts and the dates been pushed back. The Project Manager has to update something (and maybe reply with follow up questions) but my team members and the Account Manager don't have to do anything or reply, just be aware. BCC: People sometimes BBC to include someone secretively on an email. Any address in the BCC field will receive the email but it won't show up so the people in the TO and CC fields won't know about this person. The danger lies if the person BCC'd clicks "reply all" to everyone in the email. ie 1: If the email "Taylor - take out the trash" had my brother BCC'd on it, it would mean my mom was telling me to do something and secretively letting my brother know about it. It has weird and usually bad implications, as you can imagine. Like, is there some inside joke between my mom and brother? Am I the worst child? Etc. If I found out my brother was BCC'd on the email, I would be all sorts of confused and possibly offended, especially if the email was between something expected to be private (ie: "Taylor - you have herpes on your eyeball"). :( :( ie 2: I write a response to the Account Manager that shows my disappointment at some action he took. I BCC my best work buddy George on the email. George and I were smoking a cigarette earlier and laughing about how stupid Account Manager can be. (never do any of this, btw!) George gets a laugh out of the email but accidentally "replies all" with "lol - you show him girl!" Now I'm in a world of shit with Account Manager and my reputation is destroyed. steve brought up one proper use for BCC - when you email everyone at the office or a makeshift list about the Christmas Party. These emails tend to have a ton of people on them and by using the BCC you (1) hide other people's names and email addresses and (2) prevent everyone from replying-all to each other. I get maybe 50-100 emails a day and the VP of my old company would sometimes get 500. So the To vs CC thing is a big deal to help me prioritize my inbox. If you are applying for a job or discussing something with someone who's pretty high up, expect your email to be 1 of 500 emails they are dealing that day with and 1 of 5000 things they are dealing with that day. By using to / cc properly, keeping your emails short and calling out people and actionable items explicitly, it shows you are helping everyone, you are aware you aren't the center of the universe, you respect people's time, and you're not a burden.Is getting the list out of order a huge deal or is it all more of a formality?
What's the difference between the three fields, "to", "cc", and "bcc"?
Lastly, do people really care that much about e-mails that these kinds of concepts are normal hangups?
From their site: This is hysterical... And sad. Poor guys.BTW, our name is MailSTROM, not MailSTORM. It's a play on "maelstrom". On Twitter there's a #mailstorm hashtag that some of our happy but confused customers use to sing our praises, but we do prefer #mailstrom, which matches our name.
So "To" is for people who are actively involved, "CC" is for people who are passively involved, and "BCC" is for when you want to mass mail but protect e-mail addresses. So, this is all new to me. Are there any more basics that you can think of that you think would be important to know?
Not mentioned in all this is that cc originally stood for "carbon copy" and bcc for "blind carbon copy." If you think of life like an episode of Mad Men you'll grasp the original intent. As others have mentioned, you are more likely to wrap yourself around the wheel than save yourself effort with bcc. It's like the floor polisher of online communication: devilishly simple in design, effortless in observation and the quickest way to break a limb and destroy the office when wielded by the untrained.