There are lapses in style, across the digital landscape, so endemic that they have come to be mistaken for the new normal.
An email with no subject line, a voice message that rambles on without ever getting to the point, a video call where the camera stays discreetly off: these are venial sins committed every single day. They may seem harmless — and yet they are not. They are tiny drops that, one after another, quietly dig a hole in how others perceive our professionalism. The temptation to dismiss these small things as inconsequential details is strong. But let us be honest: anyone’s professional presence today is no longer built around mahogany boardroom tables — it plays out, in large part, across screens and devices. And nothing reinforces and underscores professionalism quite like a digital presence that is measured, intentional, and polished.
It is from this awareness that the Digital Etiquette Masterclass on April 11th was born. To be held at the Pineider boutique in Milan, this workshop — created in collaboration with the Italian Etiquette Society and led by Elisa Motterle — is designed to offer practical tools to anyone who wishes to present themselves with greater precision, consistency, and elegance in the online world as well.
Emails, instant messages, social media, video calls: these are working tools — and not only that — which we use every day, often without pausing to consider their impact. Yet it is precisely there that many of the most common frictions arise: messages that go unanswered, imprecise communications, misunderstandings, small oversights that, little by little and without our even noticing, chip away at how others perceive our professionalism.
During the workshop, participants will work through real-life scenarios that, sooner or later, we have all encountered. Emails that receive no reply — perhaps because they are unclear, or lack a defined deadline. The WhatsApp group created with a specific purpose that quickly veers off in an entirely different direction. The video call taken too lightly, which risks conveying distraction or a lack of engagement. The comment left on social media that reveals a side of us — to colleagues, suppliers, or an employer — that we perhaps never intended to show.
We will explore how each channel has its own code of conduct; we will come to understand how the internet, beyond being a powerful resource, creates — whether we like it or not — a digital identity that says a great deal about who we are, and how every trace we leave online contributes to the image that clients, suppliers, and employers form of us.
For anyone who feels that their digital identity looks more like something thrown on in a hurry than a tailored suit, or for those who are tired of leaving their online narrative to chance, this workshop is the social appointment not to be missed.
Because netiquette, when all is said and done, is not merely digital etiquette — it is a valuable and subtle form of strategic communication.