I’m not quite sure if it’s the software keyboard on the DROID Incredible 2 I’m trying out (which has been auto-correcting my status/tweets/etc quite annoyingly… NO, I do NOT want to type Simmer… it’s KIMMEL!), or the fact that my husband sent me THIS hilarious webpage to peruse, or when I read Peter Shankman’s post about Osama Bin Laden’s death with the fantastic picture of Fox reporting Obama Bin Laden being dead, but I’ve been surrounded by the spelling and grammar mistakes of the general public, and I just have to say… REALLY?
It’s one thing when auto correct turns something I’m trying to say into something else (I am typically able to catch it most of the time). It’s quite another when you are paid to tweet/facebook/social mediaize something as a representative of a company. When I see my husband’s friend say “wow Obama bin Laden was killed!” I just think, “what an idiot.” When I see Fox News put on their ticker at the bottom Obama Bin Laden Dead I think a whole lot worse things. While I don’t consider myself an expert in grammar, I also am not declaring someone dead to millions of people. Even my local Fox affiliate (Fox isn’t looking too good today, eh?) said today on a Facebook update “stuck dead by lightning”. They were butchered in the comments for it, and really just looked foolish.
Today we live our lives in 140 characters. If you aren’t paying attention, those short sentences can destroy your brand or your credibility. So, take my advice when writing…
DO Read your post backwards (tweets, Facebook statuses, etc). When you read each word by itself backwards you will see the mistakes.
DON’T try to be first with the news at the expense of error checking.
DON’T use acronyms when words will do. As in, don’t end a cover letter to your resume with TTYL.
There is no excuse for talking/spelling like an idiot on purpose, and if you are paid to update the world… please check your work. If I have to try and say your status update out loud so I can try and understand it, you may want to rethink it.
It’s not cool to spell thought – thot… just a thot. 🙂
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