Spelling errors in social media posts can significantly impact your company’s image and dilute its message. If you are the head of your business’s social media accounts and website, it is crucial to understand why these errors could hurt your image and avoid them in the future.
This post will show business owners (and social media marketers) the effects of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors on their business. We will also share some free tips on avoiding looking like a fool to the whole world.
The Effects of Misspelled Words on Your Business
One of the most important aspects of getting a message across to consumers is making sure you use proper spelling, punctuation, and language. When drafting content for your business’s social media accounts, take the time to review them before posting them to avoid making basic errors like missing spaces or apostrophes.
Grammatical errors portray your business negatively.
When communicating with your customers, it is vital to show that you care about how your business is portrayed.
Just one social media error can have a lasting effect on your company. If you want to avoid looking like a fool in front of your followers, here are some things to keep in mind when writing content for your social media accounts.
These errors are one of the main reasons why social media managers and businesses lose credibility with their followers.
Consider this quote from Jared Spool’s 1996 article “Branding and Usability,”
“Errors can be damaging to a company’s brand perception in the minds of visitors. The particular brand values of an organization determine the degree to which this damage occurs.”
Or this one from Kyle Wiens (CEO of iFixit and founder of Dozuki software), “Good grammar is credibility, especially on the internet. In blogs, on Facebook statuses, in e-mails, and on company websites, your words are all you have. They are a projection of you in your physical absence. And, for better or worse, people judge you if you can’t tell the difference between their, there, and they’re.“
Wiens says in the Harvard Business Review that if you use poor grammar or misspell words, he won’t hire you.
So, you may be asking yourself, “What does this have to do with social media posts?”
The answer: EVERYTHING! When you post an update for your business on your website or social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you communicate with thousands of people all over the internet.
Social media has become a vital aspect of marketing and advertising strategies for small businesses around the world. If you run your company’s social media accounts and aren’t sure how to spell a word, you could be showing your customers that you aren’t knowledgeable. Errors affect the way many people perceive your products and services.
Just one mistake can make you look horrible.
Improper language use can also give potential customers the impression that your company is unprofessional and unreliable. The problem is that most people don’t realize when they are making spelling or grammar blunders on social media until someone points them out.
And it doesn’t always have to be a careless error.
You may have been using a word wrong the whole time, thinking you were spelling it correctly thousands of times in the past.
So consider this your friendly reminder: Make sure you review before you hit the “post” button. And, if all else fails, copy and paste the post into a tool like Grammarly first and check for errors before posting it to Facebook or Twitter.
Avoid Spelling Mistakes with Grammarly
If you would like to catch errors in a hurry, several tools can help. One such tool is Grammarly. You can use the free version or upgrade to the premium service that includes more advanced functionality.
All you have to do to sign up is to visit their website.
If you do a lot of content creation in Google Chrome, there is a browser extension called Grammarly which can help. It will pick up on some of the most common mishaps that occur, and it can even make suggestions for improving your work by adding in commas or crossing out unnecessary words.
We Use It Nonstop
We have tried other tools, but Grammarly is the best one by far because its system was designed to function with the way people naturally speak. It knows when you’re asking a question or using sarcastic language, and it understands colloquial terms standard in informal writing.
We run every written content that we generate through it before we even start to optimize them for search engines.
Did you know that these same mistakes are likely killing your website’s SEO rankings? Read our recent article to learn why.
So now that we’ve discussed the effects of errors on your image let’s discuss the impact on your bottom line.
The effects of poor spelling/grammar on your sales.
Not only will these mistakes reflect poorly on your business, but they will harm your sales.
Why?
If consumers see you as unprofessional and aren’t confident in your ability to provide a service, they are less likely to purchase from you.
Spelling Mistakes can make you lose money.
Spelling errors are one of the biggest mistakes a company can make. A London-based digital communications agency surveyed 1,003 U.K. web users and found that close to half of the overall respondents—42.5 percent—would be most influenced by spelling or grammar blunders.
Entrepreneur Charles Duncombe told the BBC that a single spelling mistake could cut a business’s online sales in half.
Spelling Mistakes can cause your company to lose customers.
You may not think that these mistakes can harm your sales, but if people see you making these mistakes and it affects the way they perceive your company, they may decide to spend their money elsewhere.
If you run out of products or supplies for a short period, consumers could instead go to one of your competitors. If you’re a small business owner who manufactures their own products, the quality of materials or workmanship might suffer because you cannot pay your employees as much if sales start to decline.
How can you prevent poor spelling and grammar issues?
Some people believe that spelling and grammar are insignificant to good writing, and they don’t affect your audience’s opinion of what you have to say. But this is not necessarily true!
Business owners, I want y’all to use iPhone features to your advantage. It’s no way in every post the same few words is misspelled, your grammar is incorrect, or your delivery is rude. It’s okay to hire someone to run your social media or go back to 3rd grade English class.
— dr. (@s0psyched) November 28, 2020
Unlike traditional advertising, social media is a more casual form of marketing.
If you want to get your message across as clearly as possible, it’s crucial that what you’re saying is accurately spelled and grammatically correct.
The best way to avoid these mistakes on social media is to hire someone who has experience with these kinds of small business marketing activities.
If you’re running a small business, then you are likely doing everything on your own. If this is the case, you should at least make sure that everyone who posts for your business has been taught how to speak, write, and spell correctly.
With all of the other aspects of running a successful business, it’s easy to let this type of thing fall to the wayside. If you want people to see you as an expert in your industry, and if you want them to have faith in what you are saying, you must convey yourself with clear communication.
If you’re a small business owner unsure about how to execute social media marketing correctly, you should consider hiring a professional who can help you. You don’t want to have your brand perceived poorly because of a few typos.
If you decide to hire a social media manager, make sure they are someone with experience in the industry. They should possess an intimate knowledge of the internet’s most popular social media platforms, your website, and they should be able to help you build a solid online presence through proper use of these channels.
Suppose you’re already using social media but feel that your posts are unprofessional or are riddled with mistakes. In that case, this is a sign that there is likely something wrong with the person who handles your social media account(s).
Consider hiring a professional.
One way to reduce errors is by ensuring that employees proofread and edit their content before posting. If you have access to a PR specialist or copywriter, you can also ask them for assistance if issues arise.
If you find yourself struggling to write several blogs each week, consider hiring a ghostwriting service or a content marketing specialist.
One way to reduce errors is by ensuring that employees proofread and edit their content before posting. If you have access to a PR specialist or copywriter, you can also ask them for assistance if issues arise.
If you find yourself struggling to write several blogs each week, consider hiring a ghostwriting service or a content marketing specialist.
Errors on your Blog
If blogs and pages on your site have multiple typographical mistakes, you’ll immediately turn users away. If the rest of their research on your website turns up more pieces with poor grammar or missing words, they will likely forget about you and not purchase from your business or use your services.
Each mistake pushes them further out the door.
Spell properly in case your competition isn’t
There’s a lot of competition out there for small business owners, especially when it comes to getting the attention of potential customers online. With so many other businesses vying for the attention of people searching for your product or service online, you have to stand out in a crowd.
Using proper spelling and grammar can help you make that immediate connection with a reader. It shows them that you are serious about what you’re doing, and it makes you look more professional than companies that do not.
The devil is in the details.
It’s a small detail that could make the difference between landing you a new customer or losing out to another business in your city.
By properly using punctuation and grammar, you’ll be able to create more meaningful content for use on your website. It will also improve your user experience because it will give people what they need without confusion or frustration.
Remember, once it’s posted, you can’t take it back.
When it is OK to Use Unnecessary Capitalization and Rules for Punctuation
There may be some instances where your marketing strategy requires a little deviation from the rules. For example, we’re all familiar with Chick-Fil-A’s “Eat Mor Chikin” campaign that started way back in 2005.
Or, consider the current trend in marketing of misspelling your name on purpose.
Marketingmind.in said it best in a recent article, “Naming a brand is a confusing task for the founders. Especially in an era like today where everyone is trying to look creative, making a brand look unique starts with naming itself. Whether it’s the business name, logo, campaign name, a slogan, or simply a banner ad, sometimes companies deliberately misspell.”
Did you catch that?
Deliberately.
On Purpose.
Intentionally.
I know you may be thinking about it. Wait, aren’t one-word sentences lousy grammar?
Technically you’re correct, but there are some instances where you don’t have to adhere to strict rules. A logo and a blog post are a couple of examples of where it’s permissible (and sometimes encouraged) to deviate from the norm.
Youifying Your Content
SEO and digital marketing guru Neil Patel refers to this as “Youifying” your content.
Find your brand voice and use your creativity to make it stand out.
Neil Patel says, “I like how youified that post was!”
Sometimes being informal isn’t an error.
So remember, writing in an informal tone can help increase your audience’s interest level if everything has been done correctly. Don’t take grammar and spelling too far, though. Do not intentionally misspell words or confuse sentences for the sake of it, or you may find yourself losing the interest of potential customers.
People want to feel like they can trust you right away, and using proper grammar shows them that you are serious about what you’re doing and that you care about your customers’ needs.
Even if people don’t notice the spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes on their own, search engines do!
When asked if spelling errors in your blog’s comments matter on search engine optimization issues, Matt Cutts (Google’s search quality team member and SEO guru) said that it’s your content’s spelling and grammar are that matters.
You will also be showing off your professionalism and attention to detail by creating content that is well-written.
You should never be ashamed of who you are or what your business does. You shouldn’t try to hide behind poor spelling or grammar either. Instead, embrace the uniqueness that makes you different from everyone else out there! Your blog and its articles will speak volumes about your business and your personality. If they aren’t correctly written, then you may be missing out on connecting with people who would have liked what you had to say!
YOU might believe that spelling and grammar don’t matter much – but your readers may disagree.
Would you rather leave your social media and content marketing to a professional?
You’re a small business owner, and you want to make sure your social media is on point.
Social media can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. We’re here to help.
Our team here at BlakSheep Creative has the passion, experience, and know-how to make your business stand out, from developing and maintaining websites to social media marketing to content marketing to affordable small business SEO.
Kill two birds with one stone. Hire us to take care of all of your digital marketing. Or just sign up for a free 14 day trial of our copywriting services.
If you’re ready to take your business to the next level and get more customers, then contact us today – or complete the form to schedule a free consultation: We look forward to talking with you!
