I just discovered this wonderfully entertaining website, ShamefulTypos.com. Now, I realize that most folks reading this might not share the same interest and fascination with the prevalence and most pathetically, ACCEPTANCE of typos throughout our culture. But it should serve as a valuable reminder of the importance of first impressions.
In an increasingly laid-back era of wearing flip-flops to the college formal and accepting pizza as a wedding main course, our culture seems perfectly fine with laziness in our language, too — misspelled newspaper headlines, incomprehensible e-vites or shoddy ad copy. But as entrepreneurs and marketers, have we forgotten what we’re really saying about our business to potential customers? We’re saying so much more than you probably realize.
(1) Your opinion of our intelligence or ability to communicate doesn’t really matter to us.
(2) We pay no attention to detail.
(3) We’ll invest as little time and effort as possible.
(4) We’re not even savvy enough to use spell-check.
Businesses must stop using the excuse that they simply aren’t writers anymore. There are too many opportunities to work on our skills – through our social media networking, our daily emails, our Oprah-Book-of-the-Month-Club readings and discussions.
Come on, people. Let’s vow to work on our writing – if only to fine-tune that first impression or convey the message we truly intend to send. We owe it to our customers, our companies…ourselves.
*** Disclaimer: And if this post contains any typos whatsoever, consider it a demonstration of irony and not sloppy blogging.
The “everyday” and “every day” confusion annoys me the most when I’m out and about looking at signs like this one!
Amen. I’d add to your list:
“We’re so stressed we have no time to proofread”
“We’re poorly educated”
“We don’t speak English well, so we may have a communication problem.”