insights on the intersection between social media and business social media
Friday, August 19, 2011
Where Have All the Craftsmen Gone?
Perhaps the title of this posting should be "Were Have All The Craftsman Gone". Did you catch the two errors in my restatement of the title?
Let's say you have been working really long and hard on your business social media skills. You've got people following you. You've got the right message. Too bad yur speling skils and punctuashion arent' up to the task.
There is an old adage about "you never get a second chance to make a first impression." Why, with all the work you are doing, would you not use that nice little tool up in your toolbar called "spell check"? For that matter, why would you have someone doing your postings who can't spell in the first place, and thinks the Chicago Book of Style is a fashion catalogue? (We won't even go into the Associated Press style guide)
Here are the three most common errors I see in posts.
1) Incorrect use (or no use) of the apostrophe. "It's going to rain" has an apostrophe. Not "Its going to rain." However, "Its hands were dirty" is a correct use without an apostrophe. (Ok, maybe that sentence could be used in a Stephen King novel) The apostrophe is also used incorrectly in words or sentences, like "We're selling rose's." "Rose's" does not have an apostrophe in this use, unless it's a person named Rose and you're selling off her stuff!
2) Incorrect use of "their" "they're" "there". Here's a sentence using those three words correctly, along with the two uses of "it's" and "its" as well. "They're taking their car over there to the garage because it's not running well and its air filter may be dirty."
3) Incorrect use of "your" and "you're". Here's a sentence with correct usage: "You're nobody until your Uncle Dan gives you the keys to his Porsche!"
Let the computer double check for you. It's not infallible, but it's better than nothing. A second set of eyes doesn't hurt either.
You really dont' want people reeding your posts and wondering "Were have all the craftsman gone?"
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