I recently witnessed a status update from a business page on Facebook that misspelled a key term for its industry.
What did they use?
“Loosing”
What did they mean?
“Losing”
Think about any industry or business that talks about losing anything - weight, eye sight, hearing, keys, gadgets, etc.
There are so many businesses that may need to use “losing” as part of their messaging and in some cases the competition is going to be fierce.
Losing engagement
After seeing that status update, I can’t remember anything about it other than the misspelled word and I wasn’t the only one. The first and only comment on the post is from someone pointing out the error (no, it was not me). That lone comment has one like. There is no other engagement on that post.
Many businesses may not feel that proofing a short status update on Facebook or Twitter is worth their time, but think about the impression on the audience when key terminology is misspelled:
- Does the misspelling inadvertently change the meaning?
- Is a competitor making that or similar errors?
- Will the mistake(s) distract from the overall message?
The best way to avoid this type of situation is to prepare content in advance.
You want to post to Facebook every day? (Yay! You should.)
Plan it out
Spend two hours coming up with the content for a month.
Proofread that post: Then set it aside for a day and go back to read in detail what you’ve written.
Proof it again: If you can, ask someone else to review it.
Proof once more: Then, when you actually post the content, read through one more time. Out loud.
Your message matters - don’t let it get lost behind an avoidable error!