Would you leave your home without make-up? Would you go out to dinner with a stain on your dress or shirt? Would you go out without first looking in the mirror? In most cases, your answer is probably, “No”. Why not? Because your image is important to you. You care how others perceive you. You like looking good.
A brand should think the same way. It should care about its image and it should pay very close to attention to how others perceive it. It should like looking good. So then why do so many brands in Thailand allow their Facebook posts to go live with spelling and grammar errors? A brand’s Facebook page is that brand’s face to the vast online audience almost as much as a website. When posts contain errors, those errors are a reflection of the brand.
To avoid negatively affecting your brand with spelling and grammar mistakes, follow these 4 easy tips:
1. Reread your content aloud before posting
Yes, your brain does play tricks on you. That’s why you should always reread your content before posting. When you are writing content, it is very easy to omit words or make grammatical mistakes. Rereading the content to yourself in a soft voice will usually reveal the errors.
2. Ask a colleague to read your content before posting
When you have written something yourself it may be difficult to spot your own mistakes. If you show it to a colleague, they may be able to identify the errors as they are reading it with a fresh perspective.
3. Use spell check
This is the easiest way to find spelling errors. You can use Microsoft Word, Outlook, an online email editor or one of the many free online spell checkers.
4. If not writing in your native language, ask a native speaker to check your content
This may be the case in Thailand, where English content is being written by non-native speakers. There are great grammar differences between Thai and English. English has verb conjugations, tenses and plural form among other elements not present in Thai. Therefore it would behoove any brand wanting to reach an online audience in English to have a native English speaker check the content prior to posting.
