The Power of Profreading

Did you notice something wrong with the headline of this post? Congratulations! You can proofread! Now rinse and repeat with your own social media posts. Just because social media is a casual, informal marketing format doesn't mean your messages shouldn't be as carefully crafted as any other type of marketing. Proper editing and proofreading will keep you looking professional in the eyes of your fans and followers, and prevent the dreaded "hide," "unlike" or "unfollow."

Here's why:

• Typos, mistakes and grammatical errors are easy to make, but hard for fans and followers to forgive and forget. They simply look sloppy and unprofessional.
• While errors in blog posts can be edited, Twitter and Facebook don't let you edit posts. It's either delete it, or live with it.
• If a fickle follower or fan sees a post twice because you have to delete and re-post it due to an error,  they might hide your posts or unlike/unfollow you. In Facebook, fans can hide your posts and unlike you right from your news feed by clicking the "X" next to the offending post.
• If (on Facebook) fans "like" or comment on the erroneous post, you won't want to delete it and it will be immortalized on your wall.
• On Twitter, people might RT your erroneous tweet, making your mistake visible to their followers as well as yours.

The good news is that these errors are easy to avoid by thoroughly editing and proofreading your posts. So take your time, use spell-check, read it aloud or share it with a friend/coworker to keep your accounts looking professional.