Armstrong’s Missing ‘A’

It’s hard to imagine with all those tweets, FaceBook posts, LinkedIn status updates, emails and blog posts that the little mistakes really make a difference. What’s a few grammar errors, factual flubs or poorly worded paragraphs amidst the noise, right?

If you find yourself thinking this, it might be time to step back and reconsider your marketing plan. What exactly are you going for if the small details don’t matter?

Neil Armstrong’s famous words weren’t just an off the cuff remark, they were a well planned strategy to set the media stage for U.S. dominance of space during the cold war. When the public (and the international media) heard him announce “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” some were puzzled by what seems to be a redundant statement.

There was something missing, a little ‘A’ which would have helped the message make sense.

Radio Glitches

All it took was a radio glitch to turn a well placed media mark into a 40 year grammatical gaff. Everyone still remembers the line, but four decades of snarky grammar comments could have been averted with just a little more care.

This is a great lesson for businesses that use social media, if you’re spending time pushing content into the social media sphere why not keep an eye on the quality of what you’re putting out there.

A Few Helpful Reminders to Keep in Mind

• Matsuo Basho, 17th century poet and Haiku master, said that every letter should be written as if it were meant to last through the ages. This may be a high mark to set for your Tweets, but it’s better to keep it in mind than to forget it and end up regretting one of your 140 character outbursts.

• Editing is easy before you send something out, dealing with mistakes after the fact isn’t. This is something that’s been repeated so often it’s surprising there’s still a problem (I admit I’m not perfect in this regard either).

• Make sure your links work. I received an email invitation from a PR firm for a webinar on pitching that contained broken links and obvious editorial mistakes (half sentences that were probably meant to be cut). How likely am I to pay to attend this seminar?

• Remember relevance. It’s one thing to lighten your content from time to time; it’s another to float off into space. Keep things moored on solid ground and you’ll give people a place to go rather than an opportunity to miss you while they look at the stars.

• Context is more important than ever. When there is so much information streaming across the internet it’s easy to lose site of the past, don’t add to this problem by missing an opportunity to add valuable historical context to your social media efforts.