Do typos matter?

It makes me a little crazy when I read someone’s LinkedIn profile and notice a typo.  I’m not talking about an insignificant typo.  I’m talking about spelling their company name incorrectly!  Or their own job title is missing a letter (poduce instead of produce).

If you are looking for a new position, or new clients, what message does it send if you don’t pay  enough attention to detail to double check your work?  Most people read all the way to the bottom of your listing of work experiences if they are interested in you.  What happens when they see  a misspelling or a grammatical error?

I know we are all in a rush sometimes and it’s hard to proof your own work.  But it never hurts to take a pause before posting on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook, and to reread/proof your work.  For me, I find it helps to start at the beginning of the post and read it out loud.  Besides identifying misspelled words, I often need to change a word.

One of my clients humbly shared with me last week that he sent an email to a prospect  he had met at a conference and used the wrong name (he used the last name instead of his first name).  It was an honest mistake as his last name could have been a first name (such as Michael David).  My client was embarrassed and immediately sent another email (with the correct first name) and apologized.

What was interesting to me, was that the prospect immediately agreed to a phone meeting after the second email.  Being humble and quickly admitting the mistake clearly resonated with the prospect.  Of course, my client was horrified, and we laughed that it all worked out.

Many years ago, I used an HR Consultant to assist me in recruiting, among other HR functions.  One of her filters when reviewing resumes was that if she found a single typo on the resume, she immediately disqualified the candidate.  Even if they had amazing credentials and experience, she told me that if they did not have enough attention to detail to proofread their own resume, that told her everything she needed to know and she always passed on the candidate.

So, maybe it is a good time to review your LinkedIn profile and spend a few extra seconds next time you post.  Remember, there is an “edit” function, so if you do make an error, the minute you find it, it’s quite acceptable to go in and correct the typo or grammatical error.

How you do anything is how you do everything takes on new meaning in our ever-present digital footprint.

Onward and upward,