In March 2007, I said, “Look for 2008 to be the first Internet election, the way the Nixon-Kennedy debate proved that 1960 was the first television election.” This article in yesterday’s New York Times bears me out.
It will be interesting to see if President Obama will continue to leverage digital communications as part of his Presidency. FDR had his fireside chats; maybe Obama will have email newsletters.
Last night was the annual “Treehouse of Horror” episode of The Simpsons, which was typically brilliant — and included the must-see bit above.
A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about how an email from the Web Marketing Association included far too many hideous misspellings.
Here’s another similar situation that crossed my screen recently.
GoogleLady.com seems to be a pretty good site. You’re likely to wind up there sooner or later if you’re Googling for AdWords tips, because GoogleLady has posted a free e-book: The AdWords Quality Guide. It’s suitable for beginners and it’s packed with tips on how to get the most out of AdWords.
Here’s the thing: How can anyone trust GoogleLady’s tips for writing ads when GoogleLady can barely spell? The contents page spells beginners with two g’s and one n. The question asked on the contents page lacks a question mark. Sentences seem like they got chewed up by Babel Fish: “31 Killer Writing AdWords Ads Tips.” (By the way, that’s the one place on the contents page where “AdWords” was written correctly, i.e. with the capital W. The other 12 places on the page, it’s written “Adwords.”
There’s probably a lot of good information in this 47-page guide, but the sloppiness undercuts any authority it would otherwise have.
What’s really troubling is that a lot of people probably don’t care. When basic standards of consistency, spelling and style don’t matter, though, what’s next to slide?
Takeaway for marketers: Don’t head down that slippery slope. Spelling counts. Good writing is just one component to making you look professional, but bad writing alone can make you look foolish.
… flush your brain with something completely random and silly.
(The Internet is great for finding stuff that does that.)
So here’s a hamster eating popcorn on a piano.
