Why is quality important? I’m not talking about the quality of the substance of the content (social media post or blog), which is important in its own right. What I’m talking about is making sure the structure, syntax, grammar, and spelling of your content are error-free.
That might seem like a no-brainer – you want the posts you are putting out into the world to showcase competence, thought leadership, and care. However, it doesn’t always come easy to many, even great writers.
That’s why editing is a crucial part of the content writing process. Published mistakes can damage your business’ reputation, reflect carelessness, and are just plain embarrassing. But you can avoid this as much as possible through these 5 steps.
Caffeinate
The quote often misattributed to Hemingway is actually pretty good advice: “Write drunk, edit sober.” Don’t create (and publish) content tired (or drunk) if you’re not going to go back and edit it later. If you’re a small business owner, tired is probably your default. Avoid writing content, sharing posts, or even responding to comments or reviews unedited.
Research, research, research
You can make mistakes, even when you don’t know you’re making them. Even though, as a business owner in your industry, you feel you know what you’re talking about, there’s always the off-chance you can misspeak. There’s no way to establish your brand as a leader in the industry if you are making careless mistakes in the content you are writing. Research to learn to make sure the subject matter and industry terms – both spelling and usage – are correct before you publish.
Be careful
Edits are not your free pass to be careless. Take your time, and write as if your first draft is the final draft; write like there aren’t going to be any edits tomorrow. The more mistakes you can cut down on the first time, the easier it is to catch the few you do make. Rather than publish what you write immediately, let it sit for a bit. Come back to it when you are in a different frame of mind or even send it to a coworker or friend to get their feedback.
Be intentional with imperfection
There are times in social media writing where being completely correct is just not possible. It can be okay to use colloquial language, industry terms, or “text speak” that your English professor would mark wrong. Twitter, for example, limits you to 280 characters, so it’s possible you’d need to abbreviate some words or skip punctuation when composing your Tweet. Just remember to be intentional with those mistakes!
Edit yourself
So you’ve finished writing a blog or the week’s social media content and you’re ready to edit. Not so fast. Before editing, take a break. Leave it for the day and come back to it tomorrow, go get some coffee, or do another task. It’s better to let your brain rest rather than force it to look for errors it’s likely going to miss.
You can also use tools like Microsoft Word’s spellcheck, Ginger, or Grammarly to help you catch your own mistakes.
There are plenty of other things you can do to cut down on your content errors. Maybe you need to set due dates for yourself so you’re sure to have time to edit before you have to publish. Maybe you need someone else entirely to edit your work. That’s okay! The important takeaway is this: careless mistakes can be costly. It’s better to play it safe and do what you need to do in order to avoid having errors in your content.