What Hurts Your Social Posts? Turns Out, Spelling Matters

Posted on by Erin Ryan
Categories: Automotive Social Media, Social Media, Social Media Case Studies, Social Media Marketing Tagged: , , , , ,

What determines social media success? There are a lot of factors, and every single one is important. Of course we always talk about what kind of content your audience is expecting and the best ways to deliver that content across all platforms, but sometimes we have to delve a little deeper than that to succeed. That is why today we’re taking a look at the little things that can hurt your social media marketing strategy. None are a big deal alone, but they can add up to a seriously sabotaged social situation!

To figure out what really bothered  consumers, a study was conducted this past July that questioned over a thousand consumers on what was most likely to damage their opinion of a brand on social media. Here are their answers:

Poor spelling or grammar: 42.5%
Updates that are too “Salesy”: 19.8%
Posts updates too often: 12.8%
Trying too hard to be funny (and failing): 12.5%
Does not post updates often enough: 7.2%

I’d say the major surprise here is the spelling. A lot of people think you can completely discard spelling on the web, but this clearly proves that people are watching and they will call you on it. Another important note to take here is that you shouldn’t be too “salesy.” This may seem like old advice to many of you, but you’d be amazed how many companies still think Facebook is just a dumping ground for their marketing material.

These numbers are slightly different for the 18-24 group. It turns out, they care less about spelling and more about getting as much funny content as fast as possible. Color me shocked!

The 18-24 numbers:

Poor spelling or grammar: 20.9%
Updates that are too “Salesy”: 19.8%
Posts updates too often: 17.4%
Trying too hard to be funny (and failing): 19.8%
Does not post updates often enough: 22.1%

Interestingly, there’s not a big difference between the genders. The only major change is that women are more annoyed when content is perceived as “salesy” and men are more annoyed when content tries and fails to be funny.

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+Erin Ryan is the Director of Social Media for Wikimotive and a writer for various Social Media & Tech blogs. Erin has a keen understanding of the power of Social Media for business and fervently stays up-to-date.

Connect further on Erin Ryan’s Social Networks through her About.me Profile.