Avoid Text Lingo on Social Media

Almost everyone who uses Social Media Platforms / chats / BBMs or uses Whatsapp on regular basis will be very familiar to this commonly used three letter acronym “LOL”

When we started using Internet it took us a while to understand and realize what “lol” “brb” “ttyl” etc stood for. Over a period of time a new online dictionary has been formed. However, even today a lot of people don’t really know what “ttyl” means.

Grammar & English language has been KEELED literally & now people have started adapting the casual text language approach even in the emails.

I recently had a conversation with a friend who is launching a Niche Brand very soon. He was very particular about the kind of person he wants to hire for his brand's Social Media Marketing. He mentioned it quite strongly that he will not tolerate usage of “text lingo” on his Page.

Some of the facts that he pointed out about some Brand Pages were not surprising at all as I have noticed them myself.

For example some of the Social Media people make a lot of spelling mistakes & grammatical errors when they post content on Brand pages. While others literally copy content off an international page (similar category) & then paste on their Page. Is doing this right?

 Here are some DOs and DON’Ts :

• Be very careful while posting something on a Brand Page. It is very important to double check the content before it goes on the page. A small mistake can deteriorate the image of a Brand.
• Avoid pulling up content from another Facebook Page & then putting it on yours. A fan who loves your Brand may also be following the same page from where you have picked up the content!
• Keep your emails Professional; avoid the text language here while interacting with your agency, If things which were to be written on email could be conveyed via text messages, why would people use emails?
• Brands won’t hire you to handle their social platforms if it was only about picking up content from another page and then paste it on theirs. When a Brand hires you to handle its Social Media Platforms they trust you and expect the best from you, Give them value for Money.
• Never ever misspell a person’s name –  No one would  like it if someone called them “VIDON” instead of VINOD!

According to you, what kind of approach should a Brand adopt? The Casual one or the Formal approach? Which connects better with the online consumers?