As humans, we all make mistakes. But do people make more typos when writing content for some platforms versus others? New data from online proofreading tool Grammarly seems to suggest so.
After using its writing app to analyze more than one billion words over the course of one month, Grammarly found that people make about three times as many spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors when writing content for social media as they do for email. Indeed, people make an average of 39 mistakes per 100 words when crafting social media posts, versus 13.5 blunders per 100 words when crafting emails.
However, people still make more typos when writing emails than they do when writing blog posts. According to Grammarly, people make an average of 7.9 errors per 100 words when composing blog posts, compared to the aforementioned 13.5 errors per 100 words when writing emails.
There are a number of ways people can avoid these basic blunders. Checking for spelling errors is always a good idea—especially when misspelled words account for more than half of Grammarly’s analyzed email mistakes. Knowing basic grammar rules is important, too. According to the online proofreading tool, incorrect uses of too and to, there and their, than and then, and everyday and every day are commonly confused words. Improper apostrophe usage is another frequent fault.
The data suggests that time of day can also influence typo count. According to Grammarly, people who wrote online content between the hours of 4 A.M. and 8 A.M. in their local time zones made fewer gaffes overall—13.8 per 100 words, on average. People who wrote between 10:00 P.M. and 2:00 A.M., contrastingly, made an average of 17 mistakes per 100 words. When Grammarly broke these typos down by platform, it found that early-morning writers made an average of 5.6 blog mistakes, 11.8 email mistakes, and 34 social media mistakes per 100 words. Late-night writers, however, made an average of 9.1 blog mistakes, 14.3 email mistakes, and 41.6 social media mistakes per 100 words.
However, Grammarly reports that the hours between 1:00 P.M.and 5:00 P.M. are prime for writing more accurate blog posts. According to its data, writers made an average of 3.7 errors per 100 words during that time.
These statistics can be scary for marketers, especially during a time of user-generated content and social sharing. However, they need to let go of these inhibitions and encourage consumers to share their brand experiences in authentic ways.
Of course, marketers aren’t immune to typos, either (as these mistakes reinforce). And while testing and proofreading can help them avoid these blunders, it’s also important to know how to react when mistakes do occur. Check out the five DMN articles below the “related articles” section to learn how you can recover from common marketing mishaps.
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