Slow down when you text, tweet and e-mail

The other day I sent a tweet that included a misspelled word. Should I be embarrassed considering that texting and tweeting are the breeding grounds for poor spelling and grammar? After all, butchering the English language is suitable and accepted behavior in the Twittersphere, right?

Wrong! I’m extremely embarrassed. I don’t care that just about everyone on Twitter figures it’s OK to create new words like “thx” and “k.” It’s not OK, especially if you are sending a tweet or a text for business. That’s just unconscionable. The business world never has room for purposely misspelling words.

We are all brands. The way we act, the way we comport ourselves means something – leaves others with an impression. Do you want to be known for being lazy or ignorant? Of course not. Yet, that’s exactly what you are doing when you write a text or tweet so fast that words are misspelled or shortened on purpose. You only have 140 characters with which to work. Is it that hard to make sure you are communicating properly?

I know someone who is notorious for sending nearly unintelligible texts. When I call this person out on a message, this person retorts with either “I was in a hurry” or “I’m not good at typing.”

Seriously?

Let’s take a look at the first answer. In a hurry? When you rush a message, it often obscures the meaning. So if you send a “quick” test, what are the odds that the receiver will read the message and then send a text back asking for clarification? Then the original sender will have to follow up the first text with another one. Not saving much time, is it?

Second, the “not good at typing” excuse? Are you not good at reading? You should review everything carefully before sending it. Text. E-mail. Tweet. When you don’t, it leaves the recipient with the impression that you don’t really care about their time. It says I have so little time that I’m just going to send this off without caring whether you can understand it or not.

Come on, people, do everyone a favor and slow down. Yes, we live in “fast times” in which technology allows us to be more efficient and complete several tasks at once. But, when it comes to communicating, you are only as efficient as your ability to clearly get your message across and received properly by the target audience.

Say no to verbitating!

Every writer is taught to avoid clichés. I would implore that we do the same in our business communications. We should not only avoid the tired language of clichés but deep-six the use of buzzwords and catchphrases that creep into everyday conversations around the water cooler, in the conference room and, in and around our cubicles.

You know what I’m talking about. Phrases such as “at the end of the day,” “add value” and “win-win scenario,” and buzzwords such as “socialize” and “transparency.” When you utter these over-used phrases you are saying one of two things – I can’t come up with my own words to express my thoughts (read: lazy) or I’m trying to sound smart (read: not so smart).

English is a beautiful language filled with hundreds of under-utilized words. Let’s start using them. We’ll all be, and sound, smarter for the effort.

Today, I heard a new one – efforting. Effort is a perfectly good noun. Let’s keep it that way. It does not need to be a verb as well. Unfortunately, in recent months, I’ve seen a lot of this verbitating (yes, I made that one up. Shame on me!). “Let’s calendar a meeting sometime next week, Phyllis.” Argghhh. “Let’s dialogue about that new product roll-out, Bobby.” Blech.

Come on, people. There are perfectly good words to use instead of “calendar” and “dialogue” that are indeed verbs. How about “schedule” and “discuss.” What’s wrong with them? Unfortunately, one person hears someone slyly work “calendar” into conversation as a verb and they then turn around and repeat it. It’s an epidemic!

So, please, let’s go back to using nouns as nouns and verbs as verbs. That way, we’ll all do a better job of communicating. Oh, and lay off the clichés, too.

The art of brevity

I started reading another business book the other day. I finished reading it two days later. I think I was on about page 83. There were some 210 pages to go.

Why did I stop? It's not that it was boring. Actually, I was fully engaged in the book...for the first 50 or 60 pages. And it's not that I have some kind of attention deficit disorder. I've finished 1,000-page novels with no problem. It's just that with this best-selling book, like many I've tried before, the author slumps into such repetition that I can't plow through. Aren't these books targeted toward CEOs, presidents and entrepreneurs? I know these are smart people. Very smart. So, why the need to take an idea, go great guns for 50 to 60 pages and then start repeating everything ad nauseum?

I know a thicker book looks better on the shelf and on your resume but, really, why not say what you have to say and leave it at that? Would you sell fewer books if you kept it to 100 pages? Not if it was engaging and filled with great wisdom.

The shortest business book I've ever read "Who Moved My Cheese?" was hugely popular (though I'm not sure why. It treated the reader like a child and not a business contemporary).

Remember one of the most important objectives of any communications effort? Always keep your target audience in mind. These business executives you are writing for are busy people. So, keep it relevant but keep it concise.

And to follow my own advice, I will sign off.