The very readable Richard Stacy has posted a blog on his social media site talking about blogging and asks the question should you proofread a blog? Now, to me the answer is very obvious and I thought Richard was going for links but it turns out he thinks, no a blog doesn’t need proofed. To which I say, are you mental or just wanting to lose customers?

We live an age when you have to balance and juggle a lot of things when it comes to grammar and spelling. Americans get annoyed with UK spellings and vice versa. Some websites have as policy a mix of both (for example Search Engine Optimisation and Search Engine Optimization) to play with getting good Google results and also to appeal to audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. That’s fair enough.

But Richard has a totally different tact:

Social media, however, is cheap and disposable – that’s the whole point. Social media, even if it looks like traditional published material, is more akin to conversation than publication. That, in my opinion, absolves it from a responsibility to conform to the rules of traditional publication.

You could say that criticising my blog for containing typos and grammatical errors is the same as looking at a home video in YouTube and saying that the lighting is all wrong, the sound balance is all over the place and whoever did the post-production should be shot. I may be stretching it a bit here – but you get the point.

You get the point? You get the point. That’s what it is all about.

If any of my posts were to be reproduced in a traditional publication, I would expect them to be put into their Sunday best – be edited, proofread and had their hair smoothed down. But while they live in this blog, they can dress casual.

To me – admittedly a journalist of nearly 20 years and author of books – that’s completely missing the point. If I’m hiring someone to carry out social media work – or in fact any kind of work that may involve writing – the first port of call for that person is going to be their websites where I’ll judge their writing – the tones used, the variety of styles… and their spelling. I would be more forgiving of a casual or personal blog than a professional blog on a professional site, but typos still jar with – especially in an era when there are still so many struggling with literacy, we should be setting a standard.

Now I’m not saying I’m perfect, but there’s normally an effort put in to making sure posts are within the laws of grammar and spelling – though tweets are a bit more casual if I find I need the space – as words are one of the main ways in which I sell myself and the blog is the largest driver of traffic to this site.

So it’s concerning to see someone be more laidback about this than I think he should be. After all, what’s next, naming companies with a W00t in them?

Ultimately though, Richard seems to be doing well enough, so perhaps we should all be teh tyop market?