How can you proofread social media and email messages?

It is advisable to read and perhaps re-read social media and email content. We live in a world of 'snowflakes', where recipients can become all too easily 'insulted'. My advice is to steer clear of cliches, emojis and slang, whether communicating professionally, or just for fun with a friend. Use the telephone for personal jibes. If you cannot write in your native language (or spell, or punctuate), then don't!

You can use Grammarly or any similar proofing app to double-check your emails and social media posts before sending them out. Apps like this can check tone as well as grammar and spelling to prevent embarrassing gaffes and typos, especially when you're in a hurry.

To proofread social media and email messages effectively, follow these steps: Read Slowly Take your time reading each message to catch errors, typos, and awkward phrasing. Read Aloud Reading aloud can help you catch mistakes that your eyes might miss. Check Grammar and Spelling Utilize grammar and spell check tools available in your text editor or email platform. Final Review Before sending, give the message a final review to catch any remaining issues. Remember, mistakes can still slip through even after proofreading, so it's always a good practice to be vigilant and open to learning from any errors that are identified after sending.

Have a set tone for your brand – and if there is none, create it from scratch. But do not overdo it, set boundaries which allow the copywriter to inject their voice into the messaging, since that is what makes the communication human. Even in the most professional B2B niches a human connection between the recipient and the author needs to be established for the texts to have impact.

Whenever I write a message or a post, I re-read it out loud so that it's also ears, not just eyes, that can take part in proofreading. That helps me spot mistakes that my weary eyes may miss.

If you’re like me - you can often miss out on mistakes even when reading things aloud. The reason this happens is because our brain knows the right word - we read it accordingly instead of what’s actually on the screen. A good way to get around this is to take a breather and come back to the piece in sometime. Additionally take a printout of the document you want to proofread. It becomes easier to spot mistakes like that.

Reading out loud and backward reading has always worked for me. Reading out loud is useful for checking the flow and coherence of the writing and identifying issues with sentence structure, tone, and voice. Backward reading, on the other hand, involves reading the text in reverse order. It helps in catching errors quickly. If we combine these, we can surely get rid of writing errors and also avoid awkward situations after posting it on social media.

I used to just press send to relieve myself from the stress of composing the email THEN read it. That was silly. Sometimes, you'd forget the attachment, unless Google points it out to you, or there's some typo in the middle. So why leave a bad impression for something that doesn't relate to your actual skill? Give it a read, feel relieved there's nothing wrong with it, check who's the main receiver and who's in the CC, or BCC for that matter, and definitely check the subject line. When forwarding a message, where you've added your own thoughts; you'd want to give an exciting line out there instead of an FW: "topic" which won't be opened ever!

If possible, wait a day (or at least a few hours) between your "final" version and hitting "send". You will be amazed how different you will feel about the texts with a bit of a buffer.

An all-caps body text is usually irritating and officially considered offensive. If you want to lift the attention to certain sections, you can use underlined bold headlines instead of changing the font color or making some words in a bold typeface that would feel like "I know what you did LAST SUMMER". At the end of the email, you can type Attached: [filename.extension] and you can add a few explanatory words here if you're attaching many files. Don't forget to put a call to action. Receivers read the email but get lost in the details. "Ok, now what do you want?" is the question usually on their mind as they get to the end. The CTA is very important so they know they're expected to reply with certain info or files, approvals, etc...

The step-back or sleep-on-it strategies are always useful. If you got an email that made you upset and you started typing right after, it will help you express yourself but you might regret your reaction the next day. When it's a critical topic or if you've been under stress, vent it out then wait. When you come back, you might start noticing where you'd been too harsh, or where some words felt inappropriate to use. It also helps to imagine you were the receiver and start exploring how you felt when you read the text this time as a reader instead of a writer. Is it a convincing request, a sincere apology, a clear inquiry, etc....? If not, what more can you do to achieve your goal?

Get Another Pair of Eyes To Read Through Your Work? You may have worked for hours on a particular email or social media post. No doubt, you could edit and manage your content all by yourself. However, to get an error-free social media post or email, it is recommended you get another pair of eyes to go through your work. It is possible you could have skipped or overlooked some valuable points. A new perspective that could improve your post or email can be discovered by your proofer. In summary, proofreading comes in stages. It should not necessarily start and end with you. After doing your work, you could? consider requesting a professional eye to run through the piece.?

The cute accompanying Grammarly emoji makes it fun to compose messages too; changing facial expressions as you type and encouraging you when it sounds better or looking shocked when it's too tough. Where it sounds pro, it can turn into a tie-on shirt, and where it sounds cool it can be the emoji in black. Try it out, it's free and fun :)