Typos–Do You Care? And What That Might Say About Your Publications and Events

I make a lot of typos.  And misspellings.  I’ve been known on occasion to miss a letter here or there in someone’s name–a very bad mistake, and one that always stings when you see it in print.  But, tell me this, how important is it?  Take yesterday’s post, where I put “you’re magazines” in for “your magazines,” now corrected.  In the previous post, “poweful” instead of “powerful.”  I could go on.

I think there are three kinds of magazines in this regard:

1. The Perfect: The New Yorker comes to mind.  There are few of these guys.  The NEVER make mistakes, and when they do, you hear about it (see the Wikipedia scandal).

2. Mostly Everyone Else: The group consists of mostly everyone else.  They make mistakes occasionally, but they are generally professional, and mistake-free.

3. The Skimpers: I can’t think of any because they don’t last long.  We all know why being vigilant about small errors is so important: if you slip into skimp-land, you may not make it out alive.

The truth is, humanity, especially consumers of specialized business information, will put up with the “mostly everyone else” category.  (And thank god for that.)  Why?  For one, as long as they get the information they need, the presence of tiny errors–to an extent–is tolerated.  But, it’s mostly because most people aren’t expert writers or designers.  They are so in awe of what we in the industry can do in print–writing, editing, thinking analytically and in an organized fashion–that they do not have a strong frame of reference from which to criticize.

HOWEVER, and here is my main point, this is not true in the face-to-face side of the industry.  At your events, everything must be perfect, and there is no middle ground: It’s either perfect, or it’s not.  Why is perfection so important here in comparison to print?  Don’t attendees mostly care about doing business, making conections, and gaining knowledge?

Yes, they are.  And, frankly, if you deliver good value to them, you can probably afford not to be perfect.  But they will remember your imperfection, and tiny errors could make them decline your invite to attend or sponsor next year.  Why?

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Two reasons:

1. When most people read an article, they remember what they learned out of it, what they liked, probably things they disagreed with, a catchy headline.  Things of that nature.  But when they attend an event, they are less likely to remember that everything was adequate, and more likely to remember the little problems: I liked the speaker, but the chicken was dry.  The chicken was dry?!  Is that what’s really important to them?  You and I know that it’s not, but that’s what they’ll say.

2. While most people aren’t writers, everybody eats.  Basically, everyone has opinions of how your show or event or dinner or conference went, because they all know what it takes to speak in public, they’ve all had at least one or two stimulating lectures in their lifetimes, and they’ve all gone to multiple shows.  Experiences stay with them, and you can bet they’ve had good ones.  They all know what good chicken tastes like.  And if it’s not good chicken, they’ll be talking about it afterwards.

Moral of the story, make sure everything is perfect with your events.  Check and double check everything. If you’re in a position where you can spend a bit of extra money on that far-better-venue, do it.  If everything is perfect, and you deliver value (and I’m assuming you do), they’ll come back–they may even think something like, “I have nothing to complain about, everything was perfect.” 

Bt… fi everything isnt perrfect, you may not se then mext year.