Admit it. It happens to the best of us. The dreaded typo – or gasp – an accidental email blast. The perfectionist side of me is in complete denial of this possibility. Proofreading is writing 101, and double – nay- triple checking EVERYTHING is a way of life. 99% of the time I’m able to live up to my totally unrealistic expectations. But let’s get real, that 1% WILL happen. The occasional apostrophe is missed and on the worst days, content that’s not ready to be published goes out.
That exact thing happened to a poor soul in the Indeed email-marketing department. When I received an email entitled “Webinar: How to Find Top Talent using Indeed Resume”, I thought nothing of it until I opened it and saw that the webinar they were referring to was scheduled for late September. Either this was one amazing webinar, that required a 6-week warning or the wrong email was sent out. Turns out it was the latter. Within hours Indeed had sent out another email, this time, the subject line really caught my eye. “Oops. How about an Indeed Resume webinar this week too?” The email went on to say: “We like September, but what we really meant to do was let you know we've got an Indeed Resume webinar this week.”
This was a great example of acknowledging that a mistake was made and using a little humor to rectify it. Indeed seized the opportunity to laugh with people instead of potentially being laughed at, and that’s key.
This same principle applies to social. The ever-patrolling grammar police are constantly on the lookout for a brand to slip up. When they spot an offender, they usually have no problem calling them out. Now, here’s the moment of truth. How do you respond? This should go without being said, but I’ll say it anyway. DON’T GET DEFENSIVE. Take a step back and see the silver lining. The fact that your content caught the eye of Captain Grammar means that they choose you. That’s right, out of all of the internet’s infinite bank of content, they choose to read yours. Feel better now? OK? OK.
Take this opportunity to show that even behind the biggest brands, there are people. People who make mistakes and who see each mistake, not as a failure to hide, but a chance to improve. Thank the person who commented and maybe compliment them on their amazing grasp of the English language --- just kidding, don’t do that. But a quick comment back saying, “Good catch, that could have been embarrassing!”, shows that try as they might, even brands are not perfect and appreciate every chance to improve. Get in on the joke, make the change and move on. Simple.
Now, can we just take a minute and talk about the stress of writing an errorless blog about errors?! Believe me, I’ve triple checked this baby, but if one snuck by, I wanna hear about it. Email me at Allison@chatterkick.com.
