The L in Public Relations Makes All the Difference

Posted: Tuesday, December 8, 2009

I can’t type. Sure, technically I am typing right now. But can you really call this typing? Six fingers awkwardly birthing a pathetically small flock of words per minute is more akin to the flailing of a six year old on his new set of Christmas morning drums. This is hardly typing. Especially for an agency co-founder sharing his pearls of wisdo-cism with all 20 of his blog, Facebook and Tweet followers. Wisdocism. Noun -- the act of suppressing your narcism through the interjection of wisdom. Isn’t that chicken and egg?

Well, my devoted digital minions, today is only slightly about typing. It’s actually about typos. When you are a shitty typist you make lots of mistakes. Many of which slip through spell check. Thus the staggering danger of a missing L.

Typos are the scourge of every professional, especially in the written and design realm. It’s amazing how many people can proof read, review, edit and proof again a major piece like an annual report or sales brochure and still something horrifying slips through. Gremlins.

Roughly 500 people apply to the DSPR training program each year. Many are honors students or fairly accomplished in a previous career. Some even own shoes other than flip flops. One of my standard interview questions is “are you a details or big picture person?” Most say the former because they think that’s what I want to hear and yet easily 10% of those sycophants have a mistake on their resume, however small. The amount the violator then squirms when shown the typo is very telling. These are the ones who are honestly detail oriented. By the way, the answer I want is the honest one.

Now that you know I am a Special Olympic caliber typist, you know that I have a legitimate impediment. SO the next time an offensive, stupid or incomprehensible word shows up in your inbox, from me, have a heart. I went to a school where we didn’t learn useful stuff like typing. And yes, the L in public relations makes all the difference.