Grammar & Your Digital Reputation

Many people say their perception of a company changes when they notice that there are grammar mistakes on their digital products, according to recent research from Tidio. 

In fact, ninety-four percent (94%) of North American respondents and 86% of respondents from the rest of the world say they are attentive to grammar. However, when shown sentences that included seven common grammar mistakes, only 2.8% of people who say they are attentive spotted ALL the issues.

The aspects of a company’s image that are most influenced by grammar usage include:

• Professionalism (52%) 
• Credibility (35%)
• Expertise (8%)
• Authority (3%)
• Relevance (2%)

People also say that correct grammar usage shows :

 a) whether a company cares about details
 b) shows how high the standards are within a company and
 c) can influence a company’s professional level and creditability at the same time. 

Respondents in the Tidio survey noted that they are bothered by some grammar mistakes more than others. For example, respondents gave using the incorrect context of a word a higher irritation score that misplacement of commas and punctuation.

Here’s a short list of the most irritating grammar and spelling mistakes from the Tidio survey. The list is based on a scale of 1 to 7 where 1 is not irritating and 7 is very irritating) and included the following:

•   There vs. Their (6/7)
•   Their vs. They’re (6/7)
•   Then vs. Than (5.6/7)
•   Yours vs. You’re (5/7)
•   Weird vs. Weird (4.5/7)
•   Less vs. Fewer (4.5/7)
•   Misplaced Comma (4.1/7)

When it comes to age, pre-baby boomers consider themselves the most attentive to grammar (95.5% said so).

Millennials considers themselves very grammatically conscious. 94% of Millennial respondents noted they pay attention to grammar and spelling mistakes. This measures against the common belief that the current-“texting culture” that includes abbreviations and emojis is not paying attention. They are!