Thx for reading
I personally hate the way the English language has been infiltrated by text speak, in every day life it is annoying enough, but when it starts to creep into the workplace, it can become dangerous and unprofessional for your business.
By text speak, I mean the way some words have been shortened or replaced by acronyms, i.e. LOL or OMG. Initially, it was used to make texting on an old 12-button mobile phone faster, however it has become prevalent through instant messaging, email and social media.
Forgetting for a moment the fact that shortening a word by a few letters when using a standard keyboard will hardly save you any time at all, it can cause a number of problems for your business.
Text speak is about cutting corners and no one likes to feel like they aren’t worthy of time, especially clients. It stinks of laziness and that isn’t the message you want to give out. You have a whole keyboard, use it.
Even the most unimportant email should be handled properly in order to present a professional image. It is no different to copywriting in that you are writing for an audience, and you need to understand your audience. This also obviously means that it can be appropriate for some audiences, but be sure first.
Also, not all text speak is understood by everyone, it is therefore excluding, leaving those not in the know feeling confused or out of touch. The golden rule of explaining abbreviations unless over 90 per cent of your audience understand should be stuck to in everyday business life too.
Having recently received an email that ended with ’tc’, trying to work out what this meant became an unwanted distraction and an exercise in timewasting.
Another example saw thanks reduced to thx. Thx looks like an airport code, and it also undermines the message in that you’re thankful but you couldn’t be bothered to type out only three more letters to say it properly.
Building personal, even informal relationships within your business and with clients is important, but beware of undermining your professionalism with text speak.