Social Wordsmithery

I love words. I love the written word and spoken word. I believe in word equality and love homophones, heteronyms and onomatopoeia. I love spelling and punctuation.

I am a grammar geek and, as a communications writer, I am consumed with finding the proper word to use in a specific context.

I am interested in many things, from pop culture and trends to black and white movies and Irish music. But the English language is definitely at the top of the list. Here is a centuries-old method of communicating, and it is still evolving!

One only need look to social networking media for evidence of the ever-changing landscape of language and communication:

• capitalization? Don’t worry about it.
• Complting wrds in txt msgs? Not necessary.
• Say it in 140 characters or less? Even better!
• Have you DM’d or RT’d on Twitter yet? Don’t forget to # for trending.

With this brave new world of social media comes a whole new set of social etiquette rules: Do you friend your boss or clients? Should you really be “poking” people you haven’t seen since 1992? Is it obnoxious to “like” your own status updates?

And shame on you if you think Facebook and Twitter are just for “kids today.” There are opportunities for professional networking and brand growth worth exploring.

It is daunting, this new world. Concepts, ideas and applications are constantly developing or getting re-tooled for user ease and, frankly, its all pretty cool. So, I say jump on in, the water is fine!

I think it's possible to blend the traditional with the new and creative – and as a PR professional, I look forward to finding that balance on a daily basis.

With this blog, my aim is to share my odd fascination with all things language – including social media management. My hope is to entertain by keeping things relatively informal and in my voice. My goal is to inform with tasty little nuggets that may surprise you.

Most importantly, I hope you find this blog like a sturdy pair of khaki pants: casual yet still professional.

See you back here soon.