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Do your readers see you as a logo instead of a real person?
Are you sharing the real you in your social marketing?
It's tough to walk the fine line between being professional and being yourself. With social media those two things don't have to be mutually exclusive.
In this article you'll discover four ways you can infuse your personality into your online marketing efforts.
#1: Tell a Really Good Story
Everyone loves a good story. In fact, stories stimulate the brain and change how we act.
As a marketer, part of your job is to tell a story that leads to long-term relationships and sells a product or service. The trick is sharing the right story to draw readers in, but keeping it short enough that they don't lose interest.
What stories should you share? Pull from your life experiences. Put a little bit of yourself out there. Your followers know when you're being genuine and they appreciate the connection you're trying to make—people always want to know they're dealing with a person, not a logo.
Giving a peek into your everyday life helps make visitors feel like they're getting to know you and builds trust. You can leverage this relationship when it comes time to sell.
#2: Create Charismatic Images
Visual content is a big part of marketing, and it's the perfect avenue for really showing off who you are. Each image you create and share should align with your online personality.
For example, if you're going for a carefree, laid back, feet in the sand persona, using images with a person behind a desk in a suit and tie probably isn't the best fit. Don't send mixed messages.
Paul Cooley is a pro when it comes to branding. He consistently uses images to define his business and attract clients.
Using the right images in your blog and social media updates is an important part of how people perceive your personal brand. Don't just post random images and be done with it.
Take advantage of free and inexpensive tools like Canva, PicMonkey, Over, Overgram, and Piclay to create customized images that fit with the personal events you've shared online. When you put in the effort, people take notice.
#3: Match Content With Persona
Your blog personality and your social media personality should be the same, or at least very similar. People come to expect a certain tone from you and you don't want to confuse them as they follow you on different platforms.
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CLICK HERE TO LEARN MOREAs you create your content, consider how it impacts your brand and how people perceive you. Always keep an eye on the bigger picture. Personality is one thing—over-sharing is quite another.
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Figure out the tactics you need for each platform you're using. If you're really working Instagram and Pinterest, how can you translate your charisma into pictures that attract your target audience and keep them coming back for more?
#4: Share Personal Experiences
If you have an email list, you have subscribers who are saying to you, “Yes, I trust and like you enough to give you my email address.”
Think about that. Earning that kind of trust from your audience is pretty awesome, right?
Newsletters are a great opportunity to tell stories and tie them to your product or service.
Ray Hiltz has a weekly Google+ newsletter that shares a snippet of his life, includes great tips and invites everyone to join him for his weekly Google+ hangout to meet the rest of the community. Here's an example of his newsletter text:
Hi, DJ
Welcome to the much-anticipated first day of summer!
Today's Google+ Tips:
1. Google circles basics
2. Google circle management with Circloscope
3. Google+ hangouts Filmstrip update & presentation tips
I took the above photo while vacationing in Maine recently.
It brought to mind my summers at Parlee Beach in Shediac in New Brunswick, where I'd bake under the sun for hours while checking out the “scenery” through my polarized sunglasses and listening to the top ten hits on my transistor radio.
Some of those hits are included in my Google Play Summer Songs playlist…
That mix of personal sharing, quality content and the chance to connect in a group helps Ray's subscribers think of him more as a colleague than a salesman.
Brooke Ballard's B Squared Media newsletter weaves her day-to-day experiences into her business ideas and advice. For example:
In Brooke's newsletter above, her personal story leads into the real purpose of her newsletter (in this case sharing information on social media selling and driving people to her new website).
Both newsletters include personal photos to catch your attention; they use first names to make the newsletter feel like a personal message; and the business owners share a bit of their daily lives. The result? Readers respond positively because they feel like they're recognized as individuals and enjoy the short, to-the-point stories that lead into valuable content.
When a subscriber is ready to buy a particular product or service, whom do you think they'll go to first? Probably the marketer who relates to them on a more intimate level than a broadcaster doing a spray-and-pray campaign.
Wrapping Up
Here's the bottom line: People buy from people they trust. And whom do people trust? Their friends—the people they know. If you want people to trust you, you're going to have to give them a piece of you.
Your personality is an integral part of your online success. But don't go in thinking you should just lay everything out on the table. When you share a bit of yourself with your audience, always show the best side of you.
If you come across as a complainer, pessimist or negative—even if you're putting out good content—people won't stick around to hear what you have to say.
That's not to say that you should fake success or fabricate a different personality, but be deliberate about how much and what kind of personal information you share as your brand.
If you want to earn valuable trust, commit to your brand image and be consistent with what you're offering.
What do you think? How are you infusing your personality into your social media marketing? How do you help people get to know you? Leave your comments and suggestions below.
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