(#MarketingMonday) When I was young, I took a personality test at the local county fair. The “computer” worked from a basic algorithm to spit out personality traits based on responses to a few simple questions. If my memory serves me well, I was “diagnosed” with high rankings for athleticism, intelligence and creativity. I proudly displayed these results on the corkboard in my bedroom. This was social media in the very early stages.

Over the last year or so, I find my social media feeds sometimes flooded with personality quizzes from sites such as BuzzFeed and Zimbio. I admit, I’ve taken a few and posted the results to my social media accounts. Besides my demonstrated desire to live in Paris, what does the widespread interest in determining where you fit on a personality test mean?

Screen Shot Buzzfeed results

What Social Media Personality Tests Say About Us

Regardless of the questionable results you may get from participating in online social media personality tests, sharing your personality online, demonstrates the following:

  1. A desire for personal connection. We are designed for community. We have an innate desire to be part of a group.
  2. A need to reveal yourself to others. We want to be known. Our desire for relationships has an underlying motive to a have others know who we are.

Developing your social media voice should feed these basic desires. A good blog is a place where an author and the reader can become personally connected and should be central to your content marketing strategy. The most cost-effective way to create a successful blog is to make it a source of quality information that is authored by someone readers can feel personally connected to. The first step is to give your blog a personality.

Determin Your Personality Traits

How to Give your Blog a Personality 

People want to feel a personal connection with your brand, which requires humanization. Here are three tips to give your blog a personality:

StickFigurePortraitTip #1: Attribute your blog posts to a person.

Attaching a name and face to each post will help readers connect with your messaging.  By simply putting a name and face with each post, your brand will become more trustworthy. 

Tip #2: Focus on the quality and the tone of your content to build a personality.

Before you even start typing your latest social media update or writing your next blog post, you need to ask yourself this one simple question. Who are we? Do we want to be known as humorous, serious, informative or authoritative? Decide what you want your blogging role and perspective to be in the social conversation.

Having a clearly defined, consistent tone of voice fosters trust and attachment.  Trust and attachment equal engagement.  Engagement equals enquiries and sales.

Tip #3: Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Tell stories and anecdotes and relate them back to your business, brand or product. This is particularly important, as people are naturally inclined to remember stories.

Working to humanize your brand comes with a complementary slice of humble pie. While customers may want to know that your brand is a trusted authority on a particular topic, they also want to know that they can make a connection and that they are cared about as an individual.

I think we do this particularly well, here, on our dlvr.it blog. For example, check out the post Best Practices to Replay Content Without Compromising Traffic. The social media blog formula includes integrating a few anecdotes in the beginning of the post or maybe even jokes (most of the time at our own expense), to make the post more intimate and more appealing. I hope it’s obvious our posts come from real people.

When your blog has a distinct personality, you will receive more readers who become customers. Now it’s your turn, take the first step towards giving your blog a personality.