Does Your Personality Matter?

I just read a post that began, “You’re a loser if…”. It was a post about how to grow your subscribers by being consistent, ensuring you have frequency (post often, preferably daily) and being single-minded. The post was accurate and the content was relevant. But it wasn’t news. If you have ever read anything about growing an audience or writing for a brand you will know these things. Putting them into practice is a whole other issue: Discipline. Anyone who has written for publications or any genre that involves paid media, will have deadlines; a forced discipline if you wish to continue your employment.

But this post was littered with instructions beginning with phrases like “Shut up and…”. And of course, there was the proof of this person’s gazillion subscribers.

The post was long and the author admitted that he/she was breaking their own rule of keeping articles short, thus deftly illustrating there are exceptions almost every rule.

What the article overlooked was the issue of brand personality.

Companies spend considerable time (and money) defining and articulating brand personality.

I think is was Ed McCabe (writer/founder of Scali, McCable Sloves, an ad agency) who said “Write like you’re talking to your mother.” Unless you hate your mother, it’s not bad advice.

Everything this person wrote was true. Not news. But true. However, would I want to sit and have a coffee with them? Sorry. I’m busy that lifetime.