Blog posts can often form the bedrock of a content marketing strategy but when you are choosing your tone of voice you need to make an important decision about whether you are going to show a little of your personality or not.
Some of this comes down to technical aspects such as using the first or third person when you write.
Using “I” instead of “we” makes the content much more personal and in my opinion, human.
Some of it comes down to including things like jokes, personal stories and life experiences all of which let readers know who you are.
So should you add a little personality to your posts?
Read on and find out
In this post:
- What do you want to do with your blog?
- What do we mean by personality?
- Is it the right decision?
- Why you need to add personality to your blogs
- Practical ways to add personality
- The pointlessness of pretending
What do you want to do with your blog?
Here’s the first port of call and it really determines how you deal with your blog and the thorny issue of personality.
To a large extent it is all about understanding your customers and understanding your business.
For example, if the outcome of your blog is just to have a place to vent your spleen about things that are concerning you then personality is the way to go.
But if you are looking to build credibility as the face of a professional organisation then the choice is less clear (see below).
Understanding your desired outcome is your starting point, then you can build on this by deciding how much, or how little personality you inject into every post.
What do we mean by personality?
So what do we mean by personality?
To me this comes down to how much of you is in the post.
Now unless you get someone else to write the post then there are always going to be bits of you in there but personality can come down to
- Photos of you, your cat, your family
- The tone of voice you adopt
- Saying I and Me
- Including opinions
- Including a sense of humour
- Stories about your life
- Writing as you talk
- Changing the rules of grammar
Of course legally, companies are separate entities in their own right so your business can develop its own personality, especially if you have strong brand guidelines.
Is it the right decision?

This is a good question and this really comes down to your target audience.
In general, if you are looking to portray a corporate look and present your business as one that is perhaps larger than a one-man-band then you’ll tend to go for a third-person style, using “We” and “Us” a lot.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a personality all of your own and it doesn’t mean that when your staff author blog posts that they have to be devoid of personality.
If you are developing a brand that is about you, perhaps you are a consultant, advisor or someone who runs a copywriting business then I’d say yes personality is absolutely required.
Why you need to add personality to your blog posts
People like to buy from people so when they read about your personal journey in your blog, it tends to make a connection.
Blogs that have a bit of personality tend to exhibit better engagement and shareability.
But there’s also a more practical reason why showing your personality in your blogs is a good idea.
Take me – I have zero ambition to work with people I don’t like, none, nessun, zilch.
So putting a little of my personality in my posts acts as kind of a filter. Essentially people who hate humour and aren’t willing to treat writers as human beings won’t like my stuff so they won’t book me.
But often people book me because they ‘get’ me and they also want to work with people they like.
Practical ways to add personality to your blog posts
So how do you go about inserting some of this mysterious thing called personality to your posts?
Here’s a list of my top 6 ways to put personality into blogs
- Tell a story – one of the best ways to get people on your side when you are training is to start with a story. It hooks people in and gets them to think of you as a real person. The same is true of blog posts.
- Use your own voice – don’t try to be something you are not.
- Write about things that you care about – people can spot a phoney
- Have an original thought – don’t just rewrite what other people have written, look for a different angle.
- Don’t be afraid to voice an opinion – if your blog posts are too vanilla then they’ll never appeal to anyone.
The pointlessness of pretending
Personally I think it is a waste of time pretending to be something you are not.
Firstly, you’ll get found out eventually and the greater the pretence, the greater the fall from grace.
But more importantly no competitor can replicate what you have or your personality.
So if you customers are buying from you because they like you, no amount of free gifts and special offers are going to tear them away.
So trying to pretend that you are something else could actually end up losing you sales rather than gaining them.
Want some help with your marketing strategy and blog posts?
I’m here guys.
If you need help setting your strategy, understanding your target market or even just writing blog posts then I’m your man.
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