Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Let Yourself Shine! Be Yourself

Personality marketing is one of the most powerful kinds of marketing you could employ. Take Oprah for example. Oprah is one of the most powerful women in the world, able to take unknown authors to the top of the New York Time bestseller list just by mentioning them on her show. Her entire business is built around her personality.

People often follow websites not for its content, but because people like the personality behind the website. In many industries, like weight loss for example, success is determined much more by your personality than by anything else.

Most People Aren't Willing to Let it Out

Everyone has a personality. When you're with your friends, you probably say things spontaneously that could come off as hilarious. And you probably aren't afraid to express dissenting opinions.

But online, people tend to tone their personality down. They sound "correct" rather than spontaneous. They err on being right down the middle, rather than risk their audience by expressing an actual opinion.

This can get you so far, but you can't build a truly successful business on it. Most people are afraid that they'll lose their audience if they let their personality out. The opposite is true.

When you withhold your personality, you don't grow your audience. People just won't be that drawn to your work. When you really express your personality, it's true that some people will be polarized away from your work. But those people weren't really your audience anyway.

How to Let Go

Of course, telling someone to just express their personality can be about as useful as telling someone to just "be yourself" in tense social situations. For some people, it just doesn't come that easily. So what can you do?

Take out a journal and a pen. Write your opinion about a topic, as if you were just ranting to yourself or to an imaginary friend in your diary. Talk as if nobody would ever read it. Pour your emotions and inner thoughts into the page.

Once you're done, let it sit for a day, then use that journal entry as the outline or foundation for your post. This can be a very useful technique for circumventing your mind's innate resistance to expressing your personality.

Getting Positive Feedback

Perhaps the best thing about letting your personality out is the positive feedback you get from your audience. People will generally be much more excited about your work when you're pouring your heart into it.

Start letting your personality out to your audience. Then listen to their feedback. Let the excitement from your audience pour over into your own excitement, and use that to bring even more emotion into your personality marketing.