Getting Personal(ity)

I was writing the first post on a brand new blog that was going to be my personal blog, thinking that I would share the URL with everyone and say, “It’s there if you want it.”

I wrote: This is the blog where I don’t give a shit.

And then I stopped dead in my tracks, because seeing those words on the screen in black and white got me thinking.

When I say “don’t give a shit,” I don’t mean that I’m sloppy or careless. It’s more like “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,” or “let the chips fall where they may.”

And I thought, Why am I not doing that now?

Yes, Remarkablogger is all about blogging and internet marketing. And even if I “got personal,” I would still talk about this stuff, because this what I care about. Unless there’s a marketing lesson in it, I’m still not going to tell you about how I met my wife or anything. Although… come to think of it, there is a marketing lesson in that story, but I’ll tell it another time.

But in thinking that this is a business blog and that my goal is to educate and acquire blog consulting clients, I may not have breathed enough life into Remarkablogger. I think there’s more to give in this way.

This post right now is an example. Normally, I don’t write posts where I ask deeper questions like this. I don’t ask questions, I answer them. I write posts where I have definitive, authoritative answers. And while that’s cool, it has just occured to me that what might be better is to forge a stronger connection with you. Writing this way might be a way to do that.

And that might be one of the smartest “business decisions” I’ve ever made.

It’s amazing how the answers are nearly always right under our noses.

In an interview I did a few weeks ago with John Lawson of ColderICE, he asked me what I thought was the important thing in a successful blog. I thought about it for a second, and then I said, “Personality.”

I think that ever since I said that, the idea of it has been working on me. I’m not sure how this will change my content here, but I think it will improve it in ways I can’t even imagine right now.

Is this really good marketing?

Letting your personality shine through is an incredible shortcut to a lot of ideals that marketers often overcomplicate, such as “personal brand,” or “content is king.” If two bloggers have an equal amount of knowledge, the blogger with the more powerful personality will do better.

People prefer to do business with people they like, and who they perceive as being like them. It’s about personality. The people who really identify with me and who like me (and I like them) have their lives changed by working with me (that is no exaggeration). But if I’m not a good fit for someone, they should work with someone else.

I have no doubt that you can take this idea and run with it in your own business: Inject a massive dose of personality!