There is a topic that a lot of businesses seem to forget about, and that topic is using social media to showcase brand personality. What do we mean by brand personality? We mean that your brand has a lot of characteristics that make it unique, human characteristics. And you have these unique characteristics because your brand is essentially an extension of the people who work with you. Therefore, brand personality means the set of characteristics that is the whole of the experience people have with your company.

So why is brand personality so important to share? We believe that no matter how technologically advanced we have become as brands and consumers, people still do business with people. Why? Because we relate on an emotional level to experiences around us before our rational side kicks in. So brands that have human “personalities” and characteristics, or who actually do their marketing with a personal approach, are easier for us to connect with on an emotional level. The more that you can make your brand seem human, the better off your marketing will be and the richer your customers will find their experience.

Social media is one of the best ways to show your company’s personality, so how can you use these tools to celebrate and share your business’ distinctive characteristics? We find there are a few approaches to use on social media to accomplish this.

Share What Inspires You

The first way to use social media to showcase your brand personality is to share things that inspire you. There are most likely many things that inspire your work and the way that you think. You have favorite authors or blogs that you read, or articles, artwork or music you appreciate. These are all things you can share with your audience.

We love to share things that inspire us as a company. We are inspired by the thousands of savvy business owners we come in contact with through Doodlekit. We’re inspired by people on a mission to share and help others. This is what we love to share on social. Share things that stimulate you as an organization, whether they be intriguing quotes, pictures, or riveting videos; this is a great way to put a personal, emotional touch on your social media.

Put a Face On It

One of the other ways to very simply show your brand’s personality is to use a real person on your social media profiles. A lot of studies have been done, and people would rather follow other people online rather than follow company logos. If you think about it, it is a bit awkward to have a faceless company communicating interesting things to you. It seems much more natural to see a person’s face in these profiles so you can associate a face with the ideas you’re getting from that particular brand. This is a very simple way to ensure that customers connect on a deeper level with your company. Bottom line, people are much more likely to follow and engage with your organization if they feel like they’re actually engaging with a real person.

Be the Really, Real You

And lastly, we think that one of the best ways to showcase your personality on social media is to be real and authentic - to be you. We talked about putting a face on your organization (maybe that’s you) and then sharing the things that inspire you, but also sharing things that are real and authentic to what you believe in is vital and portray how you do business and the things that are most important to you. The more authentic and honest we get with our social media followers, the more engaged they will be with us. Nobody wants to see or follow a scripted, unauthentic version of your company. We want what’s real. We want things like, behind-the-scenes looks, real stories of what’s going on, the good, the bad, the ugly. Those are the things we can’t be afraid to share about our organizations because those are the things that people can relate with on an emotional level. So the more we can share and be authentic, and the more we can be open and honest with our audience, the better our marketing engagement (and probably business growth) will be.

It’s our hope that these tips have inspired you to go take a look at what you’re sharing on social media and to analyze how you’re showcasing your organization’s personality. It may be helpful to gather your team into a room and brainstorm the attributes that everyone believes the organization has. Are you exciting? Creative? Perhaps a mover and shaker type of company? These are all things that you can brainstorm as a team.

Once you develop all of the qualities that make your organization stand out, start showcasing that in your social media and watch your engagement levels increase!