Does the idea of bringing more personality to your content make you nervous? Let’s dive into that today, so you can start creating content that more people are dying to read.
One issue some folks have with the VEP content framework is they confuse personality with values.
And it’s not hard to see why. Some values have a “type” associated with them. You might associate one kind of personality with “Faith, flag, and family,” and another with “peace, love, and understanding.”
But looking around at successful content-driven businesses, they’re usually not run by walking stereotypes.
So let’s look a little closer, and see if we can get you the VEP that only you can claim.
Values are bigger than you are
Your personality is about the traits (often adjectives) that define you as an individual. Your values are about the beliefs (usually nouns, often abstract) that connect you to something larger than you.
You might be an opinionated, quick-tempered rational thinker. And your value of Faith opens up to something larger than you.
You could be a soft-spoken, skeptical contrarian. Your value of Independence takes you to a wider audience who may have different personality traits, but believe in the same ideal.
The smartest content marketing strategy uses both. (Yes, even for large organizations. Apple, Coca-Cola, Unilever and Nike all bring both personality and values to their content. VEP isn’t just for companies-of-one.)
The personality in your content is what makes it interesting. Personality chases away the ghosts of corporate-speak or academic dustiness. It breathes life into your writing.
The values of your content are what make you trustworthy. Because you believe in something larger than yourself, the audience that shares that belief will feel comfortable enough with you to move closer.
You can have values with little personality. (Think every stereotype of the “humorless activist.”)
You can also have a lot of personality but be pretty skimpy on values. (Think stand-up comedians who stick to safe jokes about things like airline food.)
If you want people to connect with your content and take action on it, do yourself a favor — include both.
Can you drive a business on personality alone?
This makes the most sense if your main area of expertise is the ability to entertain. You might be a humor writer, a YouTuber, or someone else who makes a living getting people to pay to watch you do your thing.
It’s brutally difficult. It takes a good bit of luck. But people do manage it, and those who do are sometimes very well compensated.
But even a pure comic performer can find additional success by exploring a greater range of VEP.
One of my favorite comedians, Hannah Gadsby, went from a quite successful Australian stand-up to an international sensation with her show Nanette.
Her one-woman show spoke directly to important values, but that’s not what made it really different. It also blended in a fascinating look at her own expertise in the mechanics of stand-up and writing. (In fact, she was accused of “breaking comedy” by showing how it was put together.)
The result was something genuinely inimitable, and it made her a major star.
Gadsby’s follow-up show, Douglas, even folded in her background as an art history major, for a piece that made you laugh until you got the hiccups … and taught you interesting facts about Van Gogh.
For an example closer to our social media home, I love the well-deserved success that The Bloggess has had in writing books. But if someone was waving magic wands, I’d much rather have Andrea Vahl’s business and career, which blends her fantastic sense of humor with rock-solid expertise on Facebook ads.
They’re both talented, successful, and a pleasure to read. I just happen to like Andrea’s model as one that more of us can reach, given an excellent work ethic and some focus.
“But I’m in B2B!”
This is almost always the next remark I get when I give talks on this, so let’s get into it.
Personality does not mean your content will be vapid, inappropriate, or fluffy.
Think about the personality traits of people you enjoy working with. “Humorless,” “dull,” and “robotic” generally don’t make the list.
But neither do “silly,” “shallow,” or just plain “dumb.”
You can be funny without being foolish
And you can be approachable without writing unicorn vomit.
If you’re writing about a B2B topic, do that in a way that’s both personal and professional.
Yes, even if you write for attorneys. (Or engineers, government employees, or morticians.)
You know how to be professional without being a bore in person. Translate those social skills to your content and you can infuse your writing with personality in any topic.
That’s The Fierce for this week!
Sonia and the Creative Fierce team
