The Power of You

Do you speak in the first person on your small business website or do you use the royal ‘we’?  I know when I launched the first website for FrontLine Results in 2005, with the intention of working with larger companies; I set out to give the impression of being more than a one-person business. Even my email newsletter was stilted and full of 'corporate speak'. 

But then, as my target market shifted back to sole traders and small business owners (the people I really love working with), that approach wasn’t appropriate anymore.  And once I got started with social media and blogging (from 2007) I made a conscious decision to just be me, so I became @LouiseBJ and began sharing my views and opinions and some personal information about myself (my love of good coffee, chocolate and chilled white wine for example!) on Twitter, this blog and my newsletter.

I find this personal approach actually makes it easier for me to communicate my marketing message because I know who I’m ‘talking’ to and am able to imagine chatting with them over a coffee.  I’m no longer trying to pretend to be the large company I’m not.

If you want to be different from your competitors (see my post earlier this week) you can do that most easily and effectively by simply being yourself.  You are a unique individual and if you start letting your personality shine through in little ways, you will be able to start building more authentic relationships with your contacts.

Over to you.

Comments

[LouiseBJ]

Hi Hannah – and thanks so much for commenting. I have to chuckle at the image of two business owners chatting over coffee, both using the corporate ‘we’! What a strange conversation that would make – and yet I bet it has happened.

Thanks for stopping by Sam! I think it’s more friendly for customers to get to know the person they’re doing business with too.

[Sam McArthur]

great post Louise, I know you've told me many a time to use 'I' instead of the royal 'we' and am finally getting used to using it!

[Hannah McNamara]

So true Louise.

"I find this personal approach actually makes it easier for me to communicate my marketing message because I know who I’m ‘talking’ to and am able to imagine chatting with them over a coffee. " Of course this assumes that the person you're imagining isn't hiding behind a corporate 'we'...