It’s Okay to Show Your Brand’s Personality

At Phire, we like to say that we build brands that can be felt “culture-deep.”

Essentially, this means that the best brands embrace who they are across the organization, from the leadership to the entry-level. They go culture-deep to understand not what the brand is, but who the brand is. Ultimately, after a lot of conversations and research, a true brand identity is unveiled. Never created.

A brand’s voice can start to be heard. In the way an organization speaks about itself. In its history. In its future. And it’s important that in that language, we never lose what makes a brand unique: its personality. Because personality can allow brands to connect with their audiences.

That might seem a bit subjective, but we actually have data that backs up the personality-audience connection. We looked at 10 brands on LinkedIn, pulled their post engagement data into a spreadsheet, anonymized the brands, and looked for trends. The result? When a brand emphasized humanity and personality, they saw far more engagement than a typical post.

One clear example of this was emoji use. Posts that featured emojis in the body copy saw a median engagement rate lift of 16%. And this wasn’t unique to industry or product. This occurred across almost every brand we reviewed.

We also saw similar results in language use. When brands featured language like “hope,” “teams,” or “ideas,” they saw a 15% increase in engagement rate. Compare that with formal marketing language like “register,” “webinar,” and “expert,” which saw average engagement. The more human-centered language won out almost every time.

These trends continue across channels. On social media, personality reigns as the best way to create engagement, but on owned channels like your blog or website, due to the shift in how users are relying on AI for answers, developing content based on their questions and their needs is becoming a key part of content creation.

Your customers want a lot from you. They want to know that you can provide the products or services they need. They want to know you’re the best option for them. But they also want to know that they are working with someone real. Highlighting your humanity across your marketing channels will create a connection with your audiences well beyond what typical tracking data can show.