Personality may not be included but it’s not hard to create.

About a month ago, I friended a guy by the name of Rohit Bhargava on Facebook. I had heard about him through a mutual friend and heard he wrote a book Personality Not Included. When Rohit accepted my request, he sent me a simple message:

Thanks for your friend request, I just approved it. Let me know if you happen to pick up a copy of my new book, Personality Not Included. I’d love to know what you think!

Well I did pick up his book. And it’s definitely a great book to have. I’ve read several business and internet marketing books and there are a few of them that I would gladly recommend to people based on a variety of reasons. Personality Not Included is a great book that helps show companies that they can’t just rely on the same type of messaging. People are no longer interested in reading or interacting with a “faceless” company. Instead, they want to know that the companies they are talking to have some character and, to put it simply, some personality.

Being authentic isn’t going to cut it anymore. Sure, you must make sure that how you interact with people is genuine and not fake, but now to make sure that you have a great brand, you need to have some characteristics and personality. Personality Not Included talks about ways that you can strengthen your brand. But what does the word “personality” really mean? According to Rohit Bhargava: “Personality is the unique, authentic, and talkable soul of your brand that people can get passionate about.” Isn’t that what marketing is all about? I agree with his assessment that marketing is not all about selling. It’s about building a relationship. If your brand has a personality, it helps to form a rapport and builds trust that your customers will find pleasant and entertaining, thereby giving them some motivation to promote your brand on your behalf.

Personality Not Included is a great educational book that offers some real insights and also examples of brands that are doing it right, and maybe some that aren’t. It goes through the process of how to establish a personality in addition to why you need to have one. But it’s not that straightforward of a process…you may encounter some resistance in establishing a personality – so that’s also something that is addressed in this book.

There’s not much else I can say without acting as an accidental spokesperson for this book (read more about this personality in Rohit’s book), but suffice it to say that if you’re hell bent on being talked about and forming a global community to help spread the word, you need to make sure that people know your brand is alive. No more automations. No more anonymous emails or templated news. Make it seem that you are a big company acting small.

Being an online can help in your personality. Making use of blogs, emails, social media, and even your website can help show that your brand is a living entity and cares about its consumers. Everything you do should have some sort of impact that people will use virally to spread your message, or perhaps create a message you didn’t intend.

Not sure if your brand is faceless in the crowd (or at least online)? Here’s a test that Rohit thinks will help:

1. Individuality: Is there a real individual or group of individuals that your customers associate by name as the people behind your organization?
2. Backstory: Does your organization have a credible history that consumers can understand, connect with, and talk about?
3. Relationships: Do you have a way to recognize your repeat customers by face, name, or voice so that they are not treated like new customers each time they contact you?
4. Policies: Can individual employees choose to change or bend policies based on their interactions with customers?
5. Language: If you read your marketing, sales or website descriptions for your business out loud, does it sound like a real person is saying it?
6. Spokespeople: Are individual employees encouraged to  tell their friends, families, and contacts about what they do, and are they given training in how the company describes and positions itself?

There’s an answer key to this six-question test. Want to know what your results are?

Read the book…