Adding Personality to Posts

I’m teaching a business communications class at Metro State College and our discussion centered around “nonverbal” communication, including body language. According to studies, between 50 and 90 percent of communication is nonverbal.

Naturally, the discussion turned to how much we communicate with people online, via blogs, social media and even just websites. We’re now missing out on the nonverbal cues that we get from talking directly with someone…and we’re conducting more and more business in this manner.

In the “real” world, we base much of what we do in reading someone’s body language and adjusting our message to it. If you see that someone’s attention is wandering, you can do something to get it back. We know how to react to eye rolls, crossed arms, smiling and the multitude of other cues. However, in the virtual world, if someone doesn’t like the message, they go somewhere else…and there may be no way to ever get them back. Often, we don’t even know they were there—or that we lost them.

When we email or text someone, we often have to include a smiley face to convey that we’re joking or say something like “Ha, ha. Just joking, of course.” The “emotional context” of the messages is missing. Were they being funny, sarcastic, mad, indifferent…whatever? It’s now almost totally up to the reader to determine “how” someone intended for a message to be interpreted.

We understand that websites are very much “one way” communication platforms. However, the whole point of social media and blogs is to communicate with our followers, not just speak “at” them. The problem is that many people don’t understand this. They post and post and post and never interact with their followers.

I’ve seen people posting on Facebook Pages and blogs that they are unhappy that no one responds to their comments and questions. I’ve been frustrated myself when I’ve posted on someone’s FB Page, only to be ignored…especially when it was clear from my post that I wanted to do business with them! Needless to say, I took my interest—and my money—elsewhere.

It’s not difficult to add “personality” to online writing. There are certainly ways to write in a manner that conveys that the author is trying to be funny, serious, thoughtful, irreverent and so on. What’s important is to be consistent. If you usually post in a playful manner, if you suddenly post deep and thought-provoking statements, it might confuse your readers.

Graphics are also a great way to let readers know the intent of what you’re writing. For my blog posts, I typically use a more “fun” type of image. For example, in a post I wrote about having a professional headshot on sites such as LinkedIn—even if someone is a bit more “mature” —the image I used was one of a very cranky looking, very old lady! It’s a serious topic, especially when ageism exists, but I did want to have a bit of fun with it.

So, what do you think? Are we really missing out in our online communications or have we adapted? Comment in the box below!