Have you ever noticed how simple social media is for personal accounts, but seemingly impossible for business accounts? I have and I’m guessing many of you work in businesses that require a social media presence and can relate.

You’ve probably noticed that my author accounts have been lacking recently, and I wanted to delve into that a little bit to see if it’s helpful to anyone else.

I’m currently working through a couple of classes in the hope of improving the content I put out into the world since unfortunately I missed out on the artistic creativity gene in my family (literally, I come from a long line of artists on my father’s side), but I noticed something as I was going through these trainings.

It really feels like the focus is to somehow ‘trick’ my audience into thinking they want what I’m putting out.

What do I mean by this? Well, I’m told to understand the underlying psychology of the person I’m trying to influence, in this case my reader audience, and from there, I tailor my information to something that will appeal to them. This concept isn’t new, Dale Carnegie popularized it in his How to Win Friends and Influence People in 1936, and it’s the basic precept of all Active Listening workshops and coursework. Trouble is, I find this very pushy. Who am I to psychoanalyze countless potential readers and pigeonhole them into a stereotype?

I was really stressing out about this. Previous work experience has made it very clear that I stink as a salesperson.

So I’ve decided to take a different tack, focusing not on what general psychology tells me my reader wants, but on what I as a reader want.

This sounds exceedingly selfish, and I suppose it is, but my rationale is that I’m the only person I’m qualified to know and pick apart. The best I can hope for with others is that they share some of my interests, gravitating toward the overlap in our personalities out of true interest, not blatant marketing.

It’s probably not the best idea professionally speaking, but it feels much more genuine. I don’t lose any of my own personal integrity by becoming a slimy salesperson, and the content I put out will still hopefully appeal to those of you who share some of my interests and tastes.

I’m also hoping consistency will improve since my profiles will become more personal.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. I decided to spend some time with reader me, asking her what kind of information and images appeal, what books are on her reading list, what her hobbies and interests are and how they follow her into her reading habits, etc. The conversation has been interesting.

Now, I still have to work on improving my technical skills with all of this, but that’s a totally different source of stress I won’t bore you with.

What do you all think of my idea? Does it make sense, or am I just cleverly shirking my marketing duties? Do any of you who work with social media in your professional lives have any tips for me on how I can improve? I’d love to hear them!