Can you be professional and still have a personality?
Solopreneurs have to ask themselves this question.
Today I got an email from another marketer with the claim, “People are too afraid of being professional.”
He suggested that being professional is too often associated with being dull. Instead, he says, people should add personality to their messages by telling jokes, writing boring copy, being controversial, and a bunch of other things.
He’s got a good point. A lot of people think “professional” means “dull and boring.”
However, professionalism isn’t something to be sneezed at. I like to do business with people who call themselves professionals and behave accordingly.
BUT I’d add some caveats. What comes across as professional to your followers will seem insulting and inappropriate to others.
For instance, some marketers call themselves “badass.” They use words that used to be associated with off-duty sailors (and wear tattoos that used to be associated with sailors and prison inmates).
I know lots of people who would be in their target market. I have a friend (a corporate manager) who told me her boss says, “I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t swear.” I have another friend (an online marketer) who dropped a supplier whose page was too…um…informal.
