Personality Not Included Interview with Rohit

I participated in Rohit Bhargava’s Personality Not Included interview series. I think Rohit is one of the most insightful commentators on this whole social computing space – so I jumped at the chance to participate.

My 5 questions for Rohit are below – to see the whole series – click on the image.

1. Why is it so hard for companies to have a “human” voice?

I think in part because it has become rare to do so and the legal ties to business have become so strong that many marketers have begun to write like lawyers … and are taught to do this in business school

2. What are the keys to success in (corporations) “connecting” with people?

Not sure that I can single just a few ways for companies to connect with customers because it does tend to vary, but the premise of the book is that personality is a key ingredient and this comes partially from the employees and partially from the story that describes a business.

3. Why do companies think that blogging is the bulk of what consumers do online?

I’m not sure that most companies think that. I would have to say that for many companies, they actually believe the opposite … that a relatively small number of people are blogging and they underestimate how influential this channel really is. Either way, I think the point is that a company may feel one way or another, but the only smart way to look at this is to actually view some research on usage or data about a particular site.

4. Who inside the company needs to be onboard?

Again, this tends to differ from company to company, but on a high level, it is obviously two parties … the people who need to implement and the bosses who need to approve. For both, I wrote Chapter 5 in the book to help individuals conquer the roadblocks to using personality, which are mostly based on fear.

5. How is this different from ‘Marketing”?

I am not sure that this is different from marketing at all. In fact, I would say the ideas of the book probably fit into the category of marketing or branding.