One of the most important ingredients in your brand, whether it be an organisation or a personal brand, is personality. I think that's one of the things that has been lost in the AI age we're finding ourselves in. We're trying to figure out the right balance to have with it, how to use it. There is so much content out there now on LinkedIn, social media, and websites that lacks the human element. The most important thing you can do is figure out how to get your personality and your identity into the brand you're trying to build.
One of the important questions we've got to figure out is how we get the human element back into our branding, our marketing, and the way that we present ourselves. It's far too easy to just rely on artificial intelligence to generate all this stuff for us, but by doing that, we are losing the human element; we are losing what makes us special and unique.
The tools are there to help us, to multiply us, not to replace us. It is sometimes far too easy just to rely on the tools to do the work for us. What we need to be doing is figuring out how we can stand out, how we can present ourselves in the world in a way that's far more authentic and true to ourselves, to our companies, to our products and services, and to the people that we serve. Instead of taking the lazy way out, we've got to do the hard work.
I want people to get to know me, Andy Cogdon, and I want to get to know you. I want to get to know the person behind your brand, the person or the people behind your products and services, and the people that you serve. I want to make genuine connections with people on platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram, rather than talk to an algorithm or read a chatbot's post about your business. I want to meet people like you. That is the important part of doing business; it has always been that way, and I think it will continue to be that way.
Humanising brands requires work, and a lot of work at that, but it's worth it. It is the worthwhile work of doing the marketing. That is what marketing should be about: creating these connections and telling the stories that people want to hear. It's your flaws and your quirks that make you who you are, that make you unique. It's how we relate to you and what makes you special. That's what people like about us. That's why people respect us. That's why people want to connect with us. AI has a way to strip all of that away from you and to lose all that personality that you have.
Let's not be ashamed or afraid to show ourselves who we really are. That is the thing that is going to connect with people the most. Don't be afraid to show your edges, your quirks, your personality, the things that make you different and unique. Be proud of it. Really showcase that. Make sure that comes through in your message, in your marketing, and all your branding. That's your personality. That's where you are going to win; that's where you are going to stand out.
I am going to make sure that I'm putting myself into my branding, which I've already done through Branding Optimist, but also through my content, making sure that people connect with me, Andy Cogdon. I want to have conversations with real people, not with perfect, curated versions of the people on their LinkedIn profiles. I don't want to read posts that are perfect. I want to engage with content that doesn't have the same algorithmic hooks at the start of every post. I'm willing to sacrifice not necessarily getting as many clicks and as many engagements because I've not followed the perfect algorithm pattern that you're supposed to, but I'm just showing up as me. If I can do that, I'd like to think that I can make stronger connections, maybe with fewer people. But if I'm getting a better connection with people, I'm more likely to meet people and have good conversations about how we can work together and how we can make each other's businesses better. That's worthwhile, and that's something I'm excited to do. I hope that you're excited to be on that same journey with me.
