Should I Post Personal Content On Business Social Media Accounts?

Today I want to drop a nugget about creating content on social platforms, because traffic is what fuels your one person business and the most important thing that a person can cultivate in the creator economy. 

Probably the number 1 question I get asked all the time is ‘should I post personal stuff on (LinkedIn/Social Media)’?  

Such a great question and there’s a few sides to this that may apply to more than just LinkedIn and give you some ideas as far as your overall content marketing strategy. One of my favorite sayings about business, especially as it relates to being a one person business is 'people buy from people, not businesses'. 

If you think about some of the best and biggest businesses out there, you may love the overall brand, but it still feels very personal to you. And if you are buying higher ticket items, you probably like to 'know someone' in the industry that is relatable to you. 

This is where your personal brand comes in. Your personal brand is not just what you do or how you help, but YOU are part of that brand and showing a little more of your personal side or personality is completely relevant in business, especially on social media. 

1 – ‘personal’ can be kind of vague. I do think in general it’s very good to share stories that are personalized to you, especially with so much lukewarm content out there generated by Chat GPT (tips, tricks, hacks, best practices).  

If you’ve been a part of one of my courses, I talk about ‘parables’ as a story with a lesson. For example, there’s a ton of dry content on leadership out there talking about toxic culture, active listening, blah blah blah. But good creators like my buddy Danny Langloss uses parables, meaning he shares personal experience where he applied those leadership concepts. A story with a lesson!  

Tips and information are NOT unique, but your personal stories are! They also show that you have actually DONE what you are teaching.  

2 – Personal details about your life don’t need to be shared but I think you can still be personal in the context of showing ‘behind the scenes’ type of stuff, it doesn’t show truly personal stuff but shows that you are a human being and relatable. Show what you did last weekend. Show what its like to be a little messy behind the scenes.  

Showing the more human and non-transactional side not only is relatable but creates what I call ‘connection points’, meaning something you have in common with others, like crushing Peloton workouts!  

How cool is it when you can use connection points to warm up a convo, and this is something I always do in sales to build rapport.  

3- A lot of times people’s worries about sharing personal stuff aren’t so much about wanting to protect privacy but a fear of what other people will think. Again, you don’t have to share personal data but if you are afraid to share a valuable lesson that you learned and saying its because you don’t want to share personal information, it’s a missed opportunity.  

20 percent of your fans will support you no matter what you say. 75% it will go in one ear and out the other. 5% will judge you and really its more about them anyway. 

The real benefit is being able to be free of being hostage to the limiting beliefs and fears around creating content.  

Think of it like swimming, you don’t have to jump into the deep end of the pool. Start in the shallow end and wade your way out, a little past what you are comfortable with until you acclimate.  

Guess what the number one most downloaded episode of the High Value Skills podcast is? “How to not give a f*ck about what others think.”, downloaded 300% more than the 2^nd most downloaded episode. 

Why do you think that is? Because it’s a big deal for a lot of us. I’ve been there too! I remember being afraid to post about ‘meditation’ in 2019 because I had this subconscious worry about what people would think of me.  

It’s so liberating to clear out these fears and get on with building your brand, your business or your content. 

By the way, the number one post I ever made had over 1.2 Million views on LinkedIn and it was a very personal story about my adopted son. I did not expect it to go viral and it was not intended to be used to grow my business by pulling heart strings, but it is a part of me and my personal brand and I think that it shows there is a person behind the business. 

Make sure to join my Digital Entrepreneur Newsletter for more content on how to thrive in the Modern Creator Economy. Also put the High Value Skills Podcast on subscribe, where I talk about the skills that are not taught in school that truly move the needle in business and life.