Personality or Content: Which Style is Better?

Hi friends, hope we’re all keeping well.

Alright, let’s just get straight into it.

Truth be told, I’ve been pondering this question for a while now, and I’m happy to finally lay out my thoughts in the format of a blog post.

Which do you think is more important when starting your own blog/YouTube channel/online diary: the content of your platform or your personality?

By ‘content’, I obviously mean the stuff you put out on it, i.e the type of posts and videos you make on your blog/YouTube channel. By ‘personality’ I mean…well, your personality and style of making that content.

To give an example of a blog that prioritises content over personality, they would research a topic heavily and in great detail, and then make a blog post outlining what they discovered and how it may be useful to others.

Or, they simply just give out lots of free useful content and advice, in hopes of building a big enough audience for future opportunities.

Some of my favourite YouTube channels that I mainly watch for their content include Kurzgesagt, Ali Abdaal, and James Jani. I think they always put out really interesting and high quality videos, hence why I always continue to watch them. In this case, it’s because of their good, high quality, and interesting content.

Then, there are those blogs/channels that mainly revolve around the personality of the person who’s putting out the content. No matter what they talk about/discuss/try out, it’s always entertaining to read or watch because of their personality. Gaming channels on YouTube are a great example of this, my personal favourite being Wolfyplayz.

In his case, I couldn’t give a toss about whatever game he’s playing. As long as I get to see him play, react, and talk about it the way he usually talks about things, then I’m enjoying his videos.

Some other channels I mainly watch for their personality include Moist Critikal and Two Set Violin. Matthew Dicks is also a blog I thoroughly enjoy reading because of his style of storytelling and writing, hence his personality.

Are there any advantages or disadvantages to these 2 ways of building an online brand? Let me give my unqualified 2 cents on it🙃

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📚Content 📚

Advantages

1. 🌲Evergreen Content🌲

You usually describe evergreen content as content that will continue to remain relevant even far into the future, i.e it’s not based on short term fads or trends that will quickly lose interest.

It’s really good if you’re always putting out high quality evergreen content, because that way you can continue to attract new fans and followers with just one piece of work you make once, without having to do much else. You’re also not dependent on risky, short term trends as your main stuff to talk about.

2. 🗣Free Promotion🗣

If your content is good and high quality enough, it won’t matter how obscure or small you currently are; good content will always make itself known. The thing is, if we find products/things that are useful or valuable, we will recommend it to friends and family. We don’t usually do that with personality related content, and even if we do, there’s a small chance people will even go and check it out (I mean, when’s the last time you genuinely checked out people’s song recommendations?).

Word of mouth is a powerful thing, and I think it’s the main reason why good content is always able to stand out from the rest, at the end of the day.

Disadvantage- ❌Limited Potential?❌

It’s hard to think of a disadvantage for putting out high quality content, but I suppose that in contrast to if you’re dependent on personality, then you’re quite limited with what you can do/make. Also, I’d imagine you would need to spend lots of time and effort to ensuring your content is good enough.

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💁🏻‍♂️Personality💁🏻‍♂️

Advantages

1. 🎨Diversification 🎨

Since people watch you for your entertaining style and personality, then I think what you do doesn’t necessarily matter much. That means you can try out all sorts of different content, without having to be chained to one single type. You can talk about anything, play anything, and make anything you want as long as you’re being yourself, since that’s what your audience enjoys. That way you’re reducing the risk of irrelevancy, and can attract followers from anywhere.

For example,there’s loads of gaming channels on Twitch and YouTube that have capitalised on their unique and charismatic nature to build huge fan bases over time.

2. 💍Loyalty💍

It’s interesting to see how many people will obsess over their idols, so much so that it becomes quite scary at times.

I’m pretty sure that building your brand around your personality is one of the best ways to create fan loyalty. These people will be with you through your tough times, failures, and embarrassing incidents. Having a loyal audience who knows and trusts you is, from what I’ve heard, the best way to build and accelerate any kind of business, which makes sense. I mean, you’re probably more likely to check out and buy a product if it’s recommended by one of your favourite YouTubers, as opposed to if it’s recommended by some random lad on the street.

Disadvantage-🐌Slow Start🐌

Once again, it’s hard to find a disadvantage for building your brand this way. You can probably even say this for content too, but in my eyes this is much more prevalent here.

In contrast to the previous style of pumping out good content, I think it’s much harder to gain speed by just building your brand around your personality. I mean, when’s the last time you genuinely went and looked up a friend’s favourite YouTube channel that he recommended? Or this comedian that they like? Or their favourite TV show? Or their favourite gaming channel/video game in general?

The point is, it’s much harder to gain traction by just word of mouth alone ,with content that focuses mainly on just having an entertaining personality.

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Alright, that’ll probably do it for this blog post. Definitely came out longer than usual, so sorry about that.

Anyway, please be sure to tell me what you guys think in the comments. This time, I really am eager to hear your thoughts on this topic.

As for me, I feel like I’m a mix of both styles. I always try to show what kind person I am through my writing, but at the same time I wish to provide valuable and useful content to people.

Cool, see you guys in another post, and stay safe.