When I bought my first chunky Motorola phone nearly 20 years ago, it was impossible to predict that device would evolve into a kind of appendage. A second brain in our hands. A constant, tempting presence lurking in the periphery of our vision.
Our phones are so powerful these days that we’ve even started delegating decisions to them - or to be specific, to algorithms.
What should I have for dinner? Which article should I read next? Who should I date?
This shift has happened so quickly that we’ve all just got on with it. We’ve barely had time to question the absurdity of it all.
But we have recognised the impersonal nature of AI.
When you feel like you’re being carried downstream by a torrent of algorithms, it’s normal to crave a human voice. Someone who sees you as more than a number. Someone who sounds like they give a damn.
And for that reason, it’s more important than ever for your brand to sound human. Especially if you want to make a lasting connection with your customers.
Algorithm overload
I’m writing this article from London, a few weeks before the UK General Election.
Recent headlines have covered fake Twitter handles during election debates and what you can and can’t believe in parties’ manifesto claims on their Facebook ads.
There was a time when people associated social media and the smartphone almost exclusively with hope and opportunity. But now there’s talk of tribalism and fake news at every turn.
I don’t know if Mark Zuckerberg has watched The Dark Knight recently, but there’s one line from that movie that might have resonated with him:
“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
While AI and algorithms have clearly helped to make our lives easier in some ways, negative stories about social media have encouraged us to ask ourselves whether it isn’t all just a little too impersonal.
Algorithm-based recommendations often seem generic, after all. They don’t tend to hit you on an emotional level.
The following paragraph from Seth Godin on his blog several months ago caught my attention:
“Apple gets some zing for a recommended podcast now and then, or for a heavily promoted record, but the same rule is generally true with them–98% of all their content is driven by the algorithm, not a human with something at stake. They don’t care which record you pay for, as long as you pay for something.”
Not a human with something at stake.
Let’s sound like humans who care
If we are, as I suspect, living in an age where people are a little wary of tech and AI, that means it’s even more important for us to sound like humans who care.
People - including your potential customers - want brands to listen to them to find out what matters to them most.
They want brands to speak to them using everyday language.
But there’s a problem.
As Brian Clark and Nick Usbourne discuss on this episode of the Unemployable podcast, a lot of us end up sounding like robots when we talk about our work.
Especially when we write about our own business online.
A lot of this is because of how we’re taught to write at school. The emphasis is less on creativity and using emotion in our writing, and more about making sure it’s grammatically correct.
And so a lot of what actually makes us human tends to disappear pretty quickly because of this training to write ‘correctly’.
Your old English teacher might disagree, but the best way to write like a human being is to write the way you’d speak to your customer if she were sitting opposite you.
That’s how you build a rapport. That’s how you build trust.
Speaking to your customers in a more personable way differentiates you from the generic, algorithm-led messages people are receiving elsewhere on a day-to-day basis.
You show your customers you’re a human being.
I’ll be following up this article with another one with specific tips for humanising the content you create, so check back soon for that.
I help my clients’ content to sound less robotic and more human.
If you think your brand could benefit from humanising your content, get in touch.