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Content Personalities: Working with Others without Going Insane

Andrea Goulet Ford @andreagoulet

Content strategists and creators work

with a wide variety of

personalities.

Our job is to extract ideas from other

peoples’ brains and make

sense of them.

When we work with people like us, it’s

easy. Fun even.

When we don’t empathize with

our partners, it’s not so fun.

We can improve our

work by understanding other people.

Content Personality #1: The Artist

PROS CONS

Instead of asking what you can do to help, provide options. “ I know there’s a lot going on, and I know x, y, and z are a priority. How about I help you with x by creating an outline, or coming up with a list of blog posts?”

• Produces engaging content

• Has a clear vision

• Inspires others

• Understands content value

• Won’t delegate

• Becomes bottleneck

• Difficult to manage

• Resistant to structure

Content Personality #2: The Admin

PROS CONS

Use constraints to your creative advantage. Instead of open-ended brainstorming, put the right types of rules around your

creative thinking to generate greater results.

• Time management masters

• Detail-oriented

• Provides structure and process

• Organized and punctual

• Potential micromanager

• Difficulty thinking “outside the box”

• Content feels flat and unoriginal

• Sticks to rules even when they no longer serve a purpose

Content Personality #3: The Analyst

PROS CONS

Partner with a non-techie Use a non-technical person to work with The Analyst as a litmus test for how ideas

will be interpreted by a general audience.

• Data wiz

• Understands complex topics

• Often seen as credible

• Gleans insights to producebetter content

• Unable to relate data to others

• May not try new things

• Tries to “game” or “hack”

• Prone to using jargon

Content Personality #4: The Absentee

PROS CONS

Uncover their priority and reframe your arguments. “I know you’re really focused on growing our subscriber base. This content should

help because of x, y, and z.”

• Creative flexibility

• Unhindered by failure

• Able to try new things

• Grow your leadership skills

• Result often doesn’t match vision

• Doesn’t understand effort required

• Lack of support leads to frustration

• Responds too late to be effective

ENJOYED THIS? STAY IN TOUCH!

Andrea Goulet Ford yourbrandvox.com

@andreagoulet !

Oh, hey! I’m also writing a book. This will be in it. So will other good stuff. Follow along at

cultureofcontent.com or @Content_Culture.