One True Sentence

Last week I chatted with my new co-worker Suzanne about the Myers-Briggs personality test and how it relates to our career choices. She had a theory that a lot of social media folks would share common characteristics like extraversion and intuition. After a brief Twitter poll, we discovered we were mostly right!

Most of our friends who are into social media marketing are extraverted and intuitive. The Myers-Briggs test gives you four letters to describe your personality, but it seemed as though only the first two were consistent for social media folks.

This made me wonder, if we could get all our fans and followers to take this test, could we form stronger communities and thus drive more sales?

And I don’t think that this test necessarily has to be the end-all for personality test, but I wonder if we could measure the personalities of our fans and followers, would it allow us to use social media more effectively and efficiently?

I absolutely believe that we could form more efficient strategies if we understood what motivates our consumers and communities. For example, if I understood how each of my followers scored on the Myers-Briggs, I could better understand how to relate to them and keep a strong relationship.

Extraversion (E) vs. Introversion (I). Folks who fall under the E category get energy from active involvement in events and activities, while I folks like to get energy from interacting with pictures and ideas. It would be easiest to cultivate strong relationships with E’s by holding Tweetups and other live events. On the other hand, you would try to create a strong bond with I’s by asking them in-depth questions and visually representing my ideas.

Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N). Sensing means that you pay attention to physical realities like what you see, hear and touch. Intuition means that you pay more attention to impressions or the meaning of patterns. S’s focus on the physical attributes and what is literally happening, while N’s focus on the meaning behind events and actions. Problem-solving for S’s focuses on working through facts, so providing lots of information to an S would be the best way to forge a bond. On the other hand, N’s problem-solve by leaping between ideas and using metaphors would be far more efficient than real-life experiences.

Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F). Thinking indicates that decisions are made by weighing pros and cons and use basic principles to apply to any situations. Feeling indicates that you make decisions by weighing what people care about and consider points-of-view. To market or bong with T’s, you would want to focus on facts and principles, you have to argue the pros. With F’s, it’s more important to provide testimonials and different opinions.

Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P). Judging indicates that you apply you decision-making function (T or F) to your outer life, so you appear to be very organized and decisive. Perceiving, on the other hand, uses the sensing function (S or N) to apply to outer life and appear to lead spontaneous lives. J’s focus on the end goal, and to cultivate a relationship or sell them a product, you need to understand that goal and market to it. For P’s, it is more important to be flexible, and this should be kept in mind when trying to reach them. It’s not about the goal for a P, it’s about mixing work with play and not getting bogged down with plans.

What other personality factors are important for sales and community-building? Where do you fall of this spectrum?