If you’re looking for a little more personality in your social marketing, the first thing that might have to go is your brand voice.

More on that difficult truth in today’s Social Media Roundup:

got Humans?

https://twitter.com/JeniseFryatt/status/535435201254785024

Sorry, readers, it’s just the truth: No matter how much you try to humanize that brand of yours, it’s not going to be as warm and personal as an actual human being. That’s a problem in the era of social media.

On the Cvent blog, Smarter Shift’s Jenise Fryatt suggests there’s room to hit it out of the park if you let the people representing your brand be themselves on social media. In other words, start treating social media like a conversation, not a TV ad.

“Your brand can’t be human. But the people who stand behind your brand can provide the human touch you need to have online—IF you allow them to,” she writes. “Whether you do it yourself, hire a social media manager, or enlist your employees, your social media interactions must be recognizably human. So once you choose the person who will be your voice online, you’ll need to get out of the way. Don’t hamstring them with too many rules. Find someone you trust to act professionally but at the same time be his or herself online.”

Who knew speaking like a human would be so hard? (ht @JeniseFryatt)

The Art of Self-Promotion

Take note #assnchat & #chsocm!

“@mzayfert: Arts organizations are hiring pros to tell their storieshttp://t.co/ZxgWjhlH2t”

— Mark Alves (@markalves) November 24, 2014

“The ability to tell one’s own story is really important. It’s about deepening relationships between audiences and performing arts organizations.” — Deborah Rutter, president of the Kennedy Center

The arts world is learning a thing or two about content marketing.

According to The Washington Post, arts organizations nationwide are starting to boost their in-house editorial prowess at a time when newspapers are cutting back on their arts coverage. Blogs and websites, many owned and operated by orchestras and performing arts centers, are becoming the new go-to source for timely, relevant arts information. And with that shift, many arts facilities are getting on-staff journalists to do the heavy lifting.

“To have a journalist as part of the team assures me the quality is first rate, and then it’s up to us to be enterprising, to get those stories out to the public,” says John Schreiber, president and CEO of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, in the Post story.

With the decline of local newspapers and other news outlets, this might be the wave of the future for niche organizations. (ht @markalves)

(iStock/Thinkstock)