How to Use the Big Five Personality Traits to Create a Strong Brand Identity on Social Media 

Brands are people too. 

They have personalities, just like you and me. And just like our own personalities, a brand’s personality can be shaped by a variety of factors, including its values, its target audience, and its marketing strategy. 

In the digital age, social media has become an increasingly important platform for brands to connect with their audience. And just like in real life, the way a brand behaves on social media can have a big impact on how people perceive it. 

That’s where the Big Five personality traits come in. The Big Five is a well-established psychological framework that measures personality along five dimensions: conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, and extraversion. 

In recent years, researchers have begun to apply the Big Five to brands. By analyzing the language that brands use on social media, marketers can get a better understanding of their core personality traits. This information can then be used to improve a brand’s marketing strategy and ensure that its online presence is aligned with its desired personality. 

In this article, we will explore the use of the Big Five personality traits to understand brand personality. We will discuss how brands can use this information to improve their social media presence and connect with their audience more authentically. 

Here are some of the benefits of using the Big Five personality traits to understand brand personality: 

• It can help brands to better understand their target audience and how they perceive the brand. 
• It can help brands to develop a more consistent and authentic social media presence. 
• It can help brands to identify opportunities to improve their marketing strategy.
  
  

If you are a brand manager, I encourage you to learn more about the Big Five personality traits and how they can be used to understand your brand’s or competitors personality. By doing so, you can improve your social media presence and connect with your audience in a more meaningful way.   

Traditional reports have primarily focused on sentiment analysis, a simplistic metric that fails to provide insight into the complex psychology of human beings. To gain a deeper understanding of competitor brand personality, brands can use the Big Five personality profile approach. This framework incorporates the measure of Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, and Extraversion to gauge how a brand is perceived.   

Conscientiousness reflects the level of organisation, responsibility, and dependability associated with a brand. Brands perceived as highly conscientious are considered reliable and trustworthy, you can count on them to get the job done, while those with low conscientiousness may be seen as careless or disorganised. Conscientious brands use clear, concise language and avoid making careless mistakes. They are also consistent in their messaging and tone on their social media accounts.   

Agreeableness relates to a brand’s friendliness, compassion, and cooperativeness. Brands perceived as agreeable are more likely to establish positive connections with their audience, while those lacking agreeableness may appear aloof or uncaring. On social media, agreeable brands use warm and inviting language. They are also quick to respond to customer inquiries and feedback. Through linguistic analysis, we can determine the extent to which a brand’s social media presence exudes agreeableness and assess its alignment with the desired brand personality.   

Neuroticism reflects the emotional stability or instability in a brand’s persona. Brands with low neuroticism are regarded as composed and calm. Neurotic brands are seen as anxious, unpredictable, and emotional. On social media, neurotic brands use language full of worry and doubt. They may also be quick to lash out at critics or complain about problems.  

Openness to Experience characterises a brand as curious, creative, and open to new ideas. Brands scoring high on openness are seen as innovative and forward-thinking, while those low in openness may be perceived as conservative or resistant to change. On social media, open brands use language that reflects they are full of new ideas and possibilities. They are also willing to experiment with new formats and styles.   

Extraversion (or extroversion) refers to a brand’s sociability, assertiveness, and enthusiasm. Brands exhibiting high extraversion are likely to be perceived as outgoing and energetic. They are brands that you can’t help but be drawn to. Brands low in extraversion may come across as reserved or introverted. On social media, extroverted brands use language that is full of life and excitement. They are also quick to share their latest news and updates. By analysing social media text, we can uncover linguistic cues indicating the level of extraversion and assess their alignment with the intended brand persona.  

Analysing social media text using the Big Five personality profile offers a powerful tool for unveiling the core personality traits exhibited by brands. Armed with these insights, social media managers can make informed decisions and shape their content strategies and interactions in a way that authentically represents the brand and resonates with its target audience.