“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”
This is the first line of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. A book written in first person from the perspective of Holden Caulfield, the narrator. But what you’ll notice is that the first line is seemingly written in the second person POV, drawing you in and making you curious, before aptly revealing its true point of view—the first person because Holden is the protagonist and narrator.
This is an interesting technique Salinger uses because writing the generic “you” disguised as the second person POV pulls the reader in for a more immersive experience.
Point of view is one of the most fundamental technical choices a writer makes when deciding how to tell a story. From whose perspective is this story being told and how?
First person uses “I” and “me” - It’s intimate but limited.
Second person uses “you” - It’s more immersive and direct.
Third person uses “he,” “she,” “they” - It’s more flexible but more distant as well.
If you’re building a personal brand online, you know the first and second POVs pretty well. Most content online is using one or both of these. And that’s with good reason.
First person allows you to be personal and intimate with your audience. It’s perhaps the best POV out of the three to gain trust. Second person content can be intimate as well.
Using “you” lets you directly acknowledge and talk to your exact consumer, viewer, or customer. Out of the three, second person content delivers the best hooks that resonate emotionally. Hooks like “If you’re still posting daily, your strategy is wrong and here’s why” incites curiosity with a direct callout. Don’t you want to keep watching to know why posting daily is wrong?
According to the Journal of Interactive Marketing in 2017, when you use “you” in your copy and content, it makes people up to 20% more involved with your brand. Why? Because it’s talking directly to the person viewing or reading.
And in a study published in 2018 in the Journal of Marketing Research, when speaking with customers, using “I” and “we” can increase sales by 7% because using “I” signals that you are involved emotionally and empathetic.
But what about the third person point of view?
The third person POV is best for talking about case studies, research, and examples from others. Most businesses use the third person when there’s not a single person behind the brand or in press releases or the About Page on a website. It offers distance, authority, and credibility.
One way to effectively use the third person, even if you’re just a one-person brand is testimonials. You use the first person POV to market yourself but the third person POV is how others talk about you and what you do—a powerful perspective that shows social proof.
And this is how you use all three point of views. Don’t just use one of them: your bio in the third person, a newsletter in the first person, and video content in the second person. Learning how and when to use all three can produce different effects for your audience and helps your brand become more well-rounded.