What does "get personal" mean in this article?

Question

Does it mean "have personal relationships", "getting to know them more", or something like that?

"Get personal.
Lauren Mauro, the director of both consumer PR and influencer relations at Dell, echoes Hartman’s statements. In the past six years, she’s developed a multi-tier influencer approach for Dell that scales from celebrity name brands to small regional bloggers. With all of them, she puts the relationship at the heart of the tactic.

“You must invest in introductory calls, face-to-face meetings, follow-up emails, planning and more,” Mauro said. “It is a full-time job and difficult to do well if you have another full-time role. If you are looking at starting a program, I suggest investing in dedicated headcount and even a team if budgets and resources allow.”

While a full team may not be achievable for a fledgling company, ensuring that a member on the team has at least partial time to allocate specifically to growing and creating relationships can help your business exponentially in the long run."

Source: Coca-Cola, Dell and PayPal Share Their Influencer Marketing Secrets

Answer 1

The phrase "get personal" (or "get up-close and personal") can vary with context, but in general you are correct and it refers to building a more direct relationship with a person outside business, to encourage trust and open communication.

Again, depending on the context, this can involve knowing about their families, their hobbies, their goals and inspirations, and so on, or it can just mean that you are on a "first-name basis".

Because "get personal" does not have a fixed meaning, the ambiguity can be funny or uncomfortable, depending on how it's used.

The VP of Sales advised his employees to "get personal" with each other, in order to build team spirit and trust -- but I don't think he meant that the sales manager should have an affair with the top salesperson.