I suspect the assumption that customers don’t look for personality in the companies (of whatever size) they do business with is one of the worst marketing mistakes anyone could make. One of the primary goals of branding is to make an emotional connection with customers. Whether that’s done through writing, design or other means, establishing a personality is a critial maneuver for most any successful business.
Different people are going to want different things. Some of your customers might only want facts. Some of your customers will want more personality than others. The difficulty writers and designers alike face is satisfying different kinds of people in one shot. And that’s what you’ve got to do on an About page—satsify those various differents kids of visitors. It’s a big job.
I thought of a way to split up the About-Page in two Divisions: The first one with the given robots, mainly the lawbot which IS mostlikely necessary for companies. Although, you might use some section like ‘general terms and conditions’ for this.
The other part should be the personal. Include Photos, Biographies, etc. As desired.
I don’t think that one division could survive without the other one.
By the way: Same with German cable and telephone companies, in some cases so much the worse.
I think that it can be extemely effective to brand your company with a personality.
Think about Google, which (still) holds a tender spot in the hearts of most of Internet users. Or Volkswagen, which has built an image of quirky quality. Contrast that with General Motors which has the image of a huge corporation with no character whatsoever.
Companies which have the intelligence to brand their own image, in addition to their products, have a huge emotional advantage over their competitors—and since people buy on emotion, that has to help their bottom line.
So I definitely agree, the About Page needs to give more than just a few boring facts… it needs to show some passion too!
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Walter Wlodarski
You can connect personality with products, but it´s difficult to have the same effect with the company.
Yes, some compagnies tend to neglect or fail to connect emotionally with consumers. It’s not part of their business culture, so it’s absent from their marketing efforts. It doesn’t make their clients some kind of consumaris insensibilis.
In any business relation, psychological aspects are very important. And your Web site is where you have business meetings with your future clients. You need to shake hands, to smile and have a pleasant personnality.
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Derek Pennycuff
This was one of the more entertaining articles in ALA history. And many of the entertaining articles have less to offer in the way of practical information (“Oz”:http://www.alistapart.com/articles/oz/ , “Soopa”:http://www.alistapart.com/articles/soopa/ , etc). Thank you for re-establishing my faith in the existance of a web design community with real culture.
One of the primary goals of branding is to make an emotional connection with customers. Whether that’s done through writing, design or other means, establishing a personality is a critial maneuver for most any successful business.
I read this and thought, “Oh, someone’s read Amber’s article”. Then I got to the end and saw that, no, someone IS Amber. Dammit.
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Richard Brown
This was a nice article. I’d like to see Erin submit examples of well done “About Pages.” Seeing the ones that are not so well done is helpful, but goes only half way illustrating/supporting the problem.
The article text helps give inspiration for what they could be, but real life examples of nicely done pages supports the opinion with illustration.
My about me page needs some serious attenttion and after reading this I am glad to have picked up some knowledge on how to better it, love the Laser gun bit.
I write copy for small businesses and find that start-ups are some of the worst offenders when it comes to self-congratulatory, superlative fluff because they are short on verifiable accomplishments. They try to emulate the big guys (who are also botching the About Us page) and do themselves a disservice. I’m going to send this link to my clients and link to it in my blog!
To amplify on comment #25, I think a good model for an about page would be the five w’s taught in any good writing class: who, what, where, when, why. Tell us who you are, what you do, when you started, etc… Concrete examples of your work or contribution to the world(show not tell) would helpful as well. And write it from the perspective of someone who doesn’t know anything about your company or industry. That seems like the most common mistake about use pages make – assuming that the reader knows industry jargon or acronyms.
Stimulating content that suppossed to bring users back to your website is what the Internet should be about. This article elaborates on the essentials to make the Internet more human and I think that’s exaclty what we need.
I appreciate the article’s constructive criticism of ‘about’ pages. On my blog, I have done minor work on it but have noticed that it’s always in my top 10 of content hits on my site. With that, I’d really appreciate some examples of some great ‘about’ pages.
Nice article. An “About” page is one area where a small business website really has the edge over the bigger guns. With a small staff – or even just one person – you can introduce the people behind the business and really build your credibility. I often go to the About page first to get a feel for the business. It’s not the place for mission statements, however.
I think the About Us section is a good place to put in online demos of your product or web service in video or swf format if you don’t already have any done.
29 Reader Comments
Back to the Articleamber simmons
I suspect the assumption that customers don’t look for personality in the companies (of whatever size) they do business with is one of the worst marketing mistakes anyone could make. One of the primary goals of branding is to make an emotional connection with customers. Whether that’s done through writing, design or other means, establishing a personality is a critial maneuver for most any successful business.
Different people are going to want different things. Some of your customers might only want facts. Some of your customers will want more personality than others. The difficulty writers and designers alike face is satisfying different kinds of people in one shot. And that’s what you’ve got to do on an About page—satsify those various differents kids of visitors. It’s a big job.
Stefan Klose
I thought of a way to split up the About-Page in two Divisions: The first one with the given robots, mainly the lawbot which IS mostlikely necessary for companies. Although, you might use some section like ‘general terms and conditions’ for this.
The other part should be the personal. Include Photos, Biographies, etc. As desired.
I don’t think that one division could survive without the other one.
By the way: Same with German cable and telephone companies, in some cases so much the worse.
Thorsten Schiemann
>The visitor of websites from larger companies is not intersted in personality. Those >visitors wants to see facts.
>
>Why?
You can connect personality with products, but it´s difficult to have the same effect with the company.
Arvana Robinson
I think that it can be extemely effective to brand your company with a personality.
Think about Google, which (still) holds a tender spot in the hearts of most of Internet users. Or Volkswagen, which has built an image of quirky quality. Contrast that with General Motors which has the image of a huge corporation with no character whatsoever.
Companies which have the intelligence to brand their own image, in addition to their products, have a huge emotional advantage over their competitors—and since people buy on emotion, that has to help their bottom line.
So I definitely agree, the About Page needs to give more than just a few boring facts… it needs to show some passion too!
Walter Wlodarski
Yes, some compagnies tend to neglect or fail to connect emotionally with consumers. It’s not part of their business culture, so it’s absent from their marketing efforts. It doesn’t make their clients some kind of consumaris insensibilis.
In any business relation, psychological aspects are very important. And your Web site is where you have business meetings with your future clients. You need to shake hands, to smile and have a pleasant personnality.
Derek Pennycuff
This was one of the more entertaining articles in ALA history. And many of the entertaining articles have less to offer in the way of practical information (“Oz”:http://www.alistapart.com/articles/oz/ , “Soopa”:http://www.alistapart.com/articles/soopa/ , etc). Thank you for re-establishing my faith in the existance of a web design community with real culture.
I read this and thought, “Oh, someone’s read Amber’s article”. Then I got to the end and saw that, no, someone IS Amber. Dammit.
Richard Brown
This was a nice article. I’d like to see Erin submit examples of well done “About Pages.” Seeing the ones that are not so well done is helpful, but goes only half way illustrating/supporting the problem.
The article text helps give inspiration for what they could be, but real life examples of nicely done pages supports the opinion with illustration.
Jeremy Forsythe
this was a really fun article
Kary Lawson
My about me page needs some serious attenttion and after reading this I am glad to have picked up some knowledge on how to better it, love the Laser gun bit.
Charles Belov
You’d also better accept their cookie; I didn’t and my Firefox browser got caught in a redirection loop.
Maya Smart
I write copy for small businesses and find that start-ups are some of the worst offenders when it comes to self-congratulatory, superlative fluff because they are short on verifiable accomplishments. They try to emulate the big guys (who are also botching the About Us page) and do themselves a disservice. I’m going to send this link to my clients and link to it in my blog!
Christopher Kennon
Some time ago in a Fiction Writing course, the directive was given-“Show your audience, don’t tell your audience.”
This seems to hold true for About page authoring.
Joe Flood
To amplify on comment #25, I think a good model for an about page would be the five w’s taught in any good writing class: who, what, where, when, why. Tell us who you are, what you do, when you started, etc… Concrete examples of your work or contribution to the world(show not tell) would helpful as well. And write it from the perspective of someone who doesn’t know anything about your company or industry. That seems like the most common mistake about use pages make – assuming that the reader knows industry jargon or acronyms.
drew stauffer
Stimulating content that suppossed to bring users back to your website is what the Internet should be about. This article elaborates on the essentials to make the Internet more human and I think that’s exaclty what we need.
Doug Karr
I appreciate the article’s constructive criticism of ‘about’ pages. On my blog, I have done minor work on it but have noticed that it’s always in my top 10 of content hits on my site. With that, I’d really appreciate some examples of some great ‘about’ pages.
Thanks!
Doug
Jack Everitt
A smart article and will drive me to improve my own site’s homepage. Thanks!
Yang Kang
Intrsting and smart article. I didn’t create my about page yet, thank you.
Tincan Communications
Nice article. An “About” page is one area where a small business website really has the edge over the bigger guns. With a small staff – or even just one person – you can introduce the people behind the business and really build your credibility. I often go to the About page first to get a feel for the business. It’s not the place for mission statements, however.
Johan De Silva
I think the About Us section is a good place to put in online demos of your product or web service in video or swf format if you don’t already have any done.