Your About Us page is your chance to give potential clients a chance to get to know you and see what you’re or your organization is all about. What makes you tick. A peek into your soul, so to speak.
Why is this important?
Let’s try a test .
We all know the story of the Wizard of Oz.
A young girl from Kansas and her dog are whisked away in her house by a cyclone to the colorful and magical land of Oz where the house accidentally lands on a wicked witch.
With the help of a good witch, grateful munchkins (for ridding them of the witch) and magical shoes she starts off on an adventure to find the Wizard who can help her return home. Along the way she makes friends with three flawed characters, each with their own dreams and, after overcoming many dangers, including the wicked witch’s evil sister, find they each had what they were looking for inside themselves from the beginning.
Or Do We?
What if we were to frame the story this way:
Paints a different picture in your head, does it not?
Or this:
Or even this:
Dorothy gets lost and finally succeeds in getting back home after many adventures.
How are You Describing Yourself?
What if you met someone who had never seen the Wizard of Oz? Which synopsis above would you use to explain the story to them? The first one? Second one? The last one?
Each will leave you with a specific impression of the story of the Wizard of Oz. Maybe this one:
Dorothy gets lost and finally succeeds in getting back home after many adventures.
Gets lost where? In the yard, the neighborhood, the city? What kind of adventures? Catching butterflies? Chased by a dog?
Unfortunately, many websites still have About Us pages equivalent to the last description.
“We look forward to working with you. Contact Us here.”
“Since 1980, we are the premier source for HVAC repairs”
Blah! Bland! Booooring!!
Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain!
Someone coming to your website is asking:
“Who are the people behind this website?”
“Why should I do business with them over the next guy?”
“What do they stand for?”
“Are they like me?”
With a brick-and-mortar store you can walk in and meet the people who work in the store or even the owners. With a website all you have are some pages on a screen that may or may not tell you what the organization or person is all about.
Are you saying who you are or hiding behind a curtain?
As the examples above illustrate, how you write can drastically change the readers perception. So, it is very important that you pay attention to how you construct your story. If you can’t convey what you want, hire someone.
Do you want to be sweet, little Dorothy from Kansas or Dorothy the witch killer?
Now there’s the makings of a great cult classic. Dorothy the witch killer with her trusty companion Toto, the vicious wolf dog, and her three sidekicks; Tin Man, the killer cyborg, the brainless, soulless Scarecrow, and the bloodthirsty King of the beasts, Lion.
