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Who is Behind Your Business?
Subject Line: Who is Behind Your Business?
The Write Market Release
Vol. 3. Issue 9
Who is Behind Your Business?
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CONTENTS IN THIS ISSUE
1. Editor's Remarks
2. How to Build an Online Press Center- Part IV:
The people behind the business.
3. What's New at The Write Market
4. Get Your Ad in TWM's Release!
5. Administrative Information
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EDITOR'S REMARKS
Happy New Year!
You won't even believe where I spent the last seven days.
I was in Buffalo, NY. If you haven't heard the news, they were
dumped on with over 7 feet of snow in a four day stretch.
Driving down the streets was like driving through a
tunnel of snow. They finally lifted the driving ban on
Sunday so that everyone could go to church. The roads
were clear, by then, the only danger was trying to pull out
into traffic from side roads - the banks of snow were about
15 feet high.
I've been in Buffalo during three major snow storms:
1985, 1995, and now in 2001. I'll never forget what the Mayor of
Buffalo, Jimmy Griffin said to us back in 1985, "Go down to your local
convenience store, pick up a six pack and just wait it out."
Griffin is no longer mayor of Buffalo, but he had this to say last
week, "This is definitely a two six pack storm."
You have to hand it to those Buffalonians - the hardier the individual,
the more likely he will find his way to beer! I lived in Buffalo for 12 years,
I have to say that those people really pull together in a time of crisis.
They are proud of their weather, their sports teams, and the fact that
their bars stay open until 4:00 a.m. It is the kind of town where you never
feel lonely because everyone is in the same boat - there's lots of snow,
the wind-chill factor is around 20 below, and I have to admit, it really is
peaceful and beautiful after a snow storm.
Well, I'm back in dry, green, warm Pennsylvania and I'm none the
worse for wear. Although I feel like I'm a displaced Buffalonian, I don't
feel too bad because I don't have to wade through snow that is
up to my armpits!
I have some fabulous news. Terry and I have completed
our second book, "Web Content that Sells: Copy and Graphics,"
(or something like that). I hate writing titles, so we haven't
quite narrowed down a good title, yet. Tentatively, the book will
be available for purchase on February 1, 2002.
This month, we continue our tutorial on How to Build an Online
Press Center with an article on The People Behind the Business.
I have taken an excerpt from our new book that just happens to talk
about this part of the Press Center.
I am still looking for more examples of Press Centers or About Us pages
to feature in our tutorial. So, if you have an Online Press Center or
an About Us page, or you've seen a good one, please send me the URL.
Thanks!
Write on,
Renee Kennedy
rkennedy@thewritemarket.com
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_____________________________
ELEMENTS OF A PRESS CENTER
(This is a quick review to show you where
we're at and where we're going.)
1. Table of Contents
2. Backgrounder
3. History
4. The People Behind Your Business **We're HERE **
5. Projects, Clients, Partners and/or Works
6. Testimonials
7. Press Releases
8. Sample News Story
9. Articles by Other Sources
10. Contact Information
For more details on the elements of your Press Center see:
http://www.thewritemarket.com/press/index.htm
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THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE BUSINESS
There are two parts to this section of your Online
Press Center: Pictures of your employees and their
accompanying biographies.
Pictures of your employees will give credibility to your
company Web site. A Web site has an ethereal quality. You
want to give it a real-life quality. Pictures will help your visitors
understand that there are real people behind the site.
The best type of picture are photos that show people in action,
especially if you're offering services. Show that you or your
employees are happy, working, "real, live people."
However, a head shot is better than no pictures at all.
Beware of the strange things that can happen to your photos
due to low resolutions. If you have pictures of women, I
recommend that you have professional pictures taken and
find a graphic designer to "doctor" your photos. Unless
you can see a full body shot or the photos are enhanced,
women have a tendency to look like men. I've seen it happen
on many a poor woman's picture. (Including my own.)
Terry and I were disappointed with our own pictures.
For years, we didn't have any photos of ourselves on our site.
However, with the publication of our first book, I decided that we
needed them back again. I went out and had my picture
professionally taken and I suggested that Terry do the same.
I thought, with the proper lighting and enough make up, we could
both look decent. However, I was mistaken. My picture, in web
format, looked absolutely dreadful. (At least, I felt that it did.)
Finally, Terry had the brilliant idea to select the best professional
photos that we had and she would edit them for the web.
(They edit photos all the time in magazines.) Terry did her
graphic voodoo on both of our pictures and they both turned out
better than anything else we've tried. Check it out for yourself:
http://www.thewritemarket.com/media/us.htm
Also include a short biography of your employee's working lives.
There are several ways to write a biography, here are a few
suggestions that would particularly suit a bio found on the Web:
1. Chronological Order: List a series of events which led to
employee's current position. (Use this tact if the person has had
an exciting life and taken some large steps both prior to working
in the company and during employment.) This is generally used
with the president, chairman or owner of a company.
2. Story Time: Take the facts of a person's life and make them
interesting by weaving a story. Again, you would
use this tactic for presidents and owners. I've seen this done
successfully with Lee Iaccoca's bio. However, he has lead
an incredible life.
3. Exciting Accomplishments or Events: Highlight one or two
accomplishments in a person's life. This would be a good style for a
company that wishes to list several employees. For the web, it is
best to try for a concise and easy to read profile of each person.
Pick a few exciting events and describe how they influenced the
employees current position.
4. Hobbies: I've seen some bios choose to include one or two
sentences about the employee's outside hobbies or interests.
I think this is a fantastic idea because it drives home the point that the
employee is a real person with a real life.
One thing you don't want to do is to go on and on and on with
a boring litany of small accomplishments. Personally, I don't think this
does anything to increase credibility. A nice picture and a few
well-chosen, brilliant accomplishments will keep your reader interested.
__________________
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________________________________
WHAT'S NEW AT THE WRITE MARKET
Several new products:
http://www.thewritemarket.com/course.shtml
Check out Terry's latest work. We're now selling
mugs, t-shirts, and even mousepads!
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