When you visit  a website, particularly for a company you may want to do business with, do you check out the "about" page? I always do. I want to know who I am dealing with.

When I write an "about" page for a client, I always concentrate on facts. In a sense, I am doing the journalism 101 treatment: who, what, where, when, why and how.  In my book, that is what an "about" page should answer for website visitors. If you go to my website, my about page has my bio (the who, why, when, where) and my business philosophy (the how).

Another thing to remember when you are writing an about page: people do business with people. People don't do business with concepts or grand ideas. People choose you based on your qualifications (and maybe your likability, who you know, what you know).

Recently, I came across a business and checked out their about page. I wanted to know who was behind this company. And this is part of what I found:
<blockquote>XXX provides business integration solutions, our focus is on helping  organizations capitalize on information management by designing programs  that sustain business goals and objectives. With  expertise in Business Process Management, Enterprise Architecture and  Knowledge Management; XXX are passionate about helping  organizations increase customer satisfaction, providing solid frameworks  for continuous improvement and aligning technology catalog with core  business objectives. XXX merges the right technology solutions with sound  information management practices to provide customers with smart  customized, future-forward, business integration solutions.</blockquote>
I blocked out the company name of course, but does this description tell you anything? I have no idea what these people do or who they are, but I do know they love jargon.  What the heck is a "smart customized, future-forward, business integration solution?"

As they say on Twitter, this is a FAIL!

<strong>The Caffeinated take-away:</strong>

<strong>To have a truly useful "about" page, go back to basics. Who are you? What do you do? Where are you located? When did you start doing what you are doing? How do you do what you do? Why do you do it? Answer those questions and get yourself a good description. It may actually help your business.</strong>

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