100 Years in 13:15 minutes

This unprecedented corporate history video by Erol Morris will make you think that IBM invented 99 percent of the things we started using in the last 100 years -- and you wouldn't be far wrong.

Academy Award(R)-winning filmmaker Morris isn't someone you'd normally associate with company histories, though he has created scads of high-concept TV ads. It's likely that IBM devoted a seven-figure budget to this production alone, with similarly healthy investments in its other 100th anniversary and corporate history efforts.

The genius lies in having 100 real people present IBM's business history achievements, each one from the year they were born.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39jtNJGgmd4
http://ibm.com/ibm100

“About Us” Evaluation: Algonquin Hotel Gets an A

The Algonquin Hotel in midtown Manhattan, in business since 1902, is the oldest operating hotel in New York City. It prides itself on its traditions and its status as a cultural center. Perhaps its greatest claim to fame is as the home of the Algonquin Round Table, whose members (among them Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, and Harpo Marx) changed the face of American comedy. The Algonquin’s main About Us page is here.

OVERALL GRADE: A

Personality: A minus

The mention of famous guests that have stayed at the Algonquin or dined there over the past century is a great touch--it gives us a sense of the type of clients the hotel caters to. It would be even better to quote such celebrities. If Noel Coward, Dorothy Parker, Angela Lansbury, or Harry Connick, Jr. made a comment on about why they loved the Algonquin, why not showcase it?

The interviews with long-time staff members Gulfer “Chuck” Shah and Bob Wilson (under Staff Stories) give a personal face to the hotel: these are the people most guests would be interacting with.

The Interesting Facts page is full of charming tidbits. It would be much more attractive and readable, though, if the facts came with photos. Transforming this page into an illustrated timeline would be a great way to incorporate even more names and stress the longevity and cultural importance of the Algonquin.

Products/Services: A

We love the fact that the Algonquin stresses its uniqueness: its long history, its distinguished guests, its status as a cultural center, its hotel cat. Doubtless many high-end hotels track their guests’ preferences, but the Algonquin gets points for playing this up, on the Traditions of the Algonquin and the Staff Stories pages. Given their history, we’d like to see more photos that convey the ambience of the hotel.

The Algonquin was recently acquired by Marriott. We applaud the fact that the Algonquin’s website wasn’t overhauled to give it a homogenized, corporate feel.

Accessibility: A

The footer on every page has the hotel’s address and a contact link, which is adequate. We wonder why there’s no direct contact for media, even on the Newsroom page. People who can offer free publicity should always have their paths made easy.

TAKEAWAY

Sometimes a slick set of About Us pages is less effective than a series of pages that emphasize a company’s uniqueness. But it’s still important to cover the basics, including--if the organization is a century old, as the Algonquin is--the qualities and the attitude that have made the company last so long.

Does your Web site’s “About Us” section accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). Contact us if you’d like to have your site evaluated—there’s no charge and no obligation.

Today’s example was chosen at random; CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.

10 Commandments of About Us Pages (continued)

Commandment 10. Remember to keep holy the updates. Once your “About Us” pages are polished, keep them fresh. A copyright date from even one year ago suggests that no one’s minding the store.

Tenth in a series; for the entire series, click here.

“About Us” Evaluation: Sweet Revenge Gets a C

Sweet Revenge, which opened in 2008 in New York’s West Village, serves wine and beer paired with “grown-up” cupcake flavors such as chorizo sausage and Manchego cheese. The restaurant’s unique concept was developed by Marlo Scott, who hated her corporate job and prides herself on having launched her own business (hence the restaurant’s name). Sweet Revenge was the cover story of Entrepreneur magazine in April 2011. Its About Us page (“The Story of”) is here. Unfortunately, Scott couldn’t land the Web address you’d expect – a plain dot-com. For the record, the company’s address is sweetrevengenyc.com.

OVERALL GRADE: C

We like the graphic design of this site: the calligraphic lettering and stained parchment are about as far from corporate as you can get. All by itself, this design makes a statement “About Us.”

Products/Services: D

Clicking on The Story Of takes visitors to a page called “Genesis” and starts loading a video. This is a problem: not all of us want or have the time to watch a video, particularly when we don’t know its length or the content. Another drawback: the video doesn’t open at all unless you have Apple’s Quicktime, which some PC loyalists are not interested in downloading.

“Genesis” is an animated account of how Scott left a mega-corporation to open Sweet Revenge. While the visuals are attractive and the story is told in a charmingly offbeat way, the video is more about Scott hating her previous job than about the delicious uniqueness of her restaurant. And for a restaurant’s website, the About Us page should never veer too far from evoking the mouth-watering food that a visitor to the restaurant will be able to see, smell, touch, taste.

Incidentally, on the Sweet Revenge home page we’d love to see some names attached to those yummy-looking photos that cycle at the upper right. It’s not obvious which one’s the chorizo and cheese and which one’s the Jamaican curry. Besides, a hasty visitor might not realize that this is anything more than another Magnolia Bakery wannabe. In this respect, the Entrepreneur article was more enticing than the company’s own site.

Personality: B

Clicking on Bio under “The Story Of” takes us to a short description of Scott’s career, which ends with a clever reference to “the sweetest revenge.” Unfortunately, this narrative is only a variation on the Genesis video.

Yes, it is fascinating that Scott ditched corporate life and is doing very well in a niche market that she created. But again, we’d like to see more focus on the positive (the food) rather than the negative (what Scott wanted to escape from). Which cupcakes were most popular among the friends who served as her guinea pigs? What were some of the bizarre flavors that didn’t make the cut? Scott’s personality comes through vividly, but About Us pages always need to be closely tied to the product or service being offered – and to how it solves a problem or meets a need for the potential customer, even if the need is as frivolous as what flavor of cupcake to try.

Accessibility: C

The address and phone number appear in the footer on every page, but there’s no email for contacting Sweet Revenge. There’s also no separate contact for media and no encouragement (or specific contact info for) those who wish to order sizable numbers of cupcakes in advance, though the “Extra! Extra!” page vaguely hints at it. (Cute page title, perhaps too cute.) We wouldn’t even know that mass orders are possible had we not read Entrepreneur’s cover story.

TAKEAWAY

Media coverage provides invaluable clues about the aspects of your product or service that interest outsiders. Be sure to include information about those aspects in your About Us pages. And when you’re in retail, sell your product at least as much as you sell your personal story.

Does your Web site’s “About Us” section accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). Contact us if you’d like to have your site evaluated—there’s no charge and no obligation.

Today’s example was chosen at random; CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.