Blurbs

I am a big believer in the power of a good blurb. The ability to sum up your company, job, activity, event or entire reason for being in just a few simple paragraphs. If you can't do that without drifting into ramblings you've probably got some problems.

The rules of blurb are similar to the news of reporting, important things are "who, what, when, where, why". So for example something like:
"Evil Incorporated is a company at the forefront of evil schemes and plots, with a long history of campaigns that have very nearly taken over the world . The company was founded over 50 years ago by Ming the Merciless, Dr Evil and Mum-Ra, each a winner of the 'Evil Genius of the Year' award from the Royal Society for the Appreciation of Evil-Doers. Past clients have included The Daleks, The Zombie Hordes (1982) and The BBC."

Tell me what you do, how long you've been doing it, why you're good at it and what you can do for me. A similar blurb can be written for a person to go at the top of a CV and be ready to be plopped into anything that requires a biography. If you're running a specific event or project you should also be able to sum it up in just a couple of sentences. It's always embarrassing when someone asks what your project is and you're left "well, it's kind of a bit like... with um... stuff". Not exactly encouraging.

The tone of your blurb is going to depend a lot on your company. If in doubt, go for the formal, slightly stilted standard style. But if it works for your company and is consistent with the rest of the text you generate then a chattier, wittier, more laid back style can work really well.

Once you've written your blurb, spread it around. Make sure it's on either the front page of your website or a very clearly linked 'About Us' section. Make sure all your staff have it so that they can quickly insert it into any emails, press releases or documents they are writing. Have a version of it that doesn't sound ridiculous when spoken out loud so the staff can use it over the phone.

Never assume people know who you are. There's nothing more embarrassing than being stopped mid spiel by someone pointing out that they don't have the faintest clue who you are.