It's difficult, of not impossible, to immediately come up with something to write in your “About Us” page, let alone talk about what you do to other people you're trying to network with. That's why you should come up with something called a “logline.” At least that's what Doug Sasse's calling it.
Doug Sasse is a technical writer for West Interactive (News - Alert), an Omaha, NE-based company that provides technology-driven communications services to a wide range of businesses. He says, in a video blog, that “a logline is a tool that screenwriters use to focus and then to market their stories and screenplays. It's a single sentence that conveys the essence of a story in 25 words or less.”
He goes on to explain that you've seen loglines very often, as they're often used in movie trailers. Sasse then uses the example of Gladiator's logline: “When a Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by an emperor's corrupt son, he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge.” That was exactly 25 words and perfectly described the plot of the movie.
You can use the same concept to describe what you do, in a concrete fashion. Sasse then transforms this into a more business-related theme. As an example, he uses a chiropractor's description: “I'm a chiropractor, and I help people with bad backs live pain-free lives.” A more corporate example of his: “XYZ Company wants to reduce Good Guy Bank's transaction processing costs by 15%.”
Of course, these examples were very specific and concrete. A bad example, as Sasse puts it, would be something like this: “I'm a chiropractor, and I help people with bad backs feel better.”
“Well, what do you mean by 'better?'” This is a clear example of a question you don't want the person on the other end of your conversation asking. If a person has to ask this question when reading your “About Us” page, you're likely going to turn that person away.
“Instead, when you give someone your logline, you want to intrigue that person so he or she asks, 'How are you going to do that?'” said Sasse.
You can view the entire video on West Interactive's blog.
Edited by Ashley Caputo