Brand Awareness on the Web

It’s been awhile since I’ve added an entry and I do have legit reasons  (upcoming wedding, project juggling, NHL playoffs) but I don’t want to turn into the guy who talks about his blog even though he hasn’t added anything worthwhile in the past 3 and a half months. I was dangerously close to becoming that guy, hopefully this entry will fix that.

Recently I was talking with a colleague about the lack of personality in good web writing. He argued that not enough companies use humour in their web copy. I’m not so sure that I agree with him. Humour is a tricky thing to convey over the web. Different people have different senses of humour and its a narrow tight-rope that a writer has to walk when trying to appeal to the sense of humour of so many different people.

I do however, agree with him that a lot of writing on the web lacks personality. Many companies or products are backed by powerful brands. In a lot of cases, its the branding that sells, not necessarily the product. In these instances, there’s a golden opportunity for these companies to use the voice, style and tone of their brands in their web copy. Most companies now realize that their web sites are a legitimate extension of their brand, but every once in a while I’ll stumble upon a website that is clearly not conviced of this.

A smart company knows their voice and makes sure that it’s used consistently throughout all of their operations. Its an easy thing to do and its come a long way since the early days of the web, but there are still some companies stuck in the Stone Ages.