Shawenon Communications. Professional business writing services in Western Massachusetts

Shawenon Communications is thrilled to announce the launch of www.AbbievonSchlegell.com. Abbie moved to the Berkshires from Annapolis, MD last summer to be closer to her two granddaughters and their parents. I can relate.

She quickly found BEN (Berkshire Entrepreneurs Network) and that led to a lunch together. We talked about her Web site, among other things.

The site was already constructed, but it languished for copy. Although Abbie is an accomplished communicator herself, she wasn't getting around to writing the content. Sometimes a little objectivity goes a long way. So I donned my "Web site midwife" hat and went to work.

True Words

Whenever possible, I like to include signed testimonials on the sites Shawenon Communications helps create. Of course, this isn't always possible. Coaches, therapists and consultants to Fortune 500 companies can't do this for obvious reasons. But Abbie could.

I don't ask my clients' clients to write anything. Hey, I'm the wordsmith. Instead I interview them by phone. They talk and I type very fast and get as close to a verbatim record as I can manage. Then I massage what they say into some nifty sentiments and send the quotes back for an OK, checking at the same time that their name and title are accurate for publication. So far, that process has been smooth sailing.

I also do a little general coaching on the site, which often includes graphics and navigation. Navigation is the backbone that connects the flesh and blood of a Web site. Get the navigation right, and the rest will fall into place easily. But the navigation also represents the backbone of the business, so navigation work can be like spinal surgery--bringing up fundamental questions about the business itself.

Pictures are worth a thousand words, but only if they are the right pictures. Working with me usually sends my clients off to get their photos taken. In Abbie's case, she had a great portrait. But it needed cropping to get rid of an eye-catching white collar that didn't do anything to enhance the viewer's positive emotional reaction to their potential development consultant.

Endgame

The homepage copy is the first thing most people see on the site, and it is, without question, the most important. But it's not the first to be written--it's the last. The right words need to incubate as I search for the real essence of my client's offering.

Of course, we needed to think about the non-human readers, too. SEO (search engine optimization) is the thing these days and computers don't do well with subtlety. In this case, getting leads from Internet searches isn't Abbie's top priority. But she does want to be found by her distinctive name. So we made certain that her Web site would be at the top of the list over all the other references on the Web.

Back to essence. In Abbie's case, I led with four words--Wise Counsel, Wide Experience and then went on to summarize the key points of her fresh approach, which combines candor with wisdom and vision with pragmatism.

When her daughter (who is also a fundraising professional) saw the homepage copy, she said, "Mom, she nailed it!" I loved hearing that.