Mina Ebrahimi, Saint Germain Catering‘s (SGC) vibrant president, kindly said this about working with me:

Stephanie is detailed and communicates on a level that surpasses anyone in her industry. She is remarkable at her work. The vision Stephanie brings to the table will get you almost anywhere. I highly recommend her to anyone. June 5, 2010

I first started helping SGC identify areas of opportunity for growth online — whether to update their application to make VP Sarah Miller’s life easier or simplify their monthly specials emails — while I was still project managing and copywriting at the renowned Viget Labs. Since then, Mina has been one of my biggest advocates for helping with online business, marketing, and content strategy.

In 2007, when I helped Viget spearhead the relaunch of her popular website and new menu application, I also provided copywriting services targeted at DC-area executives (primarily) and seasonal party-throwers (secondarily). That content can be observed below from the homepage earlier this year, before they underwent a design refresh.

Homepage Content: Saint Germain Catering

And, this month, she launched a new blog for SGC, and I’m writing content on behalf of Mina and Sarah. In fact, the very first blog post on organizing perfect picnics resulted in a new client!

Onward to more successes!

Last fall, I attended BarCampDC and happened to be sitting next to the illustrious Patrick Smith. Little did I know at the time that I would be volunteering much of my free time throughout the DC blizzards and bourgeoning spring to help plan the inaugural TEDxPotomac, which Patrick was organizing.

What a THRILL to be part of such an incredible event! What an even more amazing experience to write its content, lead its marketing efforts, and plan its website. Luckily, I was surrounded by a dynamic group of supportive individuals who made my life easier as I worked to do the same AND promote ticket sales.

In December, I pulled together a couple wireframes and the group voted to institute something like this:

Homepage Wireframe: TEDxPotomac

In January, I identified and rallied a designer and developer to build the website in WordPress for our ongoing content management needs, which resulted in the actual website:

TEDxPotomac-Homepage

In February, the site launched, and I spent the next couple of months writing blog posts that promoted our impressive speaker line-up.

In April, I wrote and sent an email calling for ticket sales:

Looking forward to seeing some stellar talks on Thursday, May 20, at the inaugural TEDxPotomac? Then register now!

Tickets are on sale beginning today, April 8, and we expect to sell out quickly given the interest in our line-up, which includes…

General admission is $99, and all proceeds go to the cost of hosting the event. TEDxPotomac is only possible through the generous contributions of our attendees and sponsors. Tickets are tax-deductible through our fiscal sponsor Uplift, Inc. You may also choose to apply for a scholarship.

It’s going to be an inspiring day in DC — don’t miss it!

##

The payoff to all this effort throughout the spring? We sold out our first round of tickets in the first 24 hours. When we opened ticket sales for round two, the same thing happened.

In May, I wrote a pre-event blog post to build buzz and push simulcasting parties.

During the event on May 21, I (wo)manned the Twitter account and posted updates to our fans on Facebook, and I monitored the live feed to notify our internal teams immediately if any of the video or audio went down (which is did not. whew!).

After the event, I helped aggregate (in a blog post) the conversations that were happening socially — Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook — to paint a post-event picture of the key takeaways attendees and livestream viewers were reporting. Overall? A resounding success. And I couldn’t be prouder.

Perhaps it goes without saying, but when it came to considering being a part of TEDxPotomac 2011, I was among the first to re-volunteer.

The American Council on Education‘s (ACE) College Credit Recommendation Service (CREDIT) asked Tellenger to build a new website for the CREDIT program and its popular National Guide. I was, at the time, working as Tellenger’s director of digital strategies.

So, knowing that non-traditional students needed to quickly find professional programs that transfer as credits for degree programs, I decided to move the National Guide itself to the homepage of the CREDIT program’s website. Why not? If the target audience was non-traditional students, and secondary audiences were employers and then schools and universities (respectively), then theoretically everyone would benefit from having the quickest means possible to finding applicable programs to promote themselves.

Luckily, the client agreed, and they were ecstatic to give it a shot. The immediate results after re-launch (according to analytics) could be observed in a sharp increase in pageviews and time on site.

The process itself was mutually rewarding, too. They were a great client. And check out this very kind recommendation ACE’s Deborah Warin gave me:

I was away from the office for much of the project with Stephanie and distracted by other matters when I was in but never for a moment did I lose confidence that things were moving forward without being constantly hands on. It is a pleasure to work with a consultant who actually masters a project rather than becomes another report. Stephanie finessed a number of situations which could have become more difficult rather than less and for that I am very grateful. –January 21, 2010

But, honestly, when their developer told me that the content inventory I sent over “essentially served as a content management roadmap” that made his implementation work easier, then I was even MORE thrilled for them.

Check it out!

Homepage Wireframe: ACE's National Guide, CREDIT Program

Final Homepage: ACE's National Guide, CREDIT Program

Since meeting THE one-and-only Samantha Warren, I have been astounded by her seemingly effortless ability to balance her creative web design work with speaking engagements — typically on the topic of typography — around the world. When she updated her online presence in 2009 and asked me to write content on her behalf, I jumped at the opportunity.

After all, it’s not every day that I get to work for a client who has a curse word in her portfolio title. But immaturity aside, the goal for Samantha was simple: convey (in words) her deep involvement and commitment to the advancement of design.

Here’s an excerpt from the opening section of her bio page:

I LOVE FUSING SMART CONCEPTS WITH CREATIVE, STANDARDS-BASED,accessible web design. I value every aspect of the creative process from brainstorming big-picture ideas to marking up HTML & CSS.  I know that listening, understanding business and user experience goals, and adhering to standards are keys to well-executed design online.

I’m a people person. Whether connecting with clients at Phase 2 Technology — where I’m a web designer — or moderating a panel on typography at SXSWi or catching up with other web professionals at Refresh DC, I love to participate in web community activities.

During my career so far, I’ve had the chance to work with established clients (e.g.Choice Hotels International, National Geographic, and Dupont) and individuals alike (e.g. journalists, surgeons, and environmentalist). It’s rad.

Samantha has said, both verbally and with Starbucks gift cards, that she’s been overwhelmingly pleased with my copywriting work on her behalf. In fact, as a result, she’s gotten me involved with FullBleed and the Art Director Club of Metro Washington’s marketing activities.

Maybe a recent tweet says it best:

@steph_hay and you are Legendary not a LEGIONARY (my spelling mishap… sigh).

The remainder of the page’s content — which can be pulled easily by conferences looking for bio information on Samantha — can be viewed below or by visiting badassideas.com/about.

About Page Content: BadAss Ideas

I’ve harped a lot on why having engaging copy can separate one site from another. Assume only more of the same. (What? It’s a legitimate argument!)

Jackson questioned which pages should receive focused effort in creating brilliant copy. I understand it’s serious hard work for people to craft creative content for an entire site (*cough* hire a copywriter! *cough*), and he raises a realistic point: making an impact in a handful of highly visible areas of a site AND in the details, too, can have a tremendous effect. So here’s the first of many places I think a site can showcase brilliant web copy to separate itself from the competition: About Us.

Is this too obvious? Or maybe it’s surprising because #1 might otherwise have been the homepage, but more and more people are finding secondary (and deeper) pages through search engines and skipping the homepage completely.

Whether they come to the homepage or jump into some third-level page doesn’t matter; ultimately, if you have what they’re looking for, they’ll jump to your “about” page to help gauge legitimacy. Grab them by describing yourself in an direct, genuine way.

Not sure how to do that? Well, pretend like you’re describing your company to your grandma. You’ll be surprised by how different (Dare I say, approachable? Or easy?) your language becomes when talking to a loved one versus a potential consumer. Once you have that conversational infrastructure, you can “professionalize” it to how you assume your users will best understand it.

But don’t go overboard — sometimes, your users want to digest your language the same way your grandma does. More and more, the internet is becoming an informal place where business is done in jeans over IM. Of course, this doesn’t hold true for every company, but keep in mind that your content should be representative of you but speak to your user.

The Good
Viget.com (shameless plug. sue me. please don’t.) – We are people. Here’s what we do. Here are the qualities we personify in our staff and through our work. And it’s not *just* because Viget Labs is a fun web consulting company that allows it to project such an approachable voice; it’s because it refuses to confuse “conversational” with “unprofessional,” and many companies still have a hard time realizing the two aren’t necessarily synonymous. (Considering so many decisions are made over lunch — rather than in boardrooms — you’d think more traditional businesses would start speaking directly to consumers rather than through a marketing team trying to come up with “impressive” descriptors that most people never use in everyday language. To them, I say: KISS.*)

U.S. Department of Education – I applaud the U.S. Dept. of Ed. for using the KISS* technique in its about page. This is who we are, when we were founded, and what we do. It doesn’t get bogged down in traditional stodgy (unnecessarily wordy) government lingo. Bingo bango, Secrest out.

The Bad
Boeing.com – I know Boeing is speaking to an entirely different audience than viget.com, for example, but I have a hard time believing that users — before visiting Boeing — decided they really needed a company that would integrate “through network-centric operations” by creating solutions “that reach across business units.” Maybe those people exist, and maybe they’re enjoying a round of golf right now. To me, the language on Boeing’s site screams fluffy marketing, and aside from a few lines on their about page, I argue that their value is diluted because someone wanted to fill up the webpage with more copy. The real meat is that more than 150,000 people comprise Boeing, which, at its core, “is the world’s leading aerospace company and the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft combined.” Less is more.*

Dell – Did I just click to read news releases? Who is EqualLogic? Dell is assuming that everyone in the world knows who they are. Maybe that’s an OK assumption to make if you’re Michael Jackson, but Dell misses the mark here by not even giving a paragraph to itself as a company. Instead, it makes reader wade through press releases — something I argue no one really wants to do anymore — to find out what the company has been doing lately. So much for engaging readers. Why not just have an about page that says, “If you’re here, you know us. ‘Nuff said.” Pompous? Sure. But confusing, nah.

* KISS: Keep it simple, stupid.