WEB | Jordanian companies tend to hide behind a ‘big We’, Ahmad Humeid discovers.
My work in the fields of design and the web over the last decade has brought me in contact with Jordan’s corporate company cultures. I have witnessed first hand how the introduction of technologies like email, websites and instant messaging are affecting many small, medium sized and large Jordanian enterprises and sometimes leading them to rethink the way they do business, and how they communicate externally and, more importantly, internally.
One of the strange things about many Jordanian companies, in my opinion, is the way the talk about themselves on their websites. I call it the ‘hiding behind the big WE’ syndrome.
Most Jordanian companies seem to try to use the web to appear larger then they really are. Thus they adopt the language of big, ‘Americanized’, corporations. The slogans, graphics and general attitude are usually very generic and of a ‘globalized’ appearance.
Click on the ‘about us’ button and you will, most often, find sentences like: “Our team of experts is knowledgeable in the latest IT trends”, or “The company has a team of highly qualified specialists”, or “Our directors have extensive experience..”. Go to the ‘contacts us’ page and you find impersonal email addresses like “sales@xyz.com” and “marketing@xyz.com”. You will rarely find a company that lists the names of the owners or directors, let alone the employees. It’s only “we, we, we”. Even the pictures used on the home page are usually generic stock photos of western-looking executives!
I remember once talking to a company director, whose reason for not listing his team’s name on his company’s web site was that he didn’t want the competition to ‘steal’ his people! Other decision makers probably think like little dictators, who want to be the only star of the show and never give credit to their team. Others want to appear like a global company to some eagerly anticipated western client who might react unfavourably when seeing Arab names listed on the site of an ‘advanced’ IT company.
Whatever the reason for this impersonal, generic web communication approach, companies need to realize that this is causing them more harm than good. When people look for possible partners, suppliers or contractors they are really looking for good, real people, not some fancy looking image. When a good, medium sized company does not reveal its people, how can visitors of its web site differentiate it from some other site with big flashy claims that was simply put up by a freelancing teenager? How can people trust that this company has real employees with real skills?
Business is personal. Without adding the personal touch of the founders and team members and coming out from behind the ‘big WE’ companies cannot build believable brands. Team loyalty and pride also suffer when employees don’t feel acknowledged. Moreover, the web is shifting more and more toward giving voice to the individual. Many companies worldwide are turning their corporate into weblogs that not only celebrate the company’s projects or products but also the diversity and interests of its team.
The web is interactive. Interactivity happens between people. Consider what the book ‘The Cluetrain Manifesto (The End of Business as Usual)’ has to say:
“A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.
These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can’t be faked.”
Comments
10 responses to “Companies: Show some personality on your web site!”
Nice perspective on business websites. It’s not intuitive, but when you explain it, it makes sense. Keep it up & way to go…
Why do they resort to this semblance of coruscating brilliance ‘notwithstanding’ its hinging on chicanery and shenanigan? Will the vaunted whoopla increase their wherewithal or decrease their outlays? I reckon that there is plethora of pantheons thriving in Jordan.
Ahmed, I acknowledge your above take; it may will be that a hyped up “corporate” image is bound to bite back, but consider the following:
if a large-size punter in the states or elsewhere, is trying to outsource say the overhauling of its corporate image/branding, when they punt around, they would definitely skip the dodgy locking websites with sales contacts using hotmail and yahoo, and would definitely short-list those companies with a professional web presence without being fooled with fad terms such as “team of experts” and “specialists”.
Yes, overselling one’s business is as bad as being subtle about it. But for me, web presence is an intrinsic part of the overall image of the company, to the extreme that I find it an ice-cold turn-off for a Jordanian company to have a .com instead of a .jo for their domain! No, not because of any patriotic tendency –or is it?- but because this is what professional companies do. DotCom domains are for the office-less creepy con company using Paypal to lure easily-amused punters.
But again, I subscribe to what you have said; a professional appearance should not be on the expense of honesty and sincerity with the company’s offering and the capability of delivering upon it.
If your company is a one-man-show running from a room at an incubator in Jubaiha district, then be it… if the product or service you offer is embraceable by the marketplace, then this is the ticket to profitability.
Otherwise, I stick with the necessity of a top-nosh fat-cat corporate interactive updated feel website as a requisite for any company with a web-presence (those without do not exist in my book).
You are so right! Not only in Jordan, but where i am at as well, the “We” syndrome is not a syndrome but an epidemic!
I once wrote content for a “little dictator” on his company website … and he drove me crazy with the “We, we, we,” and even the simplest of things had to be his decision even when it came to the websites design! He wanted a certain color because it was his favorite … whether it gave out the right impression or not … he didnt care, “just use orange, it is my favotire color” !
As for mentioning the employees, HA! no way in hell ! … ooof !
nice view on the web design. i completely agree..
Come again!
I checked your company’s web site (www.syntaxdigital.com) contact us page, and it uses the “big WE” you’re criticizing.
Also, I don’t think that (info@syntaxdigital.com) is any personal, seems that your company suffers from the same “syndrome” (‘hiding behind the big WE’ syndrome).
Link: http://www.syntaxdigital.com/newsite/Contact.htm
Text from your contact page (copy/paste):
Got questions?
Feel free to email us (mailto: info (at) syntaxdigital.com)
Peace.
Hey Janti,
Thank you for the note and the trouble you took to check our website. Yes the info mail is impersonal. We should change that!
But at least we have the names of actual people on the site, as well as a good number of pictures that represent our real office. In previuos press releases we mentioned real names of some of our team members.
And.. to top it off
there are 4 bloggers in our office. How more personal can you get.
“Peace”
Why I got the feeling that you’re offended!? Maybe not!
Anyway, I was just commenting on the point you criticized, additionally; to tell you the truth I didn’t felt the openness you’re talking about in syntax site!
Another point, how do you suggest companies talk to their customers, replacing this “big WE”? You didn’t provide any suggestions in regard of the context.
Quoting from your site (again):
“Although (WE) are ‘generalists’ (unlike some companies who specialize in, say, food packaging design or usability testing), (WE) have, over the years…etc.”
How do you suggest changing this? Putting it this way for example:
Although (Moh’d, Ahmad and Ruba…etc.) are ‘generalists’ (unlike some companies who specialize in, say, food packaging design or usability testing), (Moh’d, Ahmad and Ruba…etc.) have, over the years…etc.?
Keep up
Yours
Janti,
I am not suggesting that the word ‘We’ be banned from the dictionary! Of course a company will say ‘we’. That totally normal. The problem with the companies I am criticizing is that they don’t mention ANY names on their websites. They use generic stock photos of ‘business people’ instead of something that shows their true personality as company (companies, like people should have a personality).
I am talking about companies who don’t give employees email addresses!
The SYNTAX site is not perfect, but I think it is more personal than many others out there.
Watch out for the next release of our site to get an even more personal SYNTAX approach
Salam
My best wishes.
Regards