White Paper Pundit

About the Sponsor: Intelliseek (a division of Nielsen BuzzMetrics) creates real-time marketing intelligence from the vast amounts and types of consumer-created content on the Internet and in company feedback.

White Paper Title: Consumer-Generated Media 101: Word-of-Mouth in the Age of the Web-Fortified Consumer

Size: 15 Pages

The Review: (Ratings are scored from 1 to 10)

Overview: This white paper tackles the issue of word of mouth advertising on the web, a topic that has as much buzz in advertising circles as the medium itself. The paper uses a comfortable “conversational” style, a healthy dose of well illustrated and captioned graphics, analogies, and professional formatting to deliver their message. While the paper is on the outer edge in its overall size, it makes up for this limitation by combining several elements that draw the reader into its content, and make reading it pleasurable. This is an excellent example that any professional marketing writer should use as a model in crafting their white papers.

First Glance/Appearance: At first glance the reader notices that this paper is full of excellent concept graphics, business charts, tables, and visual elements. In fact there is almost one on every page. This aids in reader comprehension. In addition, the Executive Summary (ES) uses an interesting large block text style in the leading paragraph, an innovative first message concept. Unfortunately, I prefer an ES that encapsulates the entire paper in one page, and this one is another form that doesn’t provide enough information for the short attention span executive reader. Rating: 9.

Titles/Headings: Both the main title, sub-title and section headings clearly articulate what to expect. This concept is extended to the headings on each of the illustrations and graphics which attract reader attention. Many of the headings ask questions, another element that makes the reader yearn to read the section below it. Rating: 10.

Flow: Flow on this paper is good, providing a considerable amount of space to educating the reader to current industry issues before providing marketing guidance later in the paper. The only area where the flow stops is at the end, with the absence of a concluding summary. The paper ends with three case studies of industries that can benefit from online word-of-mouth advertising. I would have preferred a formal closure to the paper with some bottom-line take-away points. This is one of the elements that executives read in addition to the ES, and its absence leaves the reader hanging at the end. Rating: 8.

Formatting: Text formatting is very good. While I find two-column formats to be busy for most readers, the use of this format in the paper does work. The text conveys a very professional look and feel, using bold section headers and sub-heads to attract attention. I especially like the way that tables are formatted and bullet lists are highlighted. The use of arrows in one section instead of the more traditional circular bullet gives the paper a very professional and classy appearance. Rating: 10.

Graphics: The use of graphics is excellent and one area where this paper really shines. Besides the number of graphics, each one has a clear heading, uses a well written and clearly understood caption, and goes out of their way to describe what is going on with each illustration or chart. There are also screen shots of video and web page examples. If the reader saw nothing else besides the graphics (which many executives will certainly do), they will get enough information to either read the rest of the paper or pass it along to another decision maker within the organization. Rating: 10.

Size: The size of this paper is 15 pages, which is on the very outside edge of what most executives can handle in one reading. While it may be a lot, the number of quality elements in the paper minimize the boredom that would normally occur if this paper had been a text-only document. Obviously the large number of graphics has extended the paper’s size, and this minimizes the impact that would normally occur with a more traditional paper of this size. Rating: 9.

Comprehension: The question in this section is, “Does the paper meet the expectation set forth in the title”? The overwhelming answer is YES! As a result of the number and quality of all its elements (text formatting, graphics, examples, style) a reader cannot help but full comprehend the key messages in this subject. The white paper exceeds all expectations as set forth in the title, and then some. Rating: 10.

Overall Score: 9.4 out of 10.

Ok, so most technical writing isn’t bedtime reading (unless you are an insomniac), but there should be some flow and overarching organization to what you write.

Infoworld, one the top news publications in the techology industry, recently published an interesting article on tips that tech writers can follow to improve their white paper writing skills and make their content more appealing to their readers.

Several of the tips that were featured include:

1. Focus on communicating – The platinum rule of the written word is that you aren’t writing for you, you are writing to communicate with the reader.

2. Written technical communication is forever – White papers are stored for future reference. Are the sentences grammatically correct, relatively easy to read, and written with standard vocabularies? What you write and how you write it will be stored online forever, so make sure it doesn’t have mistakes.

3. Even in email - same as above. You don’t know who your messages will be forwarded to.

4. Tell a story – Your reader should have a clear sense of the direction you are headed and what it is that you want them to do when they finish.

5. Keep looking for feedback – There’s only one test that really matters: when your audience understands your information and is moved to act in accordance with your goals.

The article ends with a poignant thought about this issue of receiving feedback:

Think about Caruso, probably the greatest tenor in history, who at the height of his career as the star of the Metropolitan Opera conscientiously took voice lessons to improve his singing and acting on stage. If you are a better technologist than Caruso was a singer, maybe you don’t need feedback. Otherwise seek it out and treasure it.

Certainly words to live by…

If you’ve read any of the online marketing websites lately you’ve probably seen some factoid that the demand for white papers is increasing. For example, KnowlegeStorm and MarketingSherpa recently revealed that :

71% of survey participants indicated they read/consume white papers more than case studies, product literature, articles from industry journalists, analyst reports, company websites, webcasts, blogs, online video and postcasts.

Nearly 3 in 5 technology professionals (57%) pass white papers along to colleagues and coworkers—more so than any other marketing tool. Case studies were listed 5th, at 47 percent.

With the rising demand for white papers, have you ever wondered how to become a white paper writer? Well, now is a one-time opportunity to learn how.

On April 19th, I have been invited to be a guest participant along with two other well-known white paper writers in a teleclass entitled: “Succeeding as a Freelance White Paper Writer“. The class will be sponsored by the WhitePaperSource online forum.

Together, the three of us have written more than 400 white papers for some of the largest enterprise businesses in the world. This is an excellent opportunity to learn tips and strategies from those of us who have spent their careers as freelance white paper experts.

During the class, you’ll learn about the market opportunity for feelancers, how to pitch white papers, how to overcome the challenges of producing white papers as freelancers and much more.

Please note: Demand for this class has been high, so you will need to register for this class soon. The number of seats available are limited.

Click here for the details.

Thanks, and talk you soon!

Jonathan

Do the number of columns in a white paper enhance its readability or is it just for show? That seems to be one of questions that many people ask when they plan the design and layout of their white papers.

Why do people choose a multi-column design, is there an advantage to it?

White papers typically fall into either one or two column designs. One of the reasons that people choose a two column format is its similarity with newsletters, newspapers and magazines. Most magazines and newspapers use a two and three column format, and this concept bleeds over to the area of white papers.

One possible reason for a multi-column format in a white paper is to give it an air of authority. The thinking here is that if looks more like something from ”Scientific America” or “The Economist” the information contained within it is perceived to be more credible.

But in doing so there is a downside, specifically with “readability” and attention span. When you place an image in the middle of a two-column page that spans the entire width of the page, the image breaks up the natural flow of the paper. The eye tends to look to the column to the right-top of the picture, instead of the column at the bottom left. As a result reader cadence is disrupted, forcing them to re-read information over again.

In my case I rarely use two columns because I don’t want to introduce another element that will detract from the reader’s attention with the content and the delivery of key messages in the white paper. It’s difficult enough to keep the “short attention span” reader focused, so why introduce anything that works against the limited time that you already have with them?

So save the multi-column design for your newsletters. Use a single-column design when you have important messages to deliver in a white paper.

When Intel engineer John Bancroft needed a way to collaborate with his fellow engineers, he borrowed an idea from Wikipedia, the online communal encyclopedia. Appropriately named, Intelpedia, the website allows his fellow employees to share company information, ranging from historical highlights to the progress of internal projects.

Just as the term “Googling” became associated with the concept of searching, now you can add another Internet-born buzzword to your list, called “wikis”.

According to an article in Businessweek online called “No Rest for the Wiki“, companies are now using wikis for a wide range of activities such as tracking industry news, setting meeting agendas, posting corporate policies, and even creating strategy documents. Because there are several freely available open-source software packages like MediaWiki and TWiki, it’s easy for employees to start one without even alerting the IT department. Some companies are even letting their employees take a more passive role with wikis that track industry news or update employees on quickly changing rules and regulations.

The concept of wikis seems like the perfect online collaboration tool for the various stages in white paper development. For example, T-Mobile is creating customer wikis for certain mobile devices. The idea is not only to create community among users of these mobile devices but also to keep the user guides up-to-date, as people discover new uses for their smartphones and PDAs.

Let’s apply this principle to white papers. A wiki could be used not only to provide collaborative input on a new white paper project, but also to refresh an existing one. Imagine after a white paper has been published, both internal employees and customers could post suggestions for its revision such as edits, new sections, charts, concept graphics, and designs all within an online wiki. Then on a perioidic basis, the author or marketing department could collect that information from the wiki and update the white paper. Once published, the process would start all over again.

The only problem would be finding a name. Somehow whitewiki.com sounds like a collaboration site for the best surfing locations in Maui, and wikipapers.com would be something that ZigZag might be interested in for collaborating on new products.

Whatever the name, the concept of a wiki could radically change the face of project management and online collaboration for any type of business communications medium especially white papers.

About the Sponsor: Anecdote is a consulting firm that specializes in helping companies tackle complex problems such as organizational change, learning and project evaluation.

White Paper Title: “Using Content to Create Connections among People: Keeping the Sales Force Up to Date”

Size: 5 Pages

The Review: (Ratings are scored from 1 to 10)

Overview: This white paper addresses the use of blogs to enhance sales force productivity and lead generation. The white paper is only five pages long which is far too short to effectively address such a complex issue. Therefore it leaves the reader with many unanswered questions. While the topic certainly has merit, the white paper needs to be built-out with a lot more information than in its current form. The paper also drifts in and out of several different issues which takes the reader off the primary topic. I found this paper very hard to read and difficult to determine exactly what the author wanted to convey.

First Glance/Appearance: At first glance, the reader notices that the white paper is primarily a text-based document with two large graphic images. It is formatted using a two-column design which makes it harder on the eyes, especially when there is a graphic image in the center of the page. As a result, the reader wants to go to the column at the right hand side of down the page to the bottom left. I found myself having to re-read passages several times before I could connect the appropriate paragraphs to each other and fully understand the key points in the section. Rating 2 

Titles/Headings: The title should be reversed for greater effectiveness, and read “Keeping the Sales Force Up to Date: Using Blog Content to Create Connections among People”. Note that I added the word “Blog” to the title so that the reader can better understand what to expect from the content. Headings are also too short and don’t provide enough of a description for each section. For example, “A New Solution to an Old Problem” is a tired old cliché. The author needs to tell the reader exactly what the problem or solution advantage is in each of the headings. Rating: 2

Flow: There is little flow to this paper and the current attempt is poor. The author provides no introduction to the high level issues confronting sales forces, devoting only one short paragraph to problem setting. The majority of the paper jumps right into the solution discussion. Even in that section (which comprises the majority of the content), the author jumps around going from specific problems to defining what blogs are half-way through the discussion. There is also no concluding summary, leaving the reader hanging without a close. This is a common problem confronting many white papers today. Rating: 1

Formatting: The paper uses a two column design that is readable, but it presents problems with redirecting reader attention that a single column white paper does not have. There is also an imbalance in the amount of content devoted to each section. There is far too little information in the problem section, and too little in two of the three solution categories that are listed. The third entitled, “Harnessing Community Cultures” takes up almost an entire page of the limited five page size. Rating: 3

Graphics: With the two graphic images that are used in this white paper, it’s difficult to easily understand what’s going on with them, and how they relate to the topic. Labels are missing from key elements, explanations of information process flows are either too short or missing, and there are no captions at the bottom of the graphics so the reader can better understand them. Rating: 1

Size: The document is 4 pages (with the fifth page entitled “About the Author” containing only one paragraph), which is far too short for an effective white paper, let alone this topic. Part of the problem with such a short paper is that there is not enough space devoted to setting the industry dynamics and problems with the specific issue. By jumping right into a solution discussion so early as this paper, it becomes a sales pitch, something that turns business readers off right away. This paper should have been double the size, around 8 to 10 pages. Rating: 2

Comprehension: The paper does a poor job in the comprehension department because it does not set a preliminary foundation for those who may be less technical or less knowledgeable about blogs. It also takes a scattered approach to presenting information in a logical step-by-step manner. More importantly it does not effectively address the expectations established with the title, specifically how blog content can be used to benefit a sales force organization. Rating: 2

Overall Score: 1.8 out of 10.

If you follow political news, by now you should have heard about the modified version of Apple’s famous 1984 TV advertisement. The video was produced and uploaded to YouTube by an anonimous supporter of the Barack Obama campaign and features Hillary Clinton on the big screen in a “not-so-favorable” light.

As a former Apple employee I have to admit that I have seen the original version so many times, I could recite it frame-by-frame in my sleep. From another perspective the person that did this is very creative and has some strong talents in digital video editing.

And yes, they probably used a Mac to accomplish this feat.

With that said, the next question that pops into any ethicist’s mind is “Is it the right thing to do?”.

On the surface, this stunt clearly violates copyright law, and while Apple’s lawyers are probably busy crafting legal drafts as we speak, one of the problems that they will find out very quickly is that they can’t sue a phantom. Since the video’s creator has used an online alias to post the video, there is really no way to sue that person directly unless YouTube provide’s Apple with their name. They probably won’t give that up easily without a long drawn-out legal fight.

But there are also three additional questions that we need to ask ourselves as we march down this “1984-style” approach of altering another’s work for personal gain:

1. What Precedence Does This Set for the Future?

If this is allowed to go forward without any penalty, what message does that send to others regarding plagiarism? If I can get away with copying your work, and do it discreetly, does that make it right? With the popularity of this video, what signal does that send to the other talented digital video artists who will distribute countless numbers of altered videos for their own personal or political messages? I think we are looking at flood of similar acts and an entirely new level of desecration to existing copyright laws as a result.

2. What Responsibility Does the Hosting Site Have?

Clearly, YouTube is enjoying every minute of this, and has absolutely not incentive to take down the video unless forced to do so by Apple. With every news channel broadcasting the awareness of this video, the hits to YouTube’s website has been off the charts. In fact, as a result of the recent copyright lawsuits that have been levied against YouTube for posting commercials and television excerpts, this could be a whole new area of opportunity for YouTube, unless they are stopped from doing so.

3. Does Apple Benefit?

I think so. Apple gets free publicity by re-using a twenty year-old television commercial. They also are able to show off the capability of their platform for creating very professional digital video. Right now I don’t see any of Apple’s lawyers taking swift action. Who knows, Steve Jobs might just be a closet Obama supporter?

So my question to you is: If video is allowed to be plagarized, can white papers be that far off? Are they already?

The Chinese were right, a picture IS worth a thousand words.

When it comes to assimilating complex information, people prefer to see pictures rather than read text. In fact several studies have shown that we will always retain more information when we can see it versus read about it.

So when it comes to developing a white paper on a complex or technical subject, its always helpful to include one or two concept graphics to insure that your reader will retain the key messages contained within it. This is where a concept graphic is most beneficial.

A concept graphic is a diagram that delivers complex information by using visual elements in as simplistic a fashion as possible. In fact employing the “KISS Method” works best. Keep it Simple Sailor. The simpler the better, if you want that complex idea to be retained by your reader.

But getting there is often easier said than done. So how does one take a complex idea and develop a concept graphic around it? Here are some valuable tips to follow to help you in this effort:

1. Find Examples – We’ve all seen examples of concept graphics in business magazines, brochures, and websites. When you see them, cut them out or save them to a folder for future reference. Seeing how others have represented complex information in simple ways will help understand how to use basic shapes and elements that will convey your idea in the best way possible.

2. Organize Basic Components - Most concepts revolve around some basic premise such as people, time, space, process, or order. Break down your idea into one of these concepts, asssemble the components of that concept, and then find a design that best encapsulates it. For example, technical diagrams work best in a brick-like or line structure, while business diagrams often use circles to represents individual markets or business entities.

3. Determine an Orientation – Orientation has a lot to do with the subject. I find that network diagrams are best in a horizontal orientation, while workflow or complex structures work best in a vertical orientation. Move your elements around using both orientations and see which one works best in delivering your message.

4. Use A Few Elements – Try to minimize the number of elements. Too many and the goal of keeping it simple will be lost as will your concept to the reader.

5. Don’t Mix Shapes – Stick to one shape if you can. For example don’t mix circles and square. Too many different shapes, and your message might be lost on the reader.

6. Use Primary Colors -  Blue and Red and the most common colors that you will find in printed material or in a business logo. Why? These colors are typically the first to be recognized by the human eye. They are also two of the three primary colors, with the third being green. Try to use these or combinations of them (such as yellow, orange, etc) to make it easier on your reader’s eyes.

7. Test it Out -  The process of perfecting a concept graphic doesn’t come on the first try. It will probably be refined over the course of several drafts. As you hone in on the style and design that works for you, send it to another trusted worker in your company or a friend to see if they get the point you are trying to convey. Ask them, “what’s the message that you see here“, or other similar questions. From their feedback and responses, you can gain valuable ideas to refine your concept graphic and learn other design lessons that will help you create them in the future.

Every font conveys a distinct business image, so much so that Adobe System has build a multi-million business around this concept.

One of the reasons that Adobe and other font vendors have literally tens of thousands of font styles is that each one evokes a particular reaction with a reader. Some convey a professional tone suitable for business, while others have a more friendly theme designed for a consumer marketplace.

Fonts are even gender-specific. Some are targeted to men, others for women, and still others for children.

Serif fonts (those that have extensions on their ends) convey a more formal image. San-Serif fonts (without extensions) convey a more casual theme. 

With the association that fonts have to imagery, they become a subtle but important part of every white paper. Just as important as how a white paper is written (tone), the font represents one aspect of the image that you wish to portray through your text.

Here are the images that four of the most commonly used fonts convey:

Courier – Laggard. The font that looks similar to a typewriter.
It projects an “old-fashioned” theme.

Times Roman – Straightforward. A common font for legal documents.
It projects a “business or legal” theme.

Arial – Unimaginative. Also another default font system font.
It projects a “simple” theme.

Trebuchet MS – Professional. This is my favorite font for a white paper.
It projects a “clean and sharp” theme.

Of course, there are many equally professional looking fonts that would serve your white paper just as well as Trebuchet MS. Some of these are Bookman, New Century, Verdana, Helvetica, Palatino, among others.

One other point: Once you select a particular font for your white paper library, stick with it. Don’t change fonts with every new white paper. Your audience will grow accustomed to reading your white papers with one particular font style and expect to see it on every other one that you publish.

Do you have a favorite font that you use for your white papers? Which one is it?

As white papers become an accepted part of daily business life, the ability to scour the Internet for subjects that fit our needs on-demand seems to be a logic next-step. Well it seems that you wishes may be just around the corner.

On March 13th, startup Divvio, Inc. launched a service that will automatically find audio, video, and eventually, text on your favorite subjects, such as white papers, according to a recent article in BusinessWeek magazine online. The service will then weave together these pieces of information to create personalized multimedia channels that are updated each time you sign on.

How about “The White Paper Channel”?

Davvio software works by trawling the Web and indexing content not just by subject or title, but by bandwidth, duration, and over a dozen other attributes. Then a “personalization engine” matches each consumer’s desires to this data base, sensing what the user is interested in based on past requests. Then Divvio servers will stitch the segments together in milliseconds, regardless of what media format they were coded in. So it has to know the difference between Madonna the singer and Madonna the religious icon.

It sounds like a tall order, but in order to be successful, it has to work right out of the box. Divvio figures it will only hit the mark 10% of the time for its first customers, but that should grow to 60% by yearend.

When the text search portion comes online, it should make the process of building entire white paper libraries on a series of topics much easier to perform, and a lot less time consuming. It should also allow a lot more white papers that are currently hidden due to the limitations of current search engines and white paper libraries to be discovered and read.

Stay tuned. It should get very interesting!