White Paper Pundit

For the past two months, I’ve had the opportunity to review over 300 white papers which I’ve made available to you via my Friday FREE White Paper List. This is a compilation of the free (no registration required) white papers that Twitter users have passed along via their Tweets each week.

From these lists, I’ve also seen the importance of making a positive first impressions with Twitter users. Let’s face it. One of the reasons that Twitter has become so popular is that it appeals to our limited time and short attention span. What other medium can you think of where you can scan thousands of short messages, filter the ones that are important to you, and immediately click on a related website, and download a white paper or other PDF/Word document to obtain further information?

But there is a downside.

Twitter users don’t have a lot of patience. Like the famous 3-second rule for your website home page, Twitter users probably have about the same amount of time to determine whether your white paper is worth reading. While you may have meant well and put a lot of time into your white paper content, unless you can incorporate certain features that will draw the Twitter user into that content, they may not read the bulk of that paper if they don’t have a positive first impression.

So based on what I have seen, here are four things you can do to your white paper that will create a positive first impression, and increase the probability that the average Twitter user will read a greater portion of your white paper content:

1. Have a Graphic Cover Page: Take a look at the two white paper cover pages below. Which one would you want to read first?

The answer is obvious. You will want to read the white paper on the right first. It’s visually appealing, fonts are large and bold, and the focus of the paper is clear.

White papers that do not have an attractive graphic cover page, and start with a text-based Introduction page also create a first impression, namely one that seems complex, impersonal, and imposing. More importantly it tells the reader that they better have a lot of time set aside to read the paper, something that a lot of Twitter users don’t have and probably won’t invest.

2. The Importance Above ‘The Fold’ - There’s a reason why newspapers place the most ‘attention-gaining’ headlines above the fold on the front cover. That’s what people will notice first, and will use to make their first impression. Based on that headline, they will determine whether the article is worth reading. The same is true for your white paper.

To increase the probability that your white paper will be read, place your best ‘attention generating’ title and subtitle above the fold within the first half of your white paper. This is also important if the bottom half of your white paper cover may be cut off due to poor webpage formatting or other websites and technology such as Scribd iPaper.

3. Don’t Include a Table of Contents – Nobody reads them and nobody uses them since most are not hot-linked to subsequent white paper pages. This waste of space is a relic of a bygone era that no longer fits in with our current short attention span and needs to go the way of the buggy whip.

4. Make Your First Content Page Compelling – Whether your first content page is an Executive Summary or Introduction, you need to make it bold by adding a compelling header and a related Callout/Pull Quote in the sidebar white space. Some ideas include:

“The Problem with ____________”

“The Case for ______________”

“Why __________ Doesn’t Work Anymore”

“What’s Wrong with ______________”

“Think _________ is a Good Idea. Think Again.”

Your sidebar callout should also answer the question posed by the header. In doing so, you draw the reader into the content in your first page. If you practice this technique with other white paper pages, you will successfully generate an incentive to read the rest of your white paper.

Just like your friends and business associates, first impressions matter. Think about that with your next white paper that you plan on linking to your Twitter Tweets.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 1:37 pm and is filed under Social Media, Twitter, WP Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.