White Paper World 49: October 10, 2024
- Quick tip: Position your draft for reviewers
- This just in: Facts and logic CAN bring people out of a rabbit hole
- Tools of the trade: A great new-ish podcast on using AI
Read in 6 minutes. Listen in 10 minutes:
Quick tip: Position your draft for reviewers
3-minute read.
Did you ever get a big PDF in your Inbox with a terse note asking, “What do you think?”
What do I think?!
- I’m think I’m busy!
- I think I already have too many things to think about!
- I think you should buzz off and stop bothering me!
Why should your reviewers be any different?
After all, reading a 10-page draft will take at least 30 minutes of precious time.
Or maybe 60. Especially if they have to scratch their heads for 10 minutes trying to remember what this white paper is all about.
One simple thing that will help your reviewers
Any B2B writer or marketer can do one simple thing to help reviewers.
You can position your draft for them.
Remember: Your reviewers are immersed in their regular jobs. They haven’t been focused on this white paper for the past month like you have.
So help them out. Include a brief note to refresh their memory.
Remind them of the purpose of your white paper and who it’s aimed at.
Put a short note right at the top on the front page of the draft. That way, they can’t miss it.
Some real-life examples
Here’s how I summed up these items at the start of three actual white paper drafts.
Each paper is on a completely different topic. But the same approach worked every time.
For a white paper on employee resilience during Covid
Goal: To generate leads for keynote speeches and corporate training on resilience
Audience: Decision-makers worried about employees’ ability to bounce back from the pandemic. All ages from 30 to 65. More likely women. Titles include CEO, CFO, CIO, Owner, President, or VP.
Some run the local offices of larger organizations, with titles like Administrator, Director, Manager, Partner, or Meeting Planner.
For a white paper on a new approach for CIOs
Purpose: To provide helpful guidance for senior IT managers on what they can do to act more like IT service brokers
Audience:
- IT decision-makers with titles like VP of IT, Director of IT, Director of Virtual Infrastructure
- Mid-market companies with $200 million to $1 billion in sales (Fortune 1000+)
- Men aged 40 to 60 with a Computer Science degree and perhaps an MBA who are facing pressure to “do more with less” and focus on business growth instead of simply “keeping the lights on”
For a white paper to attract business brokers
Notice how you can include further notes to guide reviewers.
Purpose: To generate recruitment leads for a franchised business brokerage
Intended readers: Business buyers, commercial real estate agents, downsized middle managers, and dissatisfied professionals looking for a new opportunity. Men or women aged 35 to 55 who are unfamiliar with the business broker concept.
Other notes
—Do one version for both Canada and USA, but use American spelling
—Refer to both Canadian and American retirement plans like RRSPs and 401(K)s
—Use equivalent statistics from both countries
—Include the history and future of the business brokerage industry
See how short and simple those notes can be… and yet, how very helpful?
Conclusion
You can’t make your reviewers’ lives any less hectic.
But you can make your request for a review seem less random.
By using this simple tip, you can help your reviewers understand what that 10-page PDF is all about… and help them get started on their review.
Source: Stable Diffusion
This just in: Facts and logic CAN bring people out of a rabbit hole
2-minute read.
Do you ever feel like everything has gone crazy?
Some people still believe the world is flat.
Or the moon landing never happened.
Or that airplanes are spraying mind-control drugs into the skies.
Just about everybody has a friend or family member who’s gone down some rabbit hole about a conspiracy theory. And nothing we can say will ever bring them back. Right?
Well, listen to this.
A new AI chatbot can reason people out of their conspiracy beliefs. And it works by using facts, logic, patience, and personalized attention.
“Until now, conventional wisdom held that once someone fell down the conspiratorial rabbit hole, no amount of arguing or explaining would pull that person out,” said a report in the New York Times.
“The new findings challenge the widely held belief that facts and logic cannot combat conspiracy theories.”
This fascinating anti-conspiracy chatbot is called DebunkBot.
It takes less than 10 minutes
The bot works like this. You enter a conspiracy theory you believe in, along with as much “evidence” as you like.
Then the AI returns facts and arguments to challenge that theory.
In the original tests with 2,000 people, the average chat lasted 8 minutes and reduced the person’s belief in an untrue conspiracy by 20%.
In fact, 1 in 4 no longer believed the conspiracy at all.
And the effect persisted, so it was likely a permanent change.
Why am I telling you this?
There’s hope! It turns out that facts and logic, civil discussion, and personal attention can indeed banish unfounded beliefs.
And that means white papers, those persuasive essays that use facts and logic, can still work to enlighten people.
In fact, here’s the conclusion from the academic paper about DebunkBot:
Many people, who strongly believe in seemingly fact-resistant conspiratorial beliefs, can change their minds when presented with compelling evidence.
From a theoretical perspective, this paints a surprisingly optimistic picture of human reasoning: Conspiratorial rabbit holes may indeed have an exit.
Maybe there is still some sense in the world after all!
To try the DebunkBot AI yourself, go to https://www.debunkbot.com/
Or casually mention it to that friend or relative who believes that a secret society of alien lizards is running the World Bank.
Tools of the trade: A great new-ish podcast on using AI
1-minute read.
I’ve just discovered a new podcast from someone whose name you may know: Mike Stelzner.
Mike Stelzner
Fifteen or so years ago, Mike was the world’s leading guru on white papers. No question.
He published the excellent book Writing White Papers, held online conferences, and developed a thriving community of B2B writers and marketers interested in the format.
Then he spotted something big and getting bigger: social media.
So in 2009 Mike started Social Media Examiner to publish advice, hold conferences, and do a podcast devoted to helping marketers use social media.
This year he spotted something else. Guess what that was?
If you said “AI” you’re quite right!
So this past May, Mike started a podcast for creators, marketers, and business owners called AI Explored.
I just came across it yesterday, and I’ve been burning through the episodes.
The first one featured Paul Roetzer, who I’ve always pointed to as an excellent source on AI.
Every episode features super-practical tips and advice on how to harness AI, with lots of ideas writers can use.
For instance, an early episode with Chris Penn explained his 4-step approach to prompting. He calls it RACE for Role, Action, Context, and Execute.
And this week’s episode was all about how to train AI to write like a pro.
Click the logo above to see more. Or find AI Explored wherever you get your podcasts. Happy listening!
If you like this newsletter…
Here are three ways to support it.
2. Buy my book White Papers For Dummies. It’s been called “priceless… terrific… outstanding… fantastic… excellent in every way.” And for less than $20, it’s a steal.
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Gordon Graham
That White Paper Guy
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And good luck with all your writing projects!
Gordon Graham
That White Paper Guy
P.S. To all my Canadian friends, Happy Thanksgiving.
