Word Lions LLC

How We Blog Fiercely

2014-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

A company blog keeps a website fresh. Our clients face a lot of intelligent competition, and to maintain an image of thought leadership and agility, they need to communicate with their customers regularly. That’s what we aim for with our fierce technical blogging service: we want them to look smart, and we want to communicate that they are actively doing cool things.

Writing a technical blog for a client is a really interesting challenge. There is a learning curve as we get familiar with the client’s products and how they work. Some of our clients have very complicated pieces of software with very specific markets, and this can require a lot of technical knowledge. With all of my experience in software development, I jump at the opportunity to learn how new products do their jobs.

We Ask a Lot of Questions (But This Is Good!)

Our first contact with a company is typically with somebody in marketing. Usually, the companies we write for have small marketing teams that don’t have the time to write blog posts. We interview the marketing team first, and get a good overview of the product and what it does. Our first interview produces at least one or two good ideas for blog posts.

Questions arise while we write our first blog posts. We learn a lot. We dive into documentation and data and, sometimes, we ask a lot of questions of the client. Deep understanding of a software project is important for quality content. Our first posts end up being meaningful and insightful, but they don’t get very technical.

Clear Language and Outside Perspective

The products we write about solve problems. These problems can be of a specific technical nature, and it can be hard to find the right kind of language that attracts customers and an audience. The company that builds the product typically has a strong internal technical jargon that isn’t immediately understood. We shine at communicating with tech and software buyers. In the process of deciphering the parlance of your subject matter experts we learn more about the product, and get more to write about.

The learning process is as fascinating as the writing. We like to look at data and use it to come up with blog posts. We like to talk to engineers and figure out the questions they have. Over time, the posts we write dive into the guts of your product and how it enhances the industry.

A blog post starts with just an idea. The idea breeds questions, and the answers show us how to communicate your ideas to the community – your customers and potential customers.

Our Continuing Evolution 2013

2013-09-04T00:00:00+00:00

Word Lions have always been more about people than words. (We are rarely actually about lions at all, except in metaphorical ways.) Be it clients, audience, or partners, we earnestly test our efforts to confirm that we are doing good for people. That includes ourselves.

Word Lions started in 2009 when Joel and Philip determined that they would be happy writing white papers for a living. Of course, our work has become so much more than white papers over the years. We have gone from writing to creating content. We churn out a broad array of deliverables on a broad array of subjects.

Along the way, we developed the habit of asking ourselves, “do we want to do this?” whenever a new opportunity arose. The answer was always as much about quality of life and pride of work as margin of profit. To be happy, it is a good question to ask occasionally.

Philip Morgan, Word Lions Emeritus

After nearly five years as a founding and directing partner of our little venture, Philip has decided he wants to do something else. He is leaving the company as of September 30. We are in the process of a graceful, bittersweet transition.

More Karl Than Ever!

Going forward, you will see more of Karl Steiner as he takes on a larger role with Word Lions. Already writer, account manager, and sales Yoda around here for two years, Karl knows all the secret passages in the Word Lions den. Adding to his role will be natural. We can use still more of his many talents and experience.

Put plainly, Philip will not be replaced. There is no replacement for Philip Morgan. This company was made with his vision of writing, business, and life. We have all learned from him and will miss his insight, his point of view, and his astute markup of our drafts. A Two Lion Review will never be the same.

Because of the way we serve projects, we assure you that Word Lions will continue to make quality content and continue to be focused on being good to people we work with. Our focus on process and collaboration means that Philip will be able to transition cleanly out of his projects and Word Lions will continue to serve your needs. There will be a different voice, but the same culture on the phone when you call us.

Questions? Call Us All

In fact, feel free to call us now. Joel and Karl are available to answer any questions during the transition.

Joel: 503.310.2662
Karl: 503.334.7106

How Do You Make a Website Fierce?

2013-06-12T00:00:00+00:00

Word Lions have strong feelings about websites. We think that effective websites, an Internet presence that moves a company forward, need to have a structure as well as content that supports the company’s story.

Word Lions helps companies of various sizes develop websites that support their messaging. Read these case studies to learn about

A new web-based company launching their first web presence.

A 40 year old company refurbishing their company image.

When it comes to a company’s web presence,

Word Lions Believe

It’s worth it to make engaging, interesting websites. Linking content and structure is the key.
Authenticity wins the day. We have designed a process that helps us write authentic content for you. We begin by learning about you and your company, and from there we build messaging that tells your unique story.
Your website visitors’ attention is a precious, non-renewable resource. We design content that is perfect for busy people in search of real value.

We make these websites, and it goes really smoothly

Because Word Lions love process, we approach the challenge of making great websites as a process challenge. Answering this need for our clients forged our content driven design: We call it Fierce Websites

Our process builds a website in this order:

Our Fierce approach makes great sites and makes the process sensible:

Cohesive message. The design, website structure, and content fit together and make sense.
The final site is fierce. It goes out to help you to sell or promote, supporting your other efforts.
Budgets don’t swell and burst and timelines don’t stretch and snap.
Everyone is on the same page, literally. The messsaging framework means writer, designer, and client are working from the same stated goals and parameters.

Love your website, let it be fierce.

Contact Joel and tell him what your site needs to do.

Thankful

2011-12-18T13:42:10+00:00

Have you ever been at a social engagement and found yourself chatting with a new parent? It seems that no matter the topic, all that they can manage to talk about is their child:

“So they changed our garbage service”

“My child got into the garbage the other day. It was so gross and funny.”

“I heard the NBA strike is over”

“My son is in the 95th percentile of length. Even though he is 18 months old, I have a strong suspicion that he will be a baller.”

“I went to have my oil changed…”

“Baxter drools when he smiles for too long.”

Two years after starting Word Lions with Philip, I now empathize with that parent. Talking to me about anything other than content creation, instructional design, or running a small business is akin to trying to have a conversation with that new parent. Their baby always makes its way into the conversation—sometimes without a thread of relevance.

I have become a broken record, and I love it. I am so deeply thankful for my life and my work:

I am thankful that my work is to provide valuable, meaningful content for people who need it.
I am thankful that I can write for a living.
I am forever thankful that I can partner with the inestimable Philip Morgan.
I am thankful that together we are growing a company designed around our authentic selves. That when I am working I am able to be myself.
I am thankful that we prove every day work can integrate with life.

Growing Word Lions is not easy, but it is constantly interesting and meaningful.

When you talk to a new parent, and ask them how they are doing, they seem to always simply say

“I am tired. All the time.”

It seems unbearably difficult. Now, raising a business, I think I understand why new parents are smiling when they say that.

Presentation Tips for Technical Communicators

2011-09-05T09:00:00+00:00

A former student asked Philip to offer some tips on teaching to a technical audience. Philip has about 10 years experience delivering Microsoft training courses to a variety of audiences, mostly groups of 8 to 15 adult learners. He collected some thoughts, sent it off to the former student, and decided to share those tips here as well. This is not an exhaustive list, but below are some recommendations for delivering effective technical training to medium-size groups.

Handling the classroom

When students don’t know each other

I don’t try to force students to socialize with each other, but when asking questions I try to provide opportunities for interaction. Labs are also a good time for interaction. I’ll sometimes walk out from the “instructor bullpen” into the room and engage students with questions and that often sparks student-to-student interaction. This can “warm up” the room and help folks relax, which I regard as a good thing.

When students do know each other

This scenario is usually fine, but sometimes students who do know each other can be overly social in a way that distracts from learning, so I encourage you to not be afraid to be the loudest person in the room. By speaking with a loud, strong tone of voice you can often create a psychological dominance that you use to manage the classroom and direct attention to yourself when needed.

Problem students

I try to never call anybody out in front of the class, even if their behavior is awful. I try to have a 1-on-1 interaction, tell them how their behavior is affecting the rest of the class, and respectfully ask for the specific change in behavior that I want to see. In over 10 years of working with adult learners, I have had very, very few such cases so it’s nothing to lose sleep over. Most of the times where I have specifically asked problem students to change their behavior, they have, and they have been civil to me afterwards.

Overly-eager students

Some students are especially eager to answer questions that are directed at the whole class, and if this dynamic repeats itself often enough, the more reticent students can get left behind. In this case it’s best to direct questions to specific students to balance things out. I’m always careful about putting students on the spot, and try to avoid this by asking sufficiently open-ended questions, but each mix of students will require a different blend of questions to the room vs. questions to specific people.

Try to be proactive by giving eager students an outlet to share their knowledge/experience in a way that complements the learning objectives. In other words, use their presence to benefit the class. Don’t let them hijack the class though, and don’t be afraid to interrup them and explain (in a diplomatic way) that you need to keep moving forward in order to cover important material and maybe they can share the rest of their story during a break or after class or during some other downtime.

Being approachable yet authoritative.

I think it is best to make sure students understand 2 things about me: I have significant, valuable experience but I also don’t know it all.

95% of students understand that the field of IT is vast and broad and that means no one person can know it all. The other 5% can’t be pleased no matter what you do, so they’re going to find something to criticize no matter what. Depending on the audience, this split may be more like 80/20.
Skill in researching answers to difficult questions is a great asset to any trainer.

If I don’t know the answer to a question, I will usually say: “I don’t know, but here’s my best guess: (insert speculative response here). Would you like me to look into this further and get back to you?” Also, you can ask the other students if anyone else knows the answer.

This approach satisfies 75% of the questions where I don’t know the answer but also leaves the door open for further exploration if the student is genuinely interested. This avoids me spending research time on questions that don’t really matter to the student. If the question matters to me, I’ll do the research anyway!

I try to make sure I understand the material in the class handbook 100%. The first time through a course, however, expect to discover things you didn’t know about the material. I believe I don’t fully understand anything until I’ve tried to explain it to another person. This seems natural to me so if I stumble a bit on the first time through an explanation I’m unphased. However, if I want the first attempt at explaining something to be pitch perfect, then I’ll either write out my own version of how I understand the concept, or I’ll find someone to explain it to for practice.

Don’t be afraid to be wrong. Everybody is wrong, some of the time. For my personality type, it is best to speak with a sense of implied authority and offer a simple apology and correction if what I say turns out to be wrong. For me, this works out better than being timid in my presentation of what I believe to be accurate facts by qualifying everything I say with “as far as I know” or “to the best of my knowledge,” etc.

Voice tone

Generally you will be the loudest person in the room. Get used to that if is uncomfortable for you (drink lots of water and have snacks available to keep up your energy. It can be exhausting!).

Even though you will generally be speaking very loudly, you can actually soften your voice and reduce its volume when you want to emphasize certain things. Softening your voice is a useful (and often necessary) contrast to the normal loud, clear tone of voice I recommend. For example, notice how easy it is to tune out talk radio, even though it is loud and punchy sounding almost all of the time. Loud and punchy can also be monotonous! Variations in your tone of voice are helpful to keep students attention focused on the information you are presenting, especially if it is a night class after a full day of work.

Loud should not be strident. Just a punched up, louder version of your normal speaking voice.

When students ask questions, they often will have a softer (and uncertain-sounding) tone of voice. Repeat the question so that the entire class hears the question before you respond to the question.

Personally, I try to avoid using contractions when teaching. My boyhood Southeastern USA accent comes through a bit too much when I use contractions, so in support of clarity I try to never use contractions when speaking to a class.

Space between things is often important. Do not be afraid to say something important and then just stand there and say nothing for a moment while students absorb/think about/synthesize the new information. This feels uncomfortable at first, but it is vital (IMO) to effective in-class learning.

Try to reduce nervous habits. “Umms”, “Ahhhs”, and excessively repeated connecting words detract from clear public speaking. The classic tip for helping yourself with this is to record yourself speaking and listen to the recording, taking note of how many times you say things that are really just nervous speaking habits.

Breathe enough. Take a deep breath between sentences to help regulate your tone, especially if public speaking makes you nervous.

Make eye contact with students from time to time.

Presentation

Present the concept first, then fill in the details

I believe that you can approach this differently, but in my experience it is important to first present the concept, then fill in the details.

Here’s an example:

Concept

A SQL Server table is a lot like a spreadsheet. The columns are known as fields, and the rows are known as records. All of the records in a table have the same fields, but fields can be left blank if you set up the table that way. When you create the fields, each field has a specific type of information that it can hold, and you get to decide this when you create the table. You can modify tables after creating them.

Details

You create a table in SQL Server with the create table command.

Tables in SQL Server can have up to XX fields

Tables in SQL Server can have up to XX rows

Pacing

Try to keep things on track AND offer downtime for students to make connection with each other, discuss “war stories”, etc and rest their brains before getting new information.

The right amount of repetition

Repeat things but using different teaching modalities each time

Example:

Explain something using words. Then show how it is used by giving a quick demo. Then have students practice using it. Then ask a question about how to apply it in a specific situation.

Knowledge of learning styles

There are different psychological theories on this subject, but basically be aware that some students won’t “get it” until they’ve gone through it hands on, others have to see it, others have to hear about it or read about it. Try to target all learning styles in your presentation.

Find a book on the subject of learning styles that works for you, and read it. Here’s one possibility: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=learning+styles+adult&x=0&y=0

Try to connect concepts to the real world

If you have stories from your personal experience, share them, but try to find the generally-applicable lesson in them and make that the emphasis of the story.

Checking frequently for understanding.

When presenting a concept that builds on previously presented concepts, it is important to not have any missing links in the chain, so checking frequently for understanding is vital.

Ask questions to the students as a way to help them synthesize information. Ask a LOT of questions. Next to being clear in your presentation of the information, one of the most important things you can do is ask good questions of the students. A good question helps them synthesize new information. Recall of information is not enough. Synthesizing information means the new information can be used in a way that is relevant to that student, and it is a part of their understanding of the subject. Asking good questions creates connections to what students already know, and this is vital.

Here is an example:

You are discussing SQL data types.

Good questions:

Describe a scenario where you would use the XYZ datatype.
Describe a scenario wherer the XYZ datatype would not be a good choice.
List two or three ways the XYZ datatype address the limitations of the ABC datatype?
What on-the-job scenarios can you think of where the XYZ datatype would be useful?

Poor questions:

Have you ever used the XYZ datatype?
Can you use the XYZ datatype to store first names? Answer yes or no.

Hopefully you can see, from these examples, that you want to avoid yes/no questions (unless they lead to discussion or reinforce a broad concept that is important to understand) or simplistic questions that only involve simple recall. Questions that invite discussion tend to be the best way to help students synthesize new information.

Find a way to keep your presentation on track if you have any tendency whatsoever to wander. Realize that you cannot talk about everything in full detail. Consider making an outline of important concepts to cover during the class. Periodically re-check your outline to make sure you are on track. Consider having a mid-term assessment to see if students are pleased with how things are going. Actaully, checking-in more frequently than this is a good idea. Remind students that you are unable to read minds, and encourage their feedback through any method they are comfortable with.

Making Great Docs, Step One: hate the first draft.

2011-07-01T19:44:13+00:00

Update: Our client did like her second draft and immediately took it to meet with prospects. She tells us that it helped her close two deals immediately. We make content with an eye for value. It did not take long for that project to show value!

Yesterday a client called. She did not like the first draft of a white paper that we are making for her. She was downright apologetic. I was overjoyed.

“Great. Tell me what you don’t like about it,” I said.

What followed was a really productive conversation about the story she wanted to tell. She dug up some more source material that will be really valuable in making the second draft. Draft two is going to be awesome.

Word Lions love a good, heavy markup of an early draft. We have been making technical content for a variety of customers for a long time. We know that we are not going to get it right with the first draft— at least not until Philip masters some of the subject matter expert interviewing techniques he has been practicing.

We use a lot of techniques to get our first draft as close as possible to the client’s dream documents. This is how we save money and time on our projects. Our rich content outline process gives a reviewer not just the content but the tone of the document much earlier in the process. We also clarify very early who our reviewers will be and make sure that everyone reviews every draft.

We don’t want them to just look over the document. The worst review is always two words long. If someone sends us a review that is simply “looks good,” we will go back to them with more questions, trying to stimulate feedback. We need that feedback to make good final product.

And that is what we do. We make great final products. We know that many documentation, white paper, case study, and other content-creation initiatives fail. To be blunt, our projects don’t fail.

One of the ways that we get projects to completion is by collecting good feedback on early drafts. Our client told me what she did not like about that first draft. She gave me some stories about how her business makes a difference in her client’s lives. I was already pretty enthusiastic about her business, now I am bullish.

Now I just need to Fed Ex her the biggest, reddest pen I can find.

Virtualization in the Data Center White Paper on Read Write Web: Philip knows some stuff about some things

2011-05-03T20:56:22+00:00

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Philip has spent a lot of time with his hands on virtualization. He knows the ins and outs of virtually everything about virtualization. Recently, Read Write Web called upon him to write a white paper on what is driving virtualization in the present wave of adopters.

We are happy to work with Read Write Web, a home of good content and thought leadership. Even when we are not published there, they often end up on the business end of my twitter feed.

While interviewing experts and organizing his rich content outline, Philip discovered that a key to a virtualization plan is to start planning for any cloud integration at the same time.

If you are virtually jumping out of your chair to learn about how to implement a good strategy for data center virtualization, check out Philip’s white paper at Read Write Web.

Word Lions Quarterly Report for Q2Y2011

2011-04-19T00:40:01+00:00

Across the river, windmills spun at the tempo of a Hitchcock film. Philip and I were awash in the white noise of the river pushing its way through the turbines of the John Day dam. Above us, the high voltage wires translated that rush into electricity. It was audible. They crackled like overheated oil in a pan.

](/img/PowerLinesatJohnDay.jpg)

Philip snapped another picture and turned to me. “We have the coolest company meetings ever,” he said flatly.

Its true. Word Lions know how to party.

This was our second quarterly meeting, a practice that we instituted in January to give the two of us a chance to connect and look at the larger picture. We generally take a great deal of pictures as well. The pretty ones are from Philip’s iPhone. The awkwardly framed ones are from my funky Android device.

The main ingredients to a good Word Lions meeting seems to be coffee (“panther juice” in the Word Lions lexicon) and cameras. Our first meeting took place on the West side of Portland. We were looking back on 18 months of being Word Lions. In that time there had been some victories and some dissappointments. From a delicious espresso at Spella, to the heights of the West Hills and through Forest Park, Philip and I walked through the vaguest agenda we could manage:

Talk about the past
Talk about the present
Talk about the future.

In 8 rambling hours through a gray January day, 2 cups of coffee each, and one delicious Indian lunch, we recalled the original day that we hatched the original idea during an instant message session (Word Lions, brought to you by Google Chat), through our first design charette which gave birth to wordlions.com. While walking up NW 21st that afternoon we sketched out what kinds of clients we wanted to work with and what we wanted to make.

Three months later, Word Lions are waking each morning with full calendars and crowded to-do lists. The clients we were looking for? I would be happy to introduce you to them because we are now on a first name basis. Word Lions are making training materials, marketing collateral, white papers, and thought leadership content for a variety of great people.

So we called another meeting. Blocked out a Wednesday. We loaded Philip’s deaf but charming dog Malcolm in the back of my recently acquired and not yet named Honda Element, filled up the coffee pot and hit the road to go check out the lower Columbia River hydroelectric projects. We find that meetings where we engage the mind with a simple, repetitive task like driving or walking seem to allow us to think about more creative, novel solutions to challenges.

That would seem like a pretty random goal except for two things:

Philip and I are total engineering nerds and can geek out on things like fish ladder design.
We are developing training and communication for a software project which interfaces with these dams. It was a chance to see how our simulations work in the real world.

This meeting we had one agenda item: How do we deal with growth?

Our message is taking off with the marketplace and we are taking on a number of exciting projects. Philip and I formed Word Lions because we love making content. And create content we do. However, now we have to wear other hats: We are sales, we are management, we are infrastructure and overhead.

I told Philip that I thought that I would not like these parts of running Word Lions. However, I look at my days and am quite gleeful. I certainly do less writing than I thought I would be doing. Instead I am meeting with clients and planning projects. I find myself using those board-room phrases like “moving the ball forward” with a curious amount of sincerity.

Philip, sitting in the passenger seat, sipping coffee as we tooled down Interstate 84, expressed equal surprise at how much he embraced the idea of running a company..

](/img/IMG_1912.jpg)

We took to calling this “Word Lions 3.0.” It is about presenting our expertise not just as content creators but also as consultants and advisors on how to deliver a message. We have become a great resource for what works and what doesn’t in content. We also know the process to efficiently create documents, training, and mulitmedia deliverables

The Word Lions are roaming into new territory, a larger landscape. With enough coffee and conversation, Philip and I are able to continue doing what is important to us: keeping ourselves doing work that we are honestly enthusiastic about, to stay earnestly engaged in our business and our projects.

When we talk about it, I can hear the crackle of electricity about our heads.

Social Media and The New Me

2011-02-25T05:09:32+00:00

I am perched in the observation car of the Amtrak Coast Starlight, just passing Mount Shasta and climbing towards the Oregon border. The other occupants regularly jump up with their cameras at the ready when yet another incredible view rolls by.

If you want to see some of my pictures, check out my twitter feed. I tagged the trip with #whyfly.

Thanks, #GravSum

I was down in Los Angeles attending the Gravity Summit Conference on social media. I came with a mix of curiosity and skepticism. I was skeptical about two things in particular:

That a social media strategy alone will get a company where they need to go.
That MC Hammer is a good choice for featured speaker.

My skepticism on one of these was entirely unfounded. I also bring back a new perspective on how social media can work to merge my own professional and personal life—and how that might not be a bad thing.

Amtrak Coast Starlight: My New Favorite Thought Incubator

Yesterday on this train I spoke to a woman who is fascinated by timelines. Tanya pointed out that we are, with our Facebook and Twitter feeds, creating and self-curating a timeline of our existence.

Like me, Tanya is hesitant to be too open on the web, however. She fears that someone will judge her out of context. After we both expressed that concern we realized that we do not ourselves judge people that harshly based on their online behavior.

In our diverse and connected culture, people who are quick to judge you on some single tweet or post are not going to have many friends. For instance, I doubt that a vegan would hesitate to consult with the Word Lions simply because I post pictures of my awesome Thanksgiving in January birthday party, a festival of carnivorous exuberance.

The fear of being judged on your personal life is largely unfounded.

Twitter and Facebook are exceedingly effective in transmitting humanity. We use different speech, but tend to treat each other about the same online as we do in person, for better or worse. I myself have been in a few Facebook tiffs that were not entirely polite.

The fear of being judged on your personal life is largely unfounded.

Knowing that social media can contain inappropriate language, statements out of context, and any number of off-message statements, I understand why some people and corporations wall off social media in favor of more traditional, more controllable ways of communication. Like normal human life, social media does not cast a consistent message, all sunshine and rainbows.

The American Red Cross Are On The Porch Gettingslizzerd

The idea that we need to lead a certain life that projects faux professionalism is absurd.

Daphne Hart from the American Red Cross told the incredible story of how the American Red Cross made delicious lemonade out of the #gettingslizzerd gaffe. Essentially, an employee accidentally told all followers of the American Red Cross that she and her peoples were getting drunk on high quality beer. You can read a good account here.

The Red Cross publicity team essentially responded with a friendly giggle and an apology. Their audience embraced their friendly, personable approach to communications—even though they manage such serious issues. I was struck that it was a humanizing moment for the organization. Perhaps, as a case study, it will change the attitude of corporate communications in general.

Work and Life Collide When You Can No Longer Hide

Consider, as Philip likes to, the concept of being professional. “Professional is doing your job well, even on a bad day,” he says. I think he is right. It really does not have anything to do with any other quirks or habits. The idea that we need to lead a certain life that projects faux professionalism is absurd.

For instance, let me point out that the current ultimate model of professional appearance, Mad Men’s Don Draper, is a man that has carved his life into separate and conflicting partitions. Makes for good TV but seems stressful.

My work is an important part of my life, but I certainly am not identical to other people that do my job well. Beyond being relatively mature and generally sane, People do not need to present a particular sheen in order to convince others of their professionalism.

Gravity Summiteers: A Fearsome Bunch of Really Open People

Along with MC Hammer and Daphne from Red Cross, speakers included:

Brian Drescher of Mashable
Ted Nguyen, a publicist and darling of social media
Simon Mainwaring, formerly of Wieden & Kennedy now an author and all-around smart guy
Stewart Neff from Visible, a company that helps to track social media for companies
Ramon DeLeon, a Domino’s Pizza franchise owner from Chicago that has gone ahead and made himself famous and loved through his existence on the social tubes

Learn more about all of these folks on the Gravity Summit agenda. Or find them out there in the ether. They are easy to find.

These speakers were quite bullish on social media. They loved to note the use of twitter by Egyptian protesters and consumer revolts. I felt that their view of it was, though anecdotally true, a blue-sky view of a future bathed in the warm unified and democratic light of social media.

By embracing a single public persona not separated into personal and professional, we go beyond posing like cardboard cutout figures labeled with our professional titles. Word Lions have certain passions that lend themselves well to writing awesome technical content.

I started to warm to the idea of embracing social media more fully. I get enthusiastic about my company and about technical communications in general. I want to tell that story. I am also pretty excitable about artists, politics, food, and a million other things. Today, I am enthusiastic about this fantastic train trip.

A lot of the Gravity Summit speakers are projecting, every day, a persona out to their social media outlets, are willing to be seen as they are. It occurs to me that it might even be a relief. With all of the ways that people can learn about our private lives, it is more and more difficult to partition your life. It may be time to let go of the idea of a “professional” persona. We simply can not be a cussing free, well dressed, and well tempered person all day and all night. At least I can not.

I have used Facebook to tout the things that matter to me and to disparage things I disagree with. I use an honest, sometimes raw voice there. In my communications as a Word Lions, such as this blog, I certainly am honest as well. However, I tend to trim out material that might muddle the message. Word Lions have essentially been practicing an older corporate communications model.

After Gravity Summit, I think that old-school communication of your identity will eventually be as outmoded as a 1996 web page. I also think that might not be a bad thing, entirely.

By embracing a single public persona not separated into personal and professional, we go beyond posing like cardboard cutout figures labeled with our professional titles. We become real people. Word Lions have certain passions that lend themselves well to writing awesome technical content.

I live for authentic relationships in work as well as in my personal life. Word Lions is more than a company or a service. Philip and I are working to craft a lifestyle around creating great work while living a good life. We have chosen our clients and compatriots as people that we enjoy. They are often people that quickly move into the realm of Facebook friends, people that I can cuss in front of and people who know that Philip is not much of a morning person but a great photographer.

So, Gravity Summit, this is what you have given me: a new resolve to be authentic in business and to allow my personality in. Feel free to peruse my personal blog (http://wordweevil.com. Not frequently updated but I would love more Answer Phone questions). Check out my Facebook feed: facebook.com/joelbyronbarker. I will in fact post to Twitter (@joelbyronbarker) more. I hope that it stops feeling like an annoying chore. Get to know all of me, world. Not only am I great at creating training, white papers, and all manner of technical communications, I am a great guy, too.

I am still convinced that social media alone is not enough effort for success in most commercial marketing scenarios. People need thorough, curated content to understand a product. However, social media will provide pathways and context for that more stable collateral.

Speaking of great guys, MC Hammer was an incredible speaker. He spoke off the cuff, integrating tidbits from previous speakers. He has an awesome stage presence (comes with much practice) and speaks with the true fire of a believer. He connects with an audience and gave us something of value. If he is speaking somewhere near you, go on and see him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmwA2Z3R11I

Word Lions Build Elearning for International Association of Software Architects, Everyone Looks Great in Their New Suits

2011-02-08T01:36:15+00:00

Here is a riddle for you:

A technology architect is a…

Essentially, in the IT world you know them when you see them. They are in every meeting. They know every corner of a company’s technology investment and all the initiatives that are floating around. They stitch all the bits and silicon together to make the business sleek and stylish.

Working in IT, I have seen a good architects who work like that Italian tailor from your favorite gangster film. They take raw cloth and resources and assemble classy and comfortable fashions that make the company operations look super snazzy.

So maybe a system architect is a tailor, but more. I do know that it is sometimes their job to state that the emperor has no clothes.

Andy Ruth, VP of Training at the International Association of Software Architects (IASA), is fervent about helping his fellow architects. He has a strategy to create valuable, meaningful training for them and enable them to share their knowledge with others in the field. Good stuff, all about making the work easier and the product better.

To get their curriculum kicked off, IASA needed to build foundational elearning courses that introduce the important concepts for architects. Andy and the IASA experts knew their content. They needed some technical and instructional design chops to get the courses into the world.

That is where we came in. Word Lions jumped in and helped to organized the knowledge into learnable portions, advised IASA on some implementation, and helped to assemble the courses. We love Andy’s passion and were happy to help him get his vision out the door.

“We did not have to explain the core ideas behind the project to Philip and Joel. They got it and went right to work,” said Andy, “they were just the help we needed to sew up this big project.” Then he turned back to his sewing dummy in front of a three-pane mirror. It is amazing you can understand what he says when he has all those pins in his mouth.

Thanks Andy. We are really impressed with your efforts as well. We look forward to hearing more about your intriguing training projects. Also, I have this suit that needs to be altered a little bit, just brought in at the shoulders…

The "Multi" in Multimedia Should Include Text

2011-01-21T19:36:17+00:00

I have been working all day on a project and needed to switch over to another issue late in the afternoon. I also needed some calories. These two problems are easily solved by riding down to the nearest Internet-enabled food source. After a largely quiet and solitary day creating content, It was kind of nice to be around the babble of people.

While scarfing my fries, I wanted to research some capabilities of an e-learning application. A quick Google offered me a promising link off the manufacturer’s web site. As the people around me were detuning from work and talking about their last trip to Vegas, I clicked on the link.

Now, a quick tutorial can be really helpful in many situations. But if you have co-workers next to you, you are going to need headphones. If you are working in your coffee shoffice as a lot of independent people do, it is going to be hard to listen to the content over the howl of the espresso maker. If you are just about to get on the plane, a static text document to download and read would be a welcome distraction from the senastion of your own knees freezing up from disusue and the haunting fear of snakes. Streaming web content will do you no good.

Thinking of that poor long legged ophiophobic plane traveler, if he or anyone has a text-based document in his hand he can skim it to see where the value lies. Skimming information to see if has any value is critical to a busy person. Absent a way to skim video, you are stuck with plowing your way through it and possibly bailing out partway through because it wasn’t worth your time in the end. This does not make delighted customers out of potential customers.

Text is easier to share and refer back to than a video as well. One can email the document to someone and say “does the section on page 3 about illegal reptile trafficking answer your question?” With a video, you are going to have to call out “watch the part between 1:21 and 2:16” and then both people will have to recall what they beheld during a discussion.

We love dynamic content. Word Lions kicks out all manner of learning products and web videos. However, I am reminded today that The Word is still of great value. There are places and times to just offer a great, concise white paper or instructional document. Your hungry, laptop wielding customers will thank you.

Obsolescence and Endurance

2010-09-30T18:09:13+00:00

Moving a bunch of books and the like around the other day, I came across an old copy of Cabinet Magazine dated Spring 2006. Cabinet is a delightfully eclectic quarterly I pick up from time to time. I had not read this issue all the way through and fell upon an article by Sam Burton that opens with the tale of Alves Reis, a fascinating, bold Portugese counterfeiter of the early 20th century. It was a great read and I felt somewhat sad for Sam that the effort went into an article that is now so far out of circulation.

Cabinet does not release their articles freely on the Internet, so only pack rats like me are reading the article these days. In the latter portion of the article, Burton makes some really interesting points about the value of money and language that are just as relevant now as they were in 2006. Indeed, after our recent financial crisis, it is even more alluring to call into question the significance of paper money.

The Endurance of Word Lions

It is a risk you take as a writer, I suppose. When developing work for our clients, The Word Lions make it a point to talk about how to make the content endure. We can help you to find different venues to repurpose content, getting you more value for your investment. We can also advise you on how to make content that is a mixture of “timely” and “evergreen.” **By splitting your messaging into portions that are fresh and current and items that are a part of your recurring messaging, we can help you get the most value for your dollar – **or whatever currency you use.

Hope you don’t mind if we check your bills for authenticity.

Foretrained is Forearmed: Training as a key to agile development

2010-06-18T15:51:18+00:00

The Word Lions were recently called up to Seattle to introduce ourselves to our client’s customers. The customers are from a consortium of electric utilities in the midst of a year-long software project. Originally, Word Lions came on board to provide user training for the final project. Our customers asked us to show the users that training is a priority for this project. We came to evangelize on a subject we hold near and dear: how training can ease the adoption of new software. However, we came away with a surprising lesson of our own – and a new role in the project.

What a great idea: create scenarios that use live software or simulations to get better input from the customers - and get it earlier in the development cycle.

Speaking to the Choir

We did a short presentation on the value of training and what the user base could expect. The end users were concerned how the new software is going to effect their day. Will it make things harder? Will they be able to adapt to it? Will they be prepared on the day they have to cut over? We told them that we would be creating software simulations and e-learning courses that will prepare them for the software. It will also mean that new hires can take the course and quickly get up to speed on the software.

As we had hoped, our presentation went over really well. But what none of us expected was that the customers would ask for more training sooner.

Mid-Stream Training For Agile Development

This project is using an agile software development methodology. This allows richer, more useful feedback from users during the software development, but it also brings in the new challenge of getting users sufficiently engaged to provide meaningful feedback.

Every quarter, a select group of users from the customer fly to a meeting and spend a day in a conference room going over the project status. Questions fly, commitments are made, and everyone flies home. This one day event generates invaluable feedback that is then rolled into the software, but what about all those users back home who don’t attend this meeting?

During the Seattle meeting, one user spoke up and asked if we could create courses for the early releases that would give them a way to experience the software in realistic scenarios.

Now, I am a huge proponent of e-learning and computer based training to solve a lot of problems, but I had never thought of this. What a great idea: create scenarios that use live software or simulations to get better input from the customers - and get it earlier in the development cycle.

Our New Task

Now Philip and I are ramping up on this project even earlier than we had planned. For their next quarterly meeting, we will be presenting

An in-person demonstration of the beta software.
A Learning Management System (LMS) with software simulation courses that explain the user interface and run through some common scenarios.
Labs, delivered as PDF documents, that guide users through scenarios on the development site.

The Benefits of Mid-Stream Training for Agile Products

After the meeting I sat down and wrote out a short list of the features of this mid-stream training. We can make a pretty good argument for the cost-effectiveness of this – particularly if people like Word Lions put it together and you don’t have to take your dev team away from coding.

**If your software project or IT initiative is looking for creative training and documentation solutions, **get in touch with us. We can help you find creative ways to get your users on board with your project.

By offering beta labs and simulations, we can:

Increase involvement by the user base, expanding to people who can not make the conference calls and meetings.
Fit in with the Agile methodology be getting recurring feedback on prototypes, alphas, and betas.
Get greater buy-in, particularly from user bases with some concern about the adoption of the software.
Get better final training by involving the trainers early on. After the project launches, training done right can make all the difference in user adoption and the ongoing cost of support. Good training can produce a very good ROI!
Reduce travel and downtime by getting feedback from users who don’t have to leave their desks.
Just make better software.

I’m really excited about these simulations and labs - they’re really going to give our users the involvement and reassurance they’re looking for. We’ll get more meaningful feedback earlier, and the users are now really excited about the process, which is going to make a better product in the end. Plus, it takes the burden off of the developers, which gives me some breathing room.

Michael Sulis of Sulis Consulting

We love to talk about this stuff. Get a hold of us if you want to exchange ideas about training for your software or IT initiatives.

Word Lions Update: From Virtualized Computing to Helicopter Construction

2010-05-19T22:33:40+00:00

It has been a busy couple of months at Word Lions, but we thought that we would take a moment to post an update on some of our current projects. After we put the list together, we were impressed by how much we got done in the last few months. We must be good.

But hey, we still would love to talk to you about your technical communication projects. Putting together white papers, online training, online communications, or documentation? Look up the Word Lions.

Philip has been busy the past few months. When he’s not making photographs with his antique view camera or spending quality time with his girlfriend, dog, and four cats, he’s writing, improving his writing chops, or helping explain the value of white papers.

Competitive Technical Communications

Whatever the scale of your project, whatever the complexity, Word Lions can help you to explain it to your audience. Get a hold of us and let us know how we can help. Philip’s sort of a jack of all trades, but lately he’s been writing a lot of fiercely competitive documents for Microsoft. Microsoft, as always, is working towards dominating every market they’re in, and they’re giving VMware a run for their money in the virtualization space. In writing compete-focused technical content, Philip has discovered that it’s all about how you frame your argument. If you let your competitor frame the arguement for you, you’ve already lost because they’re going to frame things in terms of their product’s strengths. Philip has worked closely with several parts of Microsoft’s virtualization product and marketing teams to tease out the right framing and nuance for persuading readers that Microsoft’s products are better.

White Papers And Then Some

A lot of what Philip has written for Microsoft is for Microsoft’s internal audience of field sales, but not this time! You can sample two compete-focused white papers he wrote right here on Microsoft’s public site:

Web Copy

In a related project, Philip crafted some web copy for Microsoft. By the looks of it, he really enjoyed the challenge of switching from the more academic writing style of white paper authoring to the tighter, attention-grabbing style that works well on web sites. You can ogle the web copy he wrote here:

Philip’s not just a one-client guy. He’s been collaborating with Joel on helping a small startup get the word out about their product. Together, the Word Lions have been helping http://ofuz.com increase web traffic, and polish the language of their product’s help system. Oh, and we’ve been using the product too! We’re enjoying how Ofuz helps us stay on top of all of our tasks and stay in touch with our clients. Although it’s still in beta, it’s really a promising product, especially for small businesses and freelancers.

Joel has been creating a lot of online training courses, mostly with a sales focus. In addition he has been scripting and helping with the production of some online videos.

Online Training and Videos

For Tyco Electronic’s Circuit Protection University, he scripted a video and a course to help sales people and technical specifiers to choose the correct circuit protection product for their application. It was interesting to learn about all those tiny doohickeys that protect our gadgets from harm.

For Eaton Electrical, Joel created training to help electricians better understand how to be good salespeople. The courses show the features of certain products and explain the best way to communicate the benefit to the customer. In the process of making these courses, Joel learned about some cool circuit protection products that would be a nice fit in his 100 year old house.

This Is Where the Helicopters Come In

Apparently Joel has become something of a specialist in all things electrical, whatever the scale. Another recent project was a safety training for Wilson Construction, an electrical utility contractor. They install electrical plant in all manner of situations – including from helicopters. Really. Helicopters. View the slideshow for a good dose of awesome. As you can imagine, safety is a big deal at Wilson. They are going to use this course to introduce new employees to their safety process and the Wilson culture of safety. We are just about to go live with the last of them, and the modules have been looking really good. The client just got back with a review of one module that said, “ “It’s really great. I’m mesmerized by it. I think I’ve watched it 9 times now.” That makes Joel feel pretty good.

Explaining It With Online Videos

For our good friends at BlueVolt, Joel scripted a video that explains the value of their awesome but difficult to explain platform. We managed to get it done in record time. Great job to Arturo Cornejo and Caitlin Wilbur for making the pretty pictures Joel had in his head.

Whatever the scale of your project, whatever the complexity, Word Lions can help you to explain it to your audience. Get a hold of us and let us know how we can help.

Explaining Features, Benefits, and Value

2010-04-02T18:50:24+00:00

When creating marketing messages, particularly for technology and software, the industry standard has been to break down the conversation to features and benefits. The argument is that we simply list the elements of the product and call them features. Following that, we affix a significance to those features and call those benefits.

When developing that language, I have often been involved in some confusing conversations. What is a feature, really? What is a benefit? Why do we talk this way? What does the audience get out of that message? Often the discussions go back and forth:

“Is that a feature? I think it is a benefit.”

“What feature is related to that benefit?”

It can really stir people’s emotions. Developers are proud of what they built and want to see their efforts called out. Often, sales wants to pare down the features to what they see as the selling points of the product. It can bring up really good internal conversations.

I have been working on messaging for a feature rich software platform. It is targeted at a particular audience. Like a lot of products these days, it uses technology in an innovative way to solve a problem. We went to the features and benefits model to create the messaging. In order to really nail the relationship, we got really deep into the relationships between features and benefits. The Great Guy Greenbaum and I came up with the following statement to define features and benefits:

A benefit is the promise of value created by features.

I really like this. It introduces an end goal of features and benefits: Value.

We developed this snazzy graphic (OK, I used a boilerplate from PowerPoint 2007 to create it) to visualize the relationship:

Why White Papers?

2010-03-18T18:48:57+00:00

The Benefits of White Papers

Let’s start with a definition. Skip to the next section if you already get what a white paper is.

White papers are formal documents that describe the features and benefits of a product or technology. White papers were originally used in the British parliamentary system to describe some aspect of government policy, or a potential law that is under debate. Businesses have realized they can use the white paper format to create highly effective marketing and sales tools. Nowadays, you see them everywhere, but how would it benefit you to commission a white paper?

White papers help you build credibility with your clients, frame the discussion about your product or technology in a way that benefits you, and build your clients goodwill towards your company or product. In addition, white papers meet your potential customer’s need to be in the know by providing information that they can easily consume. You can easily re-use your white paper throughout your marketing campaign. This makes white papers a win-win for you and your customers.

The PhD Effect

White papers help build credibility. The web site, brochures, and emails that a customer has seen all bear the scarlet S of Spin because they are obviously created by marketing folks who want the product in question to sell. However, white papers, even those commissioned and produced by a marketing department, do not bear the scarlet S much or at all. There is something about the white paper format that projects a sense of impartiality, of cool intellectual discourse unsullied by the need to actually sell the product.

My personal theory about this involves the fact that most white papers, even if they do include some graphics and other modern concessions to readability, look a lot like the articles you would find in academic journals. For college-educated readers, this automatically associates white papers with documents written by people smarter than them, or at least people with more letters after their name. This mental association lends credibility and seriousness to white papers. White papers tend to be written with a formal, or a journalistic tone. This also strengthens the reader’s association between the white paper they are reading and smart people with letters after their name.

This credibility-by-association is a subtle framing move that makes white papers into powerful marketing tools.

The credibility building work of white papers has two components. First, a company that lets you download white papers describing its products looks more credible simply because those white papers exist. Modern folks largely view the world through a scientific materialist lens, which means that the things that are measurable through scientific means are what is real. So when comparing two products, the one that has white papers written about it is viewed as the more credible product because it has been studied by experts_.

Second, if Widgetco commissions a white paper on their Widgetizer product, you can bet that white paper will paint the Widgetizer in a positive light. Very likely, the white paper will tone down the marketing-speak by using formal language and quotes from experts, but in the end, the white paper will show that Widgetco’s Widgetizer is the best product for a particular scenario. Because the white paper format has the credibility-by-association effect described in the previous paragraph, it can be more convincing than Widgetco’s web site, brochures, or other marketing tools. So Widgetco’s credibility gets a boost not only because someone thought their products were important enough to write white papers about, but also because those white papers say the Widgetizer is the best product in its category.

Of course, if Widgetco has a savvy marketing team, they know they can’t just say anything in a white paper and expect readers to believe it. It has to be framed appropriately, and it must not strain credulity. An artfully written white paper will avoid those pitfalls while building credibility for Widgetco and its products.

Control The Frame, Own The Market

The Word Lions are very skilled at helping our clients frame their message to their best advantage. One of the most powerful tools for framing the discussion is a great white paper.

The general expectation for white papers is that they will be longer than the typical datasheet, and they will include relevant background information. This means that white papers have greater latitude to work on framing the discussion around the product in question. Web copy, brochures, and email marketing campaigns need to be relatively concise to effectively engage readers. White papers should be fluff-free, but they do provide more room to develop a nuanced argument. They can also include background information like quotes from experts, charts, and information about the challenges that the product in question solves. Taken together, these white paper characteristics give you more room to influence your readers with your preferred framing.

Unless your product is the only one in its niche, you must work on framing the discussion about your product. If you don’t frame the discussion, your competitor will do it for you. And they will do it to their advantage!

The Give-Get

Some white papers have a more how-to approach. These white papers tend to downplay or eliminate the marketing language, and focus instead on how the use the product in question to solve a certain problem, or accomplish a particular goal. These white papers are basically product documentation, but they are packaged separately as a white paper, and they address a specific scenario rather than general product usage. For example, Widgetco might create a how-to white paper that describes how their Widgetizer product can be used to solve a specific production problem that widget makers are facing.

The benefit that these white papers provide is based on, well, guilt. To the customer (or potential customer), they represent something of value and the company in question provides these white papers for free. So in a very subtle way, the potential customer owes the company something in exchange for this information. They don’t automatically owe them their business, but the company will get a bit of time and consideration. A chance to make their pitch.

If all the companies in your niche are providing free how-to white papers, then providing these simply puts you at parity with your competitors. However, if you are the first to provide free how-to white papers, or if yours are better than your competitors, then you will subtly tell your customers that they owe you something–i.e. their future time and consideration–because you have given them something for free.

This is the exact same principle used by sales people when they buy a meal for a potential customer, or take the customer on a trip. If this is the only marketing tactic you are using, then you’re in trouble. But in combination with a good marketing strategy, a set of great how-to white papers can provide recurring benefits for a one-time investment.

In addition to being available on your website, your sales team can use white papers as a leave-behind. Quotes from the white paper can support arguments made on your website. Free white papers can help drive traffic to your web site. You can Twitter about your new white papers, reference them in blog posts, and include a link to them in your email signature. These recurring benefits all add value to your investment in a white paper.

Designed To Be Informative

Since before recorded history, human beings have had a need to be in the know. These days, it’s almost a compulsion. This is especially true for technically-minded folks who have been charged with researching and evaluating competing products. These folks want to see all the angles, and know all the facts about the products they are evaluating. Screwing up a technology investment is expensive and embarrassing!

White papers are great for these people because the white paper format is designed to be informative. It includes more context and background information than the simple feature lists and “It’s great because” statements usually found on web sites. White papers often describe, in some detail, how the product in question solves certain challenges and why it does so better than the competition. White papers do the thinking for your potential customers. By walking them through scenarios that match their challenges, and by showing them how your product solves their challenges or makes their life better, a well-written white paper guides potential customers towards the conclusion that yes!, your product is the right choice.

Re-Purposable Content

White papers can be re-purposed. This means that after you have invested in a set of white papers, the content in those papers can often be sliced up and re-used in a different context or worked into other marketing collateral. This allows you to get more out of your marketing dollars.

Search Engine Optimization

White papers are most frequently made available as PDF or Microsoft Word files. Most major search engines, including Google, have no problem indexing these files. This means that white papers can help your web site’s search engine rank by contributing relevant, keyword-rich content to your site.

Think about the times you’ve done a Google search for information on a product. Don’t you happily click through to a search result labeled PDF, knowing that it will be more than SEO-optimized marketing-speak? Using PDFs and Word Documents actually gives you a fair amount of control over how your white paper appears in search results. All of this adds up to a search optimization benefit for the organization that uses white papers as a marketing tactic. Check this document for more tips on optimizing your PDFs for searchability: http://www.evisionsem.com/documents/optimizing_PDFs-2008.pdf

Portability

Although mobile devices are changing how people in Europe and the USA read web content, there continues to be a perceptual difference between content on a web page and content in a PDF or Microsoft Word file. Generally, white papers are distributed in either PDF or Word format, and they are downloaded rather than viewed online. This contributes to a perception that the content in the white paper is more important. It can also encourage readers to print the white paper and give it a more serious look.

In an environment where attention is a precious resource, white papers can be a very effective way to get your potential customer’s attention.

Conclusion

Take a moment to think back over the marketing materials you’ve seen for a particular product, say a software product. All the web copy, graphics, charts, graphs, brochures, and emails you’ve seen on the product. Then, think about any white papers you’ve seen for that product. The other marketing collateral probably emphasizes color, graphics, short length copy, and features and benefits lists. The white papers are distinctly different than all the other marketing collateral. And that is a Good Thing.

The white paper helps you build credibility for your company and product. Because the white paper format reminds readers of things written by Very Smart People, it can be a highly persuasive way to talk about your product. With a typical length of five to 15 pages, a white paper gives you room to frame and position your product for maximum advantage. By creating free how-to white papers for potential customers, you build goodwill and assure them you stand behind your product. In addition, you help potential customers make the mental leap from product feature lists to picturing how they can use your product to solve real problems.

Technical Writers as Snowballs

2010-03-04T17:13:34+00:00

And you want to hire the biggest snowball.

The other day I got a new netbook computer, an Asus Eeepc. Philip, my fellow Word Lion, saw the picture I snapped and posted to Facebook. We then had a gleeful exchange as we both ranged around the Internet looking for new applications and operating systems for this new toy, er I mean tool. With Philip’s help I landed on a great OS, upgraded the hardware, and installed some groovy applications – some of which we needed to tweak a bit to run on the platform.

How does this make us better technical writers?

Since we have both spent a lifetime elbow-deep in computers, a project like this goes very smoothly. We have already seen similar situations and can apply our knowledge to the new challenge. It is a snowball effect. All that netbook tweaking was a new layer on the outside of our already imposing technical knowledge snowballs.

Curiosity is at the core of the Word Lions value. When a we face a new project, we want to learn what the technology does and how it does it. We want to know how people use it and what it does for them. Because of our decades of geekdom, we catch on rapidly. We are both as much geek as scribe.

When you are looking for someone to write your documentation,

you need more than just someone who can conjugate. You need someone who gets your product and can explain it to your customers. We don’t shy away from your technical information. Based on your project needs, we will help you to draw out the significant message that your customers are looking for.

Give us a call. We would love to talk about how cool your technology is and how we can bring that message to your customers.

Bartleby the Prospect: Getting the White Paper to the Audience

2010-02-21T20:14:00+00:00

or To Register or Not to Register?

We know from experience that creating a good white paper is a real investment. The company very naturally wants to get a return on that investment, usually in the form of sales leads. In an effort to create leads, many companies distribute white papers off their websites through a registration process. All over the web, on subjects ranging from email marketing to laser printer performance, I come across intriguing white papers that I want to read. I click on the link and what do I get? A request for my personal information.

At this point, I have three options:

Dutifully fill out the form honestly, knowing that a sales person will probably contact me.
Provide bogus information, eg lie as much as possible, though I may need to give a legit email address.
Don’t read the white paper.

I choose option 3, don’t read the paper, more than any other. Not only do I not want to deal with a salesperson, I don’t want to take the time to fill out the form. Sometimes, they even email you the white paper. Sometimes, you even have to create a login for their portal to access their content.

I have plenty of logins in my life, thank you. I would prefer not to.

There are some reasons to require registration, because it seems like that would be the best way to collect sales leads. However, I wonder how many people would have read the paper had you provided it without any registration. Your paper is being read by less people and doing less work if people like me are turning away. Instead, I feel that the white paper should be read by as many people as possible.

The document itself, the white paper that the customer downloads to read, should be a compelling enough call to action that the reader will have the opportunity to reach out themselves.

Formatting Pleasant eBooks

2009-11-13T19:24:51+00:00

As a concept, the electronic book is a grand idea. In execution, it has been a slow starter. For over a decade now, people have been creating Portable Document Format (PDF) documents and sharing them digitally. Digital books can have a ton of advantages:

They are easy to transport. A 1,000 page document doesn’t make your laptop any heavier.
They are “green,” not requiring paper.
The reader can use the “find” button to browse for particular information.
They are easy to publish.

However, the readers notoriously eliminate most of these advantages by hitting the print button. Bam – They take the “e” out of “ebook.” It is not the reader’s fault. Most ebooks are just not that convenient. Most are not layed out in a useable, screen friendly way.

Design Principles for a Great eBook Format

We Word Lions want to make an ebook that works. We talked long and vociferously about how to make the perfect ebook format. It was an amazing scene: demitasse cups strewn across the table, laptops beeping low battery warnings, and a dry erase board turned solid ink. Word Lions in development mode is a sight to see.

We came up with some principles to guide the format of our ebooks:

Don’t mess with a good thing. The PDF format is ubiquitous and easy to use. Authors like PDF because it preserves formatting such as fonts and layout no matter where the document is opened. Readers appreciate that there is a reader for every operating system and, well, it works. Although there are a lot of interesting format options out there, PDF is going to be the easiest for your audience.
Use the medium for the message. PDF allows for both internal links to bookmarks within the document and external links to websites. You can also create forms that the user can fill out.
Some like paper, some like screen. I am a great lover of paper and do often commit to the print button. We could create a document that looks great on the screen but prints out as an unholy mess. You can see this if you try to print out an informative web page. They often break oddly across pages and columns. If the user needs to print the document, in whole or part, give them something they can use.

The first two are pretty easy. We adopted the PDF format and decided to not place digital controls on the files so that they are easy to use and move around. Since we know we are writing for an electronic format, we can include links and utilize forms. The bigger challenge was the third: Making a document that would bridge the digital divide, be both paper and screen friendly. Not just an eBook, but a uBook: The ÜberBook format.

All Things to All People:

Word Lions Press üBook Template

In the old days (5 years ago) computer screens were basically square, in the same ratio as our old televisions. Maximizing the use of that screen for text was tricky. Since it was not at all comparable to the dimensions of a piece of paper, something that looked good on the screen would not print well. Conversely, something that prints well would not look good on the screen. Old PDFs are designed for good old 8 1/2 x 11. As a result, they are a pain to read on the screen. Thus the tendency of readers to head to the print button.

Nowadays, modern computers have a screen that is wider than it is tall… just about the dimensions of an 8 1/2 x 11 page. We created a 2 column format that is highly readable on the screen but can also be printed and read in landscape (standard paper turned sideways) format.

Particularly since we aim to provide useful manuals for small business people who are not necessarily computer masters, we like the flexibility of the format. In addition, two narrower columns has been shown to be far easier to read.

As we do on a lot of our projects, the übook utilizes different fonts and colors to cue the reader: The red text (which prints as a distinctive gray on black and white printers) is our “Take Action” text that directs the user to perform steps. Black text is informative. We also use boxes to identify special tips or extra information.

Philip and I are pretty proud of the format. What do you think of it? Have you seen other ebook formats in the wild that address the design principles above?

We know what you want to ask: how are we like and unlike the kid that can program the clock on your microwave?

2009-07-12T20:24:24+00:00

_From the desk of Joel Barker _ Philip and I are both technical pros. We have been asked to perform technical wizardry as IT consultants. Before that, however, we were the kids who programmed our grandparents’ VCR and microwave clocks. We are just used to figuring out technologies. In fact, we enjoy the puzzle. Of course, things have changed a bit – I have less hair (though Philip’s seems to be holding strong) and there are no more VCRs to program. We still have a little bit of that kid in our hearts, but have evolved into the word-crunching beasts of today.

Ways that we are like the kid who programs the clock on your microwave:

We have been fiddling with all sorts of technology for years and years. Our understanding of a new device is based on all the previous items we have got our hands on. We are able to quickly ramp up on something new. Each microwave clock is easier to figure out than the last, if you will.
We love to be asked to help. That kid lives for the chance to be a technology hero. We certainly like to be helpful. Hopefully we have a few more things going on in our lives, but we still want to show off our chops.

Ways that we are NOT like the kid who programs the clock on your microwave:

We prefer to leave you with the ability to set your own clock. You need that kid at least two times a year, when daylight savings kicks in. If there is a power outage, you have to call him up again – or face the daily annoyance of a flashing 12:00…12:00…12:00. Nowadays, The Word Lions communicate about the technology, making sense of it for end users and purchasing decision-makers. We find a way for that arcane time-changing button combination to make sense so that users can do it themselves.
**We understand the grown-up world of business. **We get that you are competing against other smart, tough companies and you need to help potential customers understand the value of your products.
Well, you can’t pay us with pudding cups and 7-up. Although, as a small and targeted team, we are not too hard on your budget.

Get a hold of us to find out how we can get a grip on your communication challenges.