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Social Media + Technical Documentation
=
with BENEFITS
Cătălina Adam & Radu Băzăvan, SDL
Agenda
● Why we should use Social Media tools in
technical documentation
● How can we use it?
● Best practices
● Next level of maturity
● Crowdsourced documentation will be the way in which a
good chunk of the job will be done
● New avenue of communication with users
● SEO is dead
● Users want it
● Users can access content from their mobiles
Why get social?
Social Media tools
● Commenting functionality
● Wikis
● Forums
● ”Spread the word”
How is this a game changer?
● Collaboration and partnership
● Interactivity in the documentation
● User-generated content
● Tech writers act as moderators and
curators
Be there with cats, babies, Inna...
...and Justin Bieber.
1. Watch out for Zuckerberg’s changing algorithm!
2. Be the master of your content. Don’t give your content away:
a. to a platform you do not control
b. to a platform that denies access to Google bots
c. to a platform that restricts user access
3. You can build a community, which you can use to get precious
feedback
4. Facebook is best used for the Like and Share plugin, not for
becoming the virtual engine of your content
Never forget:
Haters gonna hate
...and here’s something you can’t do
- Two golden initials: BC (Be Concise)
- Twitter is perfect for:
- announcing release rotes
- announcing hotfixes
- tips&tricks
- Twitter is not suitable for: almost anything else
- You can build a user community, which is helpful for instant feedback
- Easy with Twitter down the stairs:
- don’t give your content away to a platform that denies Google bots
access
- do not overcommunicate
YouTube/Vimeo/Trilulilu
- Video training: the next best thing (except for when your company is
making money off training)
- Statistics
- You can embed the film anywhere
- Careful with music royalties
- aways.safeguard.the.sources.Always.
Google Plus
Conclusions:
- Social media can help you deliver content fast, efficiently, cheaply
- Never let go of your content. No content gets left behind. Your content will
never walk alone
- Be ready for:
- negative, overtly outspoken feedback
- the watchful eye of the competition
- branding your content with your name
- Never mix your job with that of the Social Media Manager/PR/etc. You are
there to spread technical content, not to cross-sell and upsell
