Christian GerickeSVP EMEA & APAC

Speaking with one voiceHow to develop a distinctive personality

SDL Nordic Digital Experience Day

18.11.20125

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What’s in this presentation for you?

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How to help your organization actually

genuinely get better at content!

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So, we all know that we "just" need

content and lots of it!

But not just any content, it needs to be

great content, ...

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... that speaks your customer’s language and engages

Acrolinx linguistic technology helps

some of the world’s greatest brands

speak with one voice

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@cgericke

Acrolinx linguistic technology helps

some of the world’s greatest brands

speak with one voice

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@cgericke

Variety of Content, One Voice

Web Marketing

Technical ProductContent

Brochures & Data Sheets

Training & Education

Sales Enablement

Videos & Presentations

Community& Support Content

Blogs & Social

Software UI& Embedded

Help

Newsletters & Articles

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AwarenessInterest

Evaluation

PURCHASE

Usage

Engagement

Advocacy

Winning

Customers

Keeping

Customers

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AwarenessInterest

Evaluation

PURCHASE

Usage

Engagement

Advocacy

Winning

Customers

Keeping

Customers

• Social

• Success Stories

• Website

• Blogs

• Social

• Online Help

• Customer Support

• Knowledge Bases

• Installation Guide

• Training

• User Guide

• Online Help

• Customer Support

• Knowledge Bases

• Online Help

• Customer Support

• Knowledge Bases

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How we treat our customers

Brochure

Glossy

Slick

Colorful

Reader-friendly

Sexy

Compelling

Manual

Plain

Dull

Black & White

Confusing

Dry

Boring

So to start with …

Who are we writing for?

What are we trying to say?

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Target Audience ≈ Personas

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Sam the Persona

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Is this your style guide?

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Which is better for a golfer?

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Voice at Microsoft

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Voice at EasyJet

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© Roger Perry

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Cats are not allowed in this garden

Affect and Effect

Among and Between

Assure, Ensure and Insure

Complement and Compliment

Comprise and Compose

Each Other and One Another

Farther and Further

Influence, Impact and Effect

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This is all great theory!

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You just need to get everyone in the

organization creating great content that

works.

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So, more content and better content…

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How?

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Optimization Circle

Analyze

Set Standards

Optimize

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We break this down into three aspects:

Words & Phrases (aka Terminology) – including branding,

messaging, feature names, and so on

Style – the traditional rules of good writing you want to follow

(Chicago Manual of Style, Strunk’s Elements of Style, …)

Tone of voice – the tone you take projects the company’s

personality

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Some example rules for clarity and translation optimization

Avoid Embedded Sentences

Do not use more than two clauses. Longer sentences are harder to understand than shorter sentences.

• Polyshield Seal Kits provide sealant for every ANSI Combo. Polyshield Seal Kits are included and shipped with each ANSI Combo

• Polyshield Seal Kits, which provide sealant for the ANSI Combo and which are included and shipped with each ANSI Combo, provi

Do Not Use Complex Sentences

This sentence has several complex constructions (nested sentences, passive, coordination, noun clusters, etc.) and is difficu

• You can customise the “touch time” required to trigger commands using the touch key. To specify a time, press [Access] on the

• Pressing [Access] on the control panel will select this interval, so that the machine will respond to the touch key operation

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Content AUDIT!

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Acrolinx Savings Calculation

ROI Model

ROI model: translation savings

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Aggregated Report

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Content x Tone = Impact

(Doug Kessler @dougkessler)

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flesch kincaid

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Examples: Tone of Voice

To commence work, a new ticket needs to be generated.

To commence work, a new ticket must be generated.

To commence work, you must generate a new ticket.

To start work, generate a new ticket.

To start work, please generate a new ticket.

To start work, create a ticket.

Open a ticket to get started.

Open a ticket and get working!!!

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Classification: Tone of Voice

informal

& lively

readable

& clear

To commence work, a new

ticket must be generated.

To commence work, a new

ticket needs to be generated.

To commence work, you

must generate a new ticket.

To start work, create a ticket.

To start work, please generate a new ticket.

To start work, generate a ticket.

Open a ticket to get started.

Open a ticket and get

working!!!

Classification: Audience

informal

& lively

readable

& clear

young

close

impersonal

formal

technical expert general

public

To commence work, a new

ticket must be generated.

To commence work, a new

ticket needs to be generated.

To commence work, you

must generate a new ticket.

To start work, create a ticket.

To start work, please generate a new ticket.

To start work, generate a ticket.

Open a ticket to get started.

Open a ticket and get

working!!!

We Measure Your Tone of Voice

Target Score

(configurable)

Document

Score

Readability: Meaning

Value 0 25 50 75 100

Meaning difficult to read average easy to read

Language complex easy

Reading

Level

high low

Informality: Meaning

Value 0 25 50 75 100

Meaning formal neutral informal

Vocabulary

Structures

technical

passive

informal / colloquial

use of “you”, “we”

Type of

words

more nouns

than verbs

more verbs

than nouns

Liveliness: Meaning

Value 0 25 50 75 100

Meaning monotonous neutral lively

Structures long sentences

embedded sentence

similar structure

short sentences

fragments

questions

varied structures

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Thank You!

e-mail: christian.gericke@acrolinx.com

SDL LiveContent + Acrolinx

SDL LiveContent + Acrolinx

Quality Checker

Integrated with SDL

LiveContent Architect

Supports Grammer,

Reuse, Spelling, Style

and Terminology

Checking

Style Checking

Guidance on style of

content and suggestions

on alternatives.

Spelling and Terminology Checking

Guidance on spelling

and terminology.

Technical Details/Requirements

Requires Enrich 2.0

Supported Versions

LiveContent 2013 SP4 - Acrolinx 3.x

LiveContent 2014 – Acrolinx 4.x

Supported Editors

– Arbortext 5.x, 6.x (32-bit and 64-bit)

– XMetaL 8.x, 9.x(beta).

– oXygen XML Editor (Standalone) 15, 16 (Q1 2015)

Acrolinx + SDL WorldServer

Acrolinx + SDL World Server

Re-use of existing

translations in

Translation Memory

Available in all authoring

integrations supported

by Acrolinx

Leverages SDL World

Server re-use algorithms

Author writing content in any supported authoring environment.

Define Words, Phrases, Sentences in Translation Memory

Define Words, Phrases, Sentences in Translation Memory

Define Words, Phrases, Sentences in Translation Memory

Define Words, Phrases, Sentences in Translation Memory

Configure Acrolinx Options – “Enable Reuse”

Acrolinx suggests alternative sentence based on Translation Memory.

Technical Details/Requirements

SDL World Server 10.4.1

Requires Enrich 2.0

Joint Roadmap

Roadmap

2014 Q4 – SDL TMS Support for Reuse

LiveContent 2014 Q4 (10.4.1)SDL TMS 2011 SP5 CU1 (v10.5.1)Enrich 2.1

2015 Q1– Editors

• XMetaL 9.x (Beta)

• oXygen XML Editor (Standalone) 16 (Q1 2015)

Later in 2015 – Integrations with SDL Tridion– Integrations with Trados Studio– LiveContent – Tone of Voice