STC 2010 Strategies for the Social Web for Documentation

Strategies for the Social Web For Documentation

Anne Gentlewww.justwriteclick.com

STC Summit May 2010

Social Media Seems Overwhelming and a Time Sink

Strategies for the Social Web for Documentation

Without knowing how to approach it, social media seems like a hit or miss proposition with lots of risk.

Flickr: couragextoxlive

Our Challenge

We (finally!) have social tools and web analytics for our content. But challenges abound. In three steps, find the hits and avoid the misses to meet business goals.


Flickr: ogimogi

Documentation as Conversation

You:want to deliver content in a way that involves your users and opens collaboration opportunities.

1. Listen first.2. Find your role.3. Align content

placement with business goals.


Categories of New Media Tools

Type Description

Tagged content Social bookmarking such as Delicious.com

Shared content Blogs, wikis, AddThis

Syndicated content Blogs, podcasts

Community content Wikis, Jive, MindTouch, Lithium

Profile content Professional and social networking sites

Presence content Microblogging with Twitter, or location-aware sites like Gowalla

Conversation content Forums such as support forums, email lists

Type Description

Email Used to write and send messages electronically

Text Messaging Send short messages using a mobile device

Photo Sharing and organizing pictures using the web

Video Sharing videos or screencasts

Audio Podcast sites, like a radio show

Virtual Avatars or online objects representing personality or a physical device


Listen First to Analyze First

• Get a larger picture of what’s being talked about and by whom.

• Demonstrate listening tools.

• Monitor and report.


Flickr: lilianaamundarain

Monitor Keyword Alerts

1. Google Alerts2. Technorati3. Delicious


Flickr: totalAldo

Google Alerts


Emails (or feed) automatically sent to you based on search results.You can create up to 1000 alerts. Know Google’s syntax for precise searches.

Technorati Blog Search

• Searches only blogs. • Offers a filter based on

authority.


Delicious and Tagging

• Delicious.com – social bookmarking/tagging site.

• Enter a Delicious username at Wordle.net to get a tag cloud.

• Example: whurley


Let Conversation Flow

• Don’t:– Automate

(follows, posts)– Interrupt

• Do: – Identify yourself

and your company– Be conversational


Flickr: naydeeyah

Social Weather Indicators

A crowded, noisy restaurant with a celebrating Little League team and their coaches

orA busy restaurant with intimate, romantic, white table cloths, candlelight, and couples dining


Flickr: DiscoverDuPage

Sentiment Ratings

• Twitter Search at search.twitter.com gives sentiment options in Advanced Search.

• Serious sentiment raters are using Radian6 and other advanced tools.


Create Audience Personas and Perform Task Analysis

1. Have the data, use it. 2. Demographics and

Social Technographics3. Indeed.com and

LinkedIn.com demo


Flickr: alex e proimos

Social Technographics

• Demographics indicate how likely a person is to participate on the social web. – Age – Country– Gender

• Recently they added “Conversationalist” to the ladder.


Job Titles, Tasks, User Profiles


• Indeed.com – job titles, task descriptions

• LinkedIn – names, faces, locations

Define Your Roles on the Social Web

1. Reporter/Observer2. Enabler/Sharer3. Collaborator/Instigator


Flickr: ThisParticularGreg

Reporter/Observer

• Listening techniques• Aggregate information• Curate content from users


Enable Comments

• JS Kit ECHO – embed comment form on web pages, can store comments locally


Enable Conversations

• DISQUS – hosted comments, threaded conversations, moderation features


Enable Sharing

• AddThis – register on the site, embed the code, configure the sites on which users can share content

• TweetMeme – add a retweet button to any web page


Syndicate Content

• Syndication works two ways:– Offering users

notifications of your content updates

– Embedding content from RSS feeds


Collaborator/Instigator Role

• Agile development• Alignment with business objectives


Social CRM

• Customer relationship management extended to the social web – profile, followers, activity level, influence level

• Know your influencers


Align with Business Goals

• Community building also may be your responsibility.

• Provide a platform, support a community, when your audience and business goals support it.


Flickr: max-all

Find Existing Communities

Communities exist on:Blogs – Twitter – Forums – Wikis – YouTube – LinkedIn – Facebook


Community Pitfalls

• Too much content, not enough engagement.

• Another community already took all the major players attention.

• Activity level thin.• High barriers to entry. • Pilot debate – yes or

no?

We came out of the gate with way too many topics out there. We quickly learned that with too many topics and not enough interaction to start, it made the community seem empty. It’s what I call ‘empty restaurant syndrome’ — if you look in a window and no one is in there, you likely won’t go in.

– Mike HardyStrategic communications program managerPitney-Bowes


Measurement

• Measure social media participation and engagement with web analytics.

• Key Performance Indicators depend on overall goals for site.

• Engagement indicators may differ from web analytics.


Flickr: HeavyWeightGeek

Key Performance Indicators

• Customer support and help sites: – New vs. returning

visitors– Searches that had zero

yield– Search results to site

exits ratio– Download completion

rates (if relevant)Strategies for the Social Web for

Documentation

Flickr: ~Brenda-Starr~

Engagement Indicators

• Number of comments on content

• Number of comments responded to

• Response time on the comments

• Number of edits• Volume on discussion

boardsStrategies for the Social Web for

Documentation

Flickr: atomicjeep

When to Stop

• Little engagement• Demographics and

Technographics don’t line up

• No sense of community with your users

• Business alignment isn’t right


Flickr: bug-a-lug

Employers of Corporate Social Media Strategists

• Airline: JetBlue, Southwest, Boeing • Automotive: Ford, GM, Toyota • Business Services: UPS, Pitney Bowes, Ingersoll Rand, Thomson Reuters, SAS, more • Consumer Product Goods: PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Eastman Kodak, Rubbermaid,

Kraft Foods, Land O’Lakes, Estee Lauder, more • Electronics, Devices, Mobile: Sony, Nokia, Dolby, Samsung • Financial Services: Allstate, Experian, Intuit, Progressive, American Express, more• Health/Life Sciences: Mayo Clinic, Life Time Fitness, Kaiser Permanente, more • Media /Entertainment: Cirque du Soleil , DIRECTV, AOL, NBC, NatGeo, Fox, MTV• Retail: Best Buy, Whole Foods, PacSun, Sears, Starbucks, Kohls • Technology, Hardware, Networking, Component, Computer: Dell, National Instruments,

EMC, Intel, Cisco, IBM, NCR, AMD, Creative Labs, Novell, more• Technology, Software, Internet: Microsoft, Juniper, Skype, WebEx, Salesforce, AutodeskSource: Jeremiah Owyang’s List of Corporate Social Media Strategists


http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2010/01/30/list-of-corporate-social-media-strategists-in-2010/

Learn Best Practices

Launch and learn.


Community Content

• Community Roundtable report contains some content best practices.

• Percentage of user- or community-generated versus professional content impact

• Associated content repurposes content (not just single-sourcing)

• Accept imperfection• Relationships built not

with text aloneStrategies for the

Social Web for Documentation

Example: Adobe Community Help

• Custom search engine with selected resources, per product

• Comments, user-generated content, it’s all searchable


Example: Intuit

• Studied by Forrester• Online support

community• Motivations of its

members: reciprocity, reputation, obligation, belonging


Example: Ubuntu

• Community doc offered in addition to official documentation

• Gives users a place to volunteer

• Provides community-based support and learning opportunities


Example: Mozilla

• Separate end-user doc from the developer documentation

• Comprehensive style guidance for new contributors

• Switched from MediaWiki to the MindTouch collaboration platform


Align Content with Business Goals

• Marketing & Sales• Service & Support• Invention & Development • Collaboration• Customer Experience• Learning & Education


Flickr: The Wu’s Photo Land

We Can Do It


Flickr: couragextoxlive Flickr: ogimogi

Documentation as Conversation

You:want to deliver content in a way that involves your users and opens collaboration opportunities.

1. Listen first.2. Find your role.3. Align content

placement with business goals.


Conversation, continued.

Ask Anne Gentlewww.facebook.com/conversationandcommunity


Questions?

Anne [email protected]

@annegentle

www.facebook.com/conversationandcommunity

www.linkedin.com/in/annegentle

http://www.justwriteclick.com/

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