I recently concluded a very detailed study of the most influential technical documentation sites of 2010 to determine what made them influential. What I discovered transcended documentation to include all product and service related content.
Today there are companies that using content in strategic ways that are not being discussed for competitive reasons. These companies understand the concept of social proof and how it impacts buying decisions ...
As an end user, I’ve worked with a lot of software and most of the software user assistance is far from great. Yep, I said it. And it’s true, Mostly. I realize this article isn’t going to gain me any more friends. I’m okay with it. But before you pass final judgment, please read on. I’m trying to help.
Why are most of the software user assistance help systems so bad? It’s not because the individuals designing it are ...
ThinkPassenger’s red velvet rope approach is unique in the industry. It requires corporations to shed the megaphone approach to customer messaging and to connect with their customers one on one. They make it exclusive, fun and rewarding to both company and participant.
It’s typically full service, private and very exclusive. Think “privileged”. It begins with private invitations that are extended to the corporation’s customers. ...
MindTouch has been busy preparing for the launch of a revolutionary new product so I have been updating this site less. That will change soon. If you notice however, I’ve moved to Wordpress to take advantage of a number of features that were missing on the blogger platform.
A few updates to report.
I somehow won the AIIM Enterprise 2.0 RFP award thanks to all who voted. I’ve also been selected to be one of the Keynotes for LavaCon San Diego ...
Guest Post by Anne Gentle
Meeting business goals with emergent social software, this is Enterprise 2.0. As a technical writer, do you doubt that Enterprise 2.0 can happen where you work? Consider this. Even the most influential and gate-keeping newspapers now allow comments alongside their strictly styled, investigated, and copy-edited content. A browser sidebar from Google called Sidewiki enables annotation on any page on the entire web. Traditional ...
“You’re position in the company is of little value,” he said indifferently neither in attempt to injure or blame but merely in the tone of stating a situational fact as he’d say to another man, ‘you'll always be worthless you can't help it. It's in your blood.’ Or to be more scientific, your conditioned that way.
The role of Technical Communicator, Product Content Creator, Usability Specialists, etc. haven’t always been the fastest path ...
According to a recent Edison Research study 51% of active Twitter users follow companies, brands or products on social networks. That means they are most likely following your brand and your product.
That means they are discussing how, why, when and where they use your product and service. And you’re not there?
Twitter now has 105,779,710 registered users with 300,000 signing up every day. 180 million unique visitors use the site every ...
Every major brand is struggling to launch a community site around their company’s products. Maybe it’s an indirect community that you hope brings traffic and future sales, or maybe it’s a community about your product that has been designed to increase sales.
But unless you are a very big brand with a passionate following (e.g. Apple) these communities are difficult and expensive to build. Not impossible, but it’s hard work.
Yet companies ...
Ever wonder how Wikipedia maintains such a high degree of quality material on any given subject? They have an army of unpaid content curators. They also have you.
The all-volunteer team of curators is constantly checking new submissions to ensure they meet the rules that Wikipedia established that were designed to prevent self-promotion, that articles only reference reliable sources, and establish levels of 'notability' for things that get ...
Google Wave has been lambasted for its lack of a killer app or specific business use case. A new application built on Google Wave seeks to become that first killer app.
UnaWave is a new work management solution built on Google Wave. They call it work management since it’s been developed to work the way you do - Collaboratively and intuitively. To me it’s also more of a Social Task and Social Project Management system. Try it out here:
Do ...
