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Re: Follow-up to question about getting feedback from users
Subject:Re: Follow-up to question about getting feedback from users From:Robert_Johnson -at- percussion -dot- com To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:19:57 -0400
Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Sent by: techwr-l-bounces+robert_johnson=percussion -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
09/25/2009 09:09 AM
To
techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com, David Farbey <dfarbey -at- yahoo -dot- co -dot- uk>
cc
Subject
Re: Follow-up to question about getting feedback from users
Keith,
Curmudgeon or not, I think the speaker is right. Open Documentation,
Community-oriented Documentation, call it what you will, this is the
direction that our work is increasingly going, and will have to go.
Documentation will increasingly be delivered via social media, including
wikis, blogs, and online forums. Open source projects have been leading
the way, but more and more corporations are following, because they are
compelled to. Customers demand it, especially the rising generation, who
have grown up immersed in social media, and expect companies to meet them
on their ground. When companies don't meet their expectations, they move
on, and they do so quickly. Check out chrisbrogan.com,
millennialmarketing.com, and socialmediaexplorer.com, among others. Yes,
these sites and blogs target marketing, but what they have to say is
equally cogent for us, and we can't afford to fall behind where they are
leading.
Moreover, to me, this trend represents an opportunity for us as technical
writers to break that cycle of commodification. If we're out there in the
company community, delivering value and building company reputation, we're
enhancing our value to the company and insuring ourselves again
commodification. Longevity in a community contributes to your reputation
and authority; any company with social media savvy will recognize that and
invest in you accordingly. Rotating contractors aren't likely to build
the product and company knowledge to contribute authoritatively to a
community, nor are they likely to gain reputation and respect among the
denizens of the community that ensure the loyalty of existing customers
while drawing new ones.
I don't think the issues of business etiquette and the art of schmoozing
customers are quite as important in an online community as they are in the
executive suit. The online environment is much more free-wheeling. I'm
not saying that there are no boundaries when you represent your company
online; you certainly should behave professionally. But the online
environment is much less formal, as we've seen illustrated on this list
for years.
Robert Johnson
Principal Writer
Percussion Software
Woburn, MA
--- On Fri, 9/25/09, David Farbey <dfarbey -at- yahoo -dot- co -dot- uk> wrote:
...snip...
> In his closing keynote address to TCUK09 yesterday, RJ
> Jacquez of Adobe
> pointed out that Technical Communicators are well placed to
> lead the way
> in engaging with customers - many of us are already
...snip...
This observation pushed my curmudgeon button. It may be true. It is also
irrelevant, because the number of companies that will allow tech writers
and documentation personnel to communicate directly with customers is
vanishingly small. In too many companies, technical documentation work is
viewed as a commodity - it's something the company buys a package of if
and when they need it. Its practitioners are regarded as flunkies who are
supposed to simply churn out the papers the company needs; they are
considered unsuitable for doing something that matters to the bottom line,
like talk to the suckers - er, customers - who actually cough up the money
the company wants.
There is some justification behind the idea that technical information
personnel should not be allowed to interface directly with customers. Or
that such interfacing should be limited in duration and scope. How many
programs that train people to create technical documents also teach things
like business etiquette and the art of schmoozing a customer? How many
tech writers have the necessary skills for talking to customers who may be
nervous about the costs or the project parameters? Any time someone talks
to a customer you have to be concerned with making the right impression,
giving the customer a warm fuzzy feeling about the company and its work,
and most technical information people are not well adapted for that. Some
got into technical writing because they have the kind of mentality that is
better suited to banging out man pages than to interfacing with customers,
and the vast majority of them have no training or experience in dealing
with customers.
That's my take on the matter; your mileage may vary.
Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
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