5 Reasons to Write Procedures in Twitter
Recently, I’ve been exploring the need for writing procedures in real-time, focusing on Twitter in particular. This is the fourth post in the series. In my last post, I was asked by Larry Kunz in a comment for thoughts on situations in which one might write procedures in Twitter. Five come to mind; I’ve described them below.
Push Information
The beauty of Twitter is that you can quickly disseminate information to a large, targeted audience. Initially, it would, of course, be followers of the feed in question. Retweeting then magnifies that distribution, possibly exponentially. In classic online docs (help, websites, knowledgebases, and the like), we wait for users to come to us. By using Twitter, we can go to them.
This puts an entirely different spin on the whole question of doc development. When planning a content strategy, consider this: what might you want to hand-deliver to your users vs. requiring them to come to you to find?
Quick Fixes
Let’s say, for example, that you have a procedure regarding a fix that’s needed immediately. If one user has a question about it and asks a question on a Twitter support feed, you can be sure that there are many that have the same question. So if a person retweets a procedure, it could possibly travel far. If there’s a negative comment (e.g., something along the lines of “this app doesn’t work, it’s awful”) it might compel a company to get out a fix or explanation, or a quick procedure to quell disruptions.
Example: late last year there were there hacking attacks that affected WordPress sites that hadn’t been upgraded to the newest version. Site managers that had not yet upgraded needed to act immediately to fend off an attack on their sites. News came through Twitter. It was retweeted everywhere. That’s how I found out about it. In such a case, you could write a quick procedure about the upgrade requirements as well as other information. Who knows how far a procedure might travel? I think that tweets pointed people to blogs and sites that had procedures or information about how to address the situation – which in itself is another excellent example.
WordPress is updated frequently. There are docs and blog posts in existence that describe how to upgrade to the latest version. It doesn’t matter what version; the same basic procedures apply to any upgrade. (That’s the beauty of WordPress. There’s so much information out there, and the open-source community is so helpful and collaborative. It’s wonderful.)
If you have an app that has regular updates (as WordPress does), or just has an impending release, why not have something written beforehand that you could point to when necessary? When I ran my Twitter procedure experiment on 12/29/09, Larry Kunz (@larry_kunz) made this suggestion:
“Also, and I know this is a lot harder than it sounds: anticipate the situation, and have responses pre-written, ready to go.”
This is exactly the type of situation that fits Larry’s suggestion. Anything that occurs on at least a periodic basis (such as app updates) should have some docs already written somewhere. Plus, said docs should be written in a generic fashion that would be applicable to any upgrade situation (content management in action) – not just one in particular. You can always address particulars, but have some clean generic docs ready at all times.
Product Launches and New Features
If a company has an app revision or new feature and wants to get the news out, a related procedure in Twitter might support marketing efforts. (As in, here’s our new feature; here’s how to use it.) It also never hurts a company to promote visibility of their products, keeping the company in mind. Pointing out features that would help users and save them time is always a good idea.
Real-Time
People are growing accustomed to getting information right now. They may not have the patience to look through online docs to find it. I cannot emphasize real-time considerations enough. There’s also always the possibility that one of your tweets will be picked up and distributed immediately once it hits the airwaves.
Either put a quick procedure in Twitter, or put in one tweet that links to the appropriate location in online docs or some other location, such as a SharePoint portal. Help your users. Answer their questions before they know they need them. Fix their problems. Monitor support questions and get something out there once in a while. Why not put a short FAQ in your support feed, particularly if it’s asked regularly?
After all, excellent customer service is always a good idea. Given that tech writers must perpetually sell their worth to a company, it sure can’t hurt to help customers.
Go Where Your Users Are
If users are scanning Twitter regularly or using Facebook, that’s where some of your docs should be. If they’re reading your blogs, think about adding procedures there. You can embed Twitter feeds in multiple places: WordPress sites, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Wave. Also, in Facebook, people can leave comments for each tweet that becomes a status item in Facebook. Look at the Mashable page for an example.
Remember: social media is a primary mode of communication these days. Start using it, if you’re not already. If nothing else, mentions of detailed docs and links to them can easily be integrated into these locations.
If your users are all at Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and the like much of the time, why not go there? If not, you may find yourself standing at an empty storefront.
Related Posts
Real time: it’s sooooo last second
My First Procedure Written in Twitter
Lessons Learned: Procedure Written in Twitter
Must-Follow Trends for Tech Writers
Tech writers have always needed to keep up with current technologies. That is the case today more than ever. I’ve been in the field for over 20 years, starting back before online help, back when you copied manuals to put in binders, back when you wrapped up docs weeks before a release because you had to get the book off to the printer.
That’s nothing like today. Changes are so massive, so fast, and coming from so many directions that it is impossible to keep up. Still, it’s important to try. For anything that applies to IT applies to tech writing. Writers must be know something about everything and be ready for it. We’re going to have to specialize and collaborate more than ever before.
Here, briefly, are my thoughts on what I think are some main topics to track. This is a companion piece to my post about Twitter feeds to follow; all apply to tech writing. This post is to explain why to track those feeds. It’s not a comprehensive overview or list. More will come. I may change some of the content here as I come across more information. For today though, this is a beginning. I hope it starts you thinking. Be sure and review the list of Twitter feeds in the other post. Sign up for a few and you can start learning right away.
Cloud Computing
Questions to consider:
Is the app you’re documenting on a cloud? Will your docs be? Should or can your docs be? If your developers have moved apps to the cloud, maybe that’s where you will need your docs for that app to be stored as well (if they’re not already).
If there are security issues for your docs, should they be behind a corporate firewall? Could some be in-house and some in the cloud? If so, then you need to know, as it would be a factor in content-management planning/content strategy for doc setup. Keep up with the security aspect in particular.
Are you developing materials for access over a mobile device? Assume that the cloud is involved.
If there’s a way to cut costs by moving your docs to a cloud, is that something you might want to suggest at your company? Would you suggest a public or private cloud?
In any case, if there’s discussion in your company about moving apps to the cloud, or if they’re already there, you should be in on the planning or know what’s going on. So you might want to keep up on this topic. Here are just a few pertinent articles I’ve found lately through the people I follow on Twitter (my favorite is @cloud_dennis).
2 in 3 IT Managers Have Cloud Funding
http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/hosted/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=219401279
An Essential Guide to Possibilities and Risks of Cloud Computing
http://www.cloudbook.net/an-essential-guide-to-possibilities-and-risks-of-cloud-computing
Mobile Cloud Computing: Is Your Phone Drifting to the Cloud
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/mowi/article.php/3841611/Mobile-Cloud-Computing-Is-Your-Phone-Drifting-to-the-Cloud.htm
Keep your head in the cloud…
Search
You always need to know about search functionality and trends. That is how people find information in your docs.
The latest news is that Google isn’t using the metadata tag for searches. If your docs are online and you have a Google search button enabled on it, will it find as much if you’ve put everything into a metadata tag? Review the SEO docs on the Google site to find out how it works, and keep it in mind when you write. Don’t write for search, but know how it works.
Keep real-time search on your radar as well. I still have to look into that more. In the meantime, read anything you see about it.
Search Engine Watch has been around from the start; they’re the experts. Follow them!
Social Media
Holy smokes. Where to begin…
Twitter: It’s a great way to push information. I could see using it for submitting questions and getting answers out quickly. You could set up a hash tag for your app or docs. You could set up separate feeds for different aspects of your docs. Then users could just go to that feed and get current info and some in past tweets. You can use it to announce doc and app changes. For gathering and sharing information, it’s invaluable.
Facebook: businesses are definitely using this. It is constantly evolving, and has functionality expansion planned. This could definitely be a place for user input and user-generated information, at the very least. They recently expanded their search functionality; think about taking a look on their blog.
I was at a WordPress WordCamp last weekend, and someone mentioned that a younger person they knew wasn’t using e-mail any more. That person was using Facebook instead.
Now, there’s Google Wave on the horizon. I’m excited to see how that is going to change the landscape. I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
You cannot ignore social media. It’s not going away. It’s also always changing, and doc departments need to determine how to fit it in to their plans. This one is a lot of fun to keep up with.
Agile
If you’re not already working in an agile shop, assume that you will be before too long. Also, you have to keep up with programming trends. If developers are changing their basic work processes, you absolutely have to know how that works. This has been going on for a while, so you need to know about it.
Think about starting to incorporate the processes into your work. On big writing projects, set up daily scrums with the doc team. Leads could be the Product Owner or ScrumMaster. Agile doesn’t need to apply just to programming. If you start using it in your department, it’ll be easier to integrate with the dev team. Don’t wait for this to come to you. Go get it.
When I read about the user stories, I immediately thought of personas. Tech writers should definitely be on the project team and be able to contribute to developing user stories. That is about designing apps to meet user needs and objectives.
You also have to determine how to write docs in an agile environment. How do you plan and design your docs for the long-term while being able to put something out quickly with the latest sprint? I know there are writers out there in the midst of this, so I’ll be trying to get more information.
HTML 5
There are big changes coming with this. It’s not officially adopted yet, and isn’t scheduled to be for several years, but is starting to be used. However, it will impact docs. The most notable changes I’ve seen so far are the effect on tables and possible reduction in use of Flash. These are serious enough for docs that I’m going to begin research on this next.
WordPress
This open-source blogging platform is increasing in use. You need to know CSS and it helps to have a general knowledge of programming in general so you can read a bit of the code. Even if you don’t know that, you could still figure it out.
It’s also very easy to use. There’s a world-wide community that works on and supports development. There are designs already made that you can use and customize as you want. There are plug-ins that enable you to do just about anything you want: set the site up for mobile access, optimize searching, possibly add a wiki.
The point is, it’s all ready. So, poof! You could have a very basic website framed, set up, and running in a day or so, and have the capability to add more functionality through all the plug-ins. Of course, larger sites would take longer to set up. Every theme uses standardized code, so once you learn the basics, you’re good to go. It’s phenomenal, and I highly recommend it to everyone.
…..
That’s a start. I’ll keep adding more information to the site. For more items to track, I’ve also listed some on my Watch List page. Never a dull moment, is there? Especially these days!