Notes from 56th International STC Conference
Atlanta, Georgia, May 2-5, 2009

Social Networking:
Improving Effectiveness and Demonstrating Strategic Value

Lori Fisher, IBM Corporation
Jenny Redfern, Sun Microsystems

Session Description: This session discussed how technical communication leaders can apply social networking technologies to improve internal processes as well as formal products.

• We’re in a cultural paradigm where users are relying increasingly on social media, as opposed to traditional documentation, to get help and also to make purchase decisions.
• Our jobs as technical communicators may be shifting from content creators to content facilitators.
• Two major pieces: (1) internal communication as part of work as well as external communication with customers, (2) plus actually using the social media as part of the documentation
• Businesses are rapidly recognizing the strategic value of integrating social networking into their public presence as well as their internal infrastructure
• Internally: Become more efficient and productive
• Externally
   
• Market and sell
• Provide support
• Gain mind share
• Technical communication leaders can leverage community technologies to demonstrate alignment with overall company goals
   
• Acknowledge the trend
• Show we are tapped in
• TC managers, team leaders, and project managers can use Web 2.0 and social networking technologies to help their companies
   
• Improve the effectiveness of their internal process
• Enrich their customers’ experience with their products and documentation
• Examples of improving process efficiency and communication
   
• Internal wikis to track projects with matrixed teams
• Wiki comment tools replacing meetings and doc reviews
• Internal and external wikis and blogs to enable collaboration across groups ... and with customers.
• Why use wikis to develop docs?
   
• More than 1 writer can work on the same doc in real time so more content is created in less time ... configuration control is not rigorous until the doc reaches the final stages, at which point the pubs group takes ownership
• Ad hoc, immediate sharing
• Lightweight tools and tagging
• Lightweight production
• Wikis for a matrixed project team
   
• Need wiki tool that suits your team’s needs and working procedures
• Content changes can happen more quickly on a wiki than on a web site or paper
• Provide user-friendly, simple review wiki
• Wikis provide staging areas for docs
• Improving external customer deliverables
   
• Customer review and comment tool for beta documentation; informal feedback provides preliminary usability testing
• Other examples of using social networking to improve communication with customer: NOT to define the final version — the social element builds trust and credibility. This adds a dimension to the tech writer’s job — exchanges on the wiki demand a “persona” rather than just an anonymous writer/editor.
• A wiki manager is essential to track content.
• Collaborative environment for sharing knowledge and experience.
• Evaluating the wiki interface led the doc team to develop a task-oriented user interface (UI).