atlassian user group, aug wiesbaden, 25 october 2012

Engaging your readersin the documentation

25th October 2012, Wiesbaden

How and why with social media

Engaging readers, by Sarah Maddox – tweet @sarahmaddox 2

But nobody reads the documentation!


Why social?

The social enterprise

Social is happening anyway

How to get our readers involvedSocial media

Documentation as an emotional experience

Huh?


"Documentation as an emotional experience”

This @$$#*! documentation SUCKS!

But wait...

Weird?


"Documentation as an emotional experience”

Weird?

But wait...

I felt the earth movewhen I read your docs, mate


The death of SEO – or its rebirth?

The Death Of SEO: The Rise of Social, PR, And Real Content

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenkrogue/2012/07/20/the-death-of-seo-the-rise-of-social-pr-and-real-content/

“Google is in the process of making the SEO industry obsolete, SEO will be dead in 2 years.”

Adam Torkildson, SEO consultant

Ken Krogue, Forbes.com

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenkrogue/2012/07/20/the-death-of-seo-the-rise-of-social-pr-and-real-content/


Comments and feedback

Linking to readers’ blogs

Community and collaborative documentation

Doc sprints

Social media

Rewards and gamification

Tools

WikiTwitterFlickrYouTube


What is a wiki? https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/

https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/


Thank you! Fixed.

Some readers’ comments are simple: typos, broken links, and such

Comments

Hi, link is broken


Some comments are full of hard-won and relevant information

This is BRILLIANT Thank you

Comments


People like to let us know they’re keen on a new feature

*Waits intently for Apache Connector 2.0 to be built on windows*

Comments


Yep, I see where you’re going with the “emotional experience” thing

Comments and fun

Demo


Types of comments received

Suggesting a feature 17.24%

Requesting support 10.34%%

Requesting help 31.03%% Unhelpful 3.45%

Addition or correction 6.9%

Supplying information 31.03%


Don’t forget to ask: “How was it for you?”

{widget:url=http://atlassian.wufoo.com/forms/let-us-know-what-you-think-of-the-new-sdk/|height=800px}

Wufoo forms for gathering feedback

wufoo.com

http://wufoo.com/


Linking to readers’ blogs Engage bloggers

Plug a gap we cannot fill

Expand our own knowledge


Open editing of wiki pages Our vision

Is it safe?

Industry and environment

Authors

Monitoring by technical writers

RSS feeds

Wiki watches

You can all sleep sound tonightWe’re not crazy or anything

A team of technical writers


Permissions and ACLA

Comments – anyone can comment

Product documentation

All employees can update

Other contributors sign a licence agreement first

Atlassian Contributor License Agreement (ACLA)

Based on Apache Contributor License Agreement

Guards the rights of all


Comments – anyone can comment

Product documentation

All employees can update

Other contributors sign a licence agreement first

Atlassian Contributor License Agreement (ACLA)

Based on Apache Contributor License Agreement

Guards the rights of all

Any technical writers in the room?

A Powerful Owl in my neighbourhood


Creative Commons copyright licence

CC-by licence on all pages

Use our documentation in any way you like

Acknowledge us as the source

Contributors know where they stand too


Collaboration – release noteshttps://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Confluence+4.3+

Release+Notes

Demo

https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Confluence+4.3+Release+Notes





Collaboration – release notes page history

Demo


https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Database+Setup+For+MySQL

Collaboration – database setup

Demo




Shut ‘em up in a room together

Don’t let ‘em out until the documents are written

Doc sprints


Incorporating social media – Flickr

{widget:url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/31065906@N08/sets/72157623503923898/}

Demo


Incorporating social media – videos

WordPress: “Add Media”

Confluence: “Widget macro”

Other: Embed HTML


Example of a video in a documenthttps://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Confluence+4.3+

Release+Notes

Demo






Links are magic

Galahs on my street

Shareable

Currency of the Web

Doorway to your docs


A little bird told me

Twitter as a medium for release notes

Tips via Twitter

Rewarding the community

Gamification

How to embed Twitter

Rainbow Lorikeets on my eaves


Tweeting your release notes

Ooo-er, did I tweet that? Bite-sized chunks

Interactive

Shareable


Live Twitter stream embedded into the page

Tips via Twitter #ConfluenceTips

Demo


Rewards – badges for tip tweeters

Win-win, like most social tools

Community and identity

Recognition

Promotion


Gamification – the Dragon Slayer

Complex configuration guide

Enjoyment

Feedback

Rewards

Charlie’s clothing and armour

Getting the task done

Fun and camaraderie

T-shirt


Fun stuff is at top and bottom of page

Good solid, well-tested “how to” instructions in between

Dragon Slayer pages


Live Twitter stream on the page

Link to dragon slayers’ forum

Dragon Slayer interactivity

Invitation to tweet your status


People love a game

Dragon Slayer Twitter stream

Demo


How to embed Twitter into your page

http://twitter.com/home?status=My status

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=My query

A simple HTML link

A widget with a search


Twitter link and widget in Confluence

{widget:url=http://search.twitter.com/search?

q=AtlassianDragons}

[tweet your status|http://twitter.com/home?status=My status]


Building a Twitter widgethttps://twitter.com/settings/widgets/new/search

Demo

https://twitter.com/settings/widgets/new/search


Which emotion would you rather have?

Or…

We have both


Confluence, Tech Comm, ChocolateA wiki as platform extraordinaire for technical communication

http://xmlpress.net/publications/chocolate

My book

http://xmlpress.net/publications/chocolate/


Contacting me

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @sarahmaddox

http://twitter.com/sarahmaddox

LinkedIn: http://au.linkedin.com/in/sarahmaddox

Blog: http://ffeathers.wordpress.com

Other blog: http://travellingworm.wordpress.com/

Let me know if you’ve done something similar, or something totally different

The end

mailto:[email protected]

http://twitter.com/sarahmaddox

http://au.linkedin.com/in/sarahmaddox

http://ffeathers.wordpress.com/

http://travellingworm.wordpress.com/

atlassian user group, aug wiesbaden, 25 october 2012

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