Our latest webinar, “What’s Next? Socially-Enabled User Assistance, Interactive Documentation, and Location-Aware Help” was a discussion by Scott Abel, the Content Wrangler, about how businesses big and small are leveraging the power of the crowd to create exceptional socially-enabled customer assistance experiences, engaging interactive/enhanced digital content, useful mobile device apps, and powerful location-aware help.
The webinar was an action-packed 60 minutes and the recording is available below. In addition to the recording, there were a handful of questions asked by the live audience during the webinar. I enlisted Scott to help answer them. You can find them below. Thank you again to Scott for an insightful webinar.
Live Audience Questions:
Q: In an Organization what would be the best way of presenting the information, based on this webinar’s discussion?
A: Whether you are presenting information inside an organization (internal audiences) or outside (to external groups) the best way of presenting information is in small, topic-based chunks that attempt to provide only one answer to one problem at a time. The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is a standard many organizations use to create individual topics of content that they can later recombine into a variety of information products, things like user guides, product manuals, and training materials. This standard is not only important to those attempting to publish multi-channel content destined for multiple formats of output, but it’s also important because the research behind it can be applied to support web pages as well.
As it turns out, human beings need a few things to understand and accomplish almost any task. These things are part of the DITA architecture and can — and should — be part of every support page, regardless of whether you created it using DITA, your own XML schema, or a tool like MindTouch TCS. To present the most effective help topics possible, you will need to provide the following:
- A task title (e.g. “How to create a profile on Facebook”)
- A short description of the task (informing the user what task the help topic will assist them in completing)
- Step-by-step instructions for accomplishing the task (the procedure)
- Definitions of related concepts (definitions of terms the user might not understand)
- Reference materials (links to related documents or other sources of information the user might also need to be successful)
In a Help 2.0 environment, the topic (or task) that the support page is about may contain these items and more. User feedback (positive comments, questions, notification of errors in your content), user-generated content (video tutorials, articles, use cases), along with ratings, scores, etc.
Q: If we can’t group customers into personas, how do we craft our writing to reflect the tone, terminology and content that is appropriate for the audience? Is there such thing as a “standard” audience?
A: I think this is an iterative process. James Michelson (http://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmichelson), author of “Cross Media Marketing 101: The Concise Guide To Surviving In The C-Suite” (http://amzn.to/qhgSqB) and owner of JFM Concepts (http://www.jfmconcepts.com/) suggests that we start with a general understanding of the audience, but then segment them each time we learn something about them. For instance, if you send out an email inviting your customers to join your socially-enabled Help 2.0 community, those who respond and set up accounts should receive communications designed to acknowledge that they are members, and to mature their involvement in the community by teaching them, one step at a time, things they might find useful when they return to the community. Those who responded should be removed from the prospects email list and placed into the membership email list.
Once a member logs in to the community, the Help 2.0 system should allow you to present content to them based on where they are in your customer pipeline. Is the members perhaps a prospect just checking out your support site and that’s all you know about them? If so, they should be presented with content that is different from a member that has just registered a product. That customer should get information presented to them of relevance to people who actually own that product. The site should move irrelevant content out of the way and provide content based on what we know about that type of user (owner of the Apple iPad 2, for instance).
This process involves creating very small persona groups and then adding to the mix personalized information that the system can learn by watching how the user interacts with the content on the site. Do they seem to visit English language versions of the content most often, even though they are from Spain and your site offers Spanish language content? If they own the newest version of your printer and they have registered that product and appear to be looking for information about “toner” the site should present information about toner to the member — both content you created and content from the user community.
It’s not an exact science from the get go. You make it better — fine tune it — over time. More advanced sites like Autodesk Wikihelp are working behind the scenes on the next versions of their site, improving the content, targeting it to various users based on things they know about them, things they might be able to infer about them, and things that the members share with them.
Keep in mind, Help 2.0 is community-based help, so not all of the content you create will be served up automatically from a repository of content. Some of it will be written as needed in response to comments from individual members. These individual interactions will teach you an awful lot about each of these customers that should help you in finding better ways to serve them. But, more importantly, you’ll be able to develop meaningful customer relationships with real customers (and prospects) that will low you to engage them, motivate them, reward them, and encourage them…all things important to maturing a relationship with a member.
Q: What do you think will be the impact of Google+ on technical communication, or the pubs industry as a whole?
A: I don’t have any idea just yet. I try not to get overly excited by Google products because they have a history of discontinuing ones that don’t actually work for them regardless of how committed I might be to the technology. Personally, I don’t yet see the value.
I do, however, see the value of socializing documentation and help content. It’s incredible that it’s taken us this long to realize the importance of listening to the customer, allowing them to help us spread the word, improve our content, and extend our marketing reach. Social help isn’t new. It’s already been going on outside of our websites and knowledge desks in places like YouTube, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and thousands of blogs and communities. What’s important for techcomm to admit is that we need a social layer on top of our support content.
Q: Do you think that web analytics can be important to support 2.0 strategies?
A: Absolutely. I think it’s high time that technical communicators and others who create content should be able to access analytics about the content they create, manage, publish, translate, etc. It’s just ridiculous that tool vendors don’t see the value of building these mechanisms and reporting interfaces into all authoring and publishing tools. Content that is destined for the web needs to be tracked, reported on, and analyzed. I think we’re going to see a convergence of analytics and content driven by authoring and publishing tools, especially from vendors like MindTouch that “get” how important these numbers are for managers to make informed business decisions and for authors, editors, support pros, community managers and customers to fix problems, enhance content and add their voices to the mix.
Q: How does one highlight the importance of technology in a non-technical company. For instance, I work in a propane company, how do you feel it is best to stress the importance of digital outreach to in-house employees as well as customers?
A: It’s always best to tie your operational inefficiency problems to return on investment to get them approved. You have to talk about savings (measurable as well as the hard to measure) and revenues. If you can show that you are not very efficient and wasting time and effort, and you can quantify that, you can help leaders see the value of any change, technological or otherwise.
I wrote a white paper entitled “Managing the King: Why Terminology Management is a Critical Component of Successful Content Strategies” — located here: http://bit.ly/mZb2Fd.
This white paper examines the importance of adopting terminology management as part of an effective content strategy. It serves to highlight the need for managing writers and corporate terminology at a strategic level to ensure that relevant, quality content is provided to those who need it. It’s written in a story format and should be the type of content you’ll need to create (or borrow or have someone write for you) that is the basis of the technological change you want to make. The argument cannot be about the technology (after all, they don’t understand nor care about that). It has to be a clear picture of the problem. If you were to take this white paper and create a matching slide deck and graphics showing the metrics contained in it that would also go a long way toward you helping to communicate to management in ways that they understand. Make sure to understand what the upper management does care about and link your technology and other improvements to helping them overcome those challenges first. Sell them on your ideas to tackle what they already see as problems.
Q: Do you have any examples of medical device companies using a Help 2.0 system to gain insight on their technical documentation?
A: No, not at this time. But I just had the conversation with a diabetes care focused manufacturer of medical devices that is considering allowing the community of doctors and nurses that assist patients in clinics, hospitals and doctor’s offices to add their voices to the community they are hoping to create. No, patients will not be allowed to edit instruction manuals for fast-actng insulin pumps, but doctors can attest to the fact that they see improvements in treatment management, for example, amongst teens who are properly trained, educated and motivated to take care of themselves and manage their diabetes as their doctor ordered when parents are actively involved. Nurse practitioners and physicians can add value to the community by providing tips for parents or advice on what to avoid if you are pregnant and diabetic. The possibilities are endless, but the regulatory concerns are real, potential obstacles that are not something that life sciences firms take lightly. So, the progress toward Help 2.0 may be slow going amongst more conservative firms fearful of future non-compliance.
Q: Explain DITA to the uniformed.
A: Yikes, that’s too big a topic to cover here. Grab a copy (eBook or print) of “DITA 101: Fundamentals of DITA for Authors and Managers” (second edition) by Ann Rockley, Charles Cooper with special contribution by Mark Lewis (entire chapter on DITA metrics). http://bit.ly/nyFi6n
A free chapter from the book is available here: http://bit.ly/n1BOXd
Q: What about bad actors (esp. on wikis) – how do companies monitor troublemakers?
A: Alas, I hear this question many times. First, we have to give a clear set of rules and expectations to our audience. It doesn’t have to be anything that we’ll need to monitor and enforce all day, every day. It can just be some basic rules for the community that are presented on the signup page and perhaps agreed to on the Terms of Service page (you know, that check box we each check saying we agree to the terms of the websites we join when we create a profile, but seldom actually read. Here’s an example from Autodesk Wikihelp Community to get you started in the right direction. Use this content to develop your own:
============= Autodesk WikiHelp =============
We have simple rules. We want to maintain a constructive, informative, and helpful environment for sharing ideas about Help content. Your use of, participation in, and submissions to this WikiHelp site are subject to these Rules, the Autodesk.com Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy.
This WikiHelp site is created by the community of users, and Autodesk makes it available “As Is” and with specific disclaimer of any warranties of merchantability, fitness for purpose, title, and/or non-infringement. Autodesk cannot guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or availability of information available from this site.
An Autodesk moderator may, but is not obligated to, monitor, modify, remove, or decline to publish or publish submissions without notice or attribution. Autodesk may also (but is not required to) use your submission, in whole or in part, within or outside of the WikiHelp Web site in accordance with the Autodesk.com Terms of Use.
Note: All the Ground Rules from our Discussion Forums apply on our WikiHelp project site.
Community Rules
- Be respectful of your fellow community members.
- Post constructive content.
- Stay on topic.
- Avoid debates about the software.
- Be responsible.
Content Rules
- Add content related to learning Autodesk products. Off-topic content may be deleted by the community or Autodesk.
- Add content in the appropriate language for products published in multiple languages and open to community contributions. For example, add content in English to the WikiHelp English version of Autodesk Inventor and content in German to the German version of the WikiHelp for Autodesk Revit. Note: Some products may publish content in multiple languages in the WikiHelp yet some may not be available for community edits and contributions as this is an evolving program.
- Avoid creating empty pages. Moderators do not publish empty pages.
- Explain jargon.
- Avoid blanket statements.
- Include images and animations that convey meaningful ideas.
- Cite sources. Do not infringe on copyrights.
====================
Q: Do you think the diversity of how we consume content (like tablets, phones, surfaces, etc.) is helping or hurting content strategists?
A: Well, that depends on how you look at things. If you are a content strategist that understands that the real problem is not the proliferation of devices, but the operational inefficiencies in many organizations that are publishing content (that’s just about every organization on the planet), then it’s a great thing, because it means you can actually help your employer or client solve the real problem: a lack of a strategy. The introduction of new device types and their adoption by consumers does introduce some challenges. You have to stay on top of all the latest research. You have to constantly read, listen, and learn. You have to be knowledgable about a lot of things, and be mindful that the challenges being faced by those you serve are being faced by every other organization in existence. This is a good thing for content strategy as a discipline as it means there is plenty of work to go around. The ironic thing is, it’s not about the device, the software, the OS, the information products being created (eBooks, Apps, etc.). The real issue is the absence of a repeatable, systematic approach to creating, managing and delivering content in nearly every company, non-profit, educational institution and government agency. I believe this may be the single biggest time-wasting, money burning problem impacting all businesses in every country, in every industry, in every niche market.
So, it’s helping us by challenging us to start thinking outside out comfort and knowledge zones and to understand the bigger picture.
Q: Personalization is a very cutting edge concept especially at my company. What’s the best way to convince my boss that we need to be focusing more on the concepts of personalization, social documentation and Help 2.0?
A: Well, there are many ways to do that. First, you should identify what the problems are impacting your company. What are the goals? What goals are not being achieved? Which ones matter most? And, how can your improvements (the things you would like to do) address these shortcomings. I’m not talking about the problems you see that are right there in your face. I’m talking about the ones the shareholders (in the case of public companies) or your CEO worry about at night. What goals are not being reached? What expenses are too high? What is the competition doing better? These are the things that matter t those who can fund and approve of (and move forward) your projects.
This is often why I am brought in to talk to teams. I help them understand how they can get the thing the need (and think are important) by speaking to the issues that management think is important. If you can tie your improvements (and all that’s involved) back to a positive return on investment, that’s good. But, if you can also get a project idea in front of them that somehow addresses the issues they think are important, you have a much better chance of success.
I’m writing a case study about the American Society of Training and Development. When they realized they could get an XML project funded that would provide them with content reuse, multi-channel publishing, and all sorts of other benefits, they didn’t make those the centerpiece of their request for money and resources. They said to their management, “Hey, you know those things you wish we could do because you are hearing complaints about them…we have a way to make those things go away and to allow us to do what we do faster, better and cheaper than we do today.” They got their project funded and are viewed in a very positive light by their management. And, when they create other solutions (the extra stuff they didn’t focus on selling to management — the stuff they were after all along) they are viewed as miracle workers. People who get seemingly impossible tasks done in record time. Of course, that’s their little secret. 
But, it’s a good approach that works.
I’ve written an article about personalization that might also be of interest. It’s really detailed and explains the concepts in ways that should resonate with you. It might come in handy for those who are looking to sell the value of personalized content to their organization, especially if it’s a global firm: http://www.multilingual.com/articleDetail.php?id=1722.
Interested in attending our next webinar?
Tune in with Scott Abel and Tom Aldous Friday, July 29, 2011 in “Document Structuring 101: The Difference between Unstructured and XML”. Sign up Now!
