Techcomm

It’s time once again for the annual MindTouch list of top influencers in techcomm, customer service, customer experience, and knowledge management! As in years past, our goal is to give back to the community based on tools we use to make our business better. We used the nifty Twitter search and reporting service Little Bird to compile lists of the 100 most engaged and connected people in each of the four categories.

Our lists go beyond the influencers you might already know and direct you to the ones you should know. Little Bird calls these influencers the most emergent — they may not be on your radar screen yet, but they will be soon.

We’ll announce the top 100 influencers in customer service, customer experience, and knowledge management in the next few days but let’s get started right now with the top influencers in #techcomm. Here’s the first 25:

9e2670e4c475957890286f6e18012054_bigger301b129Alan_STC_BoD_Headshot_Avatar_biggerannegentlesquare_biggerb6d2333af0d84325426905929bd25a5c_biggerCHibbardphoto_biggerPNG1a-Logo-Only-No-Shadow_biggerScottAbelMountainSmall_biggersnip_biggertom_bigger
  1. Tom Johnson
  2. Sarah O’Keefe
  3. Scott Abel
  4. stc_org
  5. Bill Swallow
  6. Alan Houser
  7. Anne Gentle
  8. Ellis Pratt
  9. Catherine Hibbard
  10. David Farbey
  11. Thomas M. Aldous
  12. Char James-Tanny
  13. Sharon Burton
  14. Larry Kunz
  15. Matt Sullivan
  16. Arnold Burian
  17. Rahel Anne Bailie
  18. STC Summit
  19. Scriptorium
  20. Michelle Sander
  21. Jack Molisani
  22. Tech Comms
  23. Ivan Walsh
  24. Ben Woelk
  25. Ankur Jain

Now go check out the full list of the top 100 influencers in #techcomm. Because we want to make your life easier, we’ve also compiled a Twitter list so you can follow all of these amazing folks with one click.

Most Influential TechcommAre you on our influencer list? Congratulations, here’s your badge! You’ve earned it for your work in pushing the edges of your field. You’re an innovator who’s elevating and promoting your field. Thank you. Grab the code below and display your badge with pride. You’re in excellent company.

You can use this snippet to add your badge to your website or blog:

<a href="http://www.mindtouch.com/blog/2013/04/04/2013-influencers-in-techcomm" title="MindTouch Most Influential Techcomm"><img src="http://cdn.mindtouch.com/www/techcomm.png" alt="Most Influential Techcomm" border="0" ></a>

Check back to find out who made the list of top 100 influencers in content strategy, customer experience, and knowledge management, or follow us on Twitter to find out right away when we post the next list.

Last year MindTouch compiled a list of the most influential techcomm bloggers. This year I am pleased to present an even more robust list.

This year we’re providing:

  1. Top Listeners
  2. Most Influential (a variety of factors impact this, but the primary driver is being followed by topic insiders)
  3. Most Emergent (fastest growing in influence)
  4. Most Followed (on Twitter)
  5. Oldest (on Twitter)
  6. Most Frequent Tweeters

We also complied a Twitter List of the top 400 Twitter-ers and posted this for all to follow and enjoy. You can subscribe to this Twitter list here: twitter.com/MindTouch/techcomm-2011-influencers. The Twitter list is in no particular order, but you will find the top 10 lists below and tomorrow we will publish the entire list of top 400 sorted based on their influence.

The Process

Previously, our team spent literally weeks pouring over a variety of data sources including, but not limited to, Klout, Google Pagerank, Technorati Authority and Twitter. This year we had the benefit of a phenomenal social media analysis tool that hasn’t launched yet (contact me if you want early access). You can read more about this process in our preliminary post.

Read more…

If you subscribe to the MindTouch newsletter you received this information via email yesterday. Don’t forget to Fan us on Facebook to get updates on promotions, product releases, announcements and more! Become a Fan Now.

In This Issue

  • Welcome to the MindTouch Family!
  • Recommended Reading
  • Join the Next Webinar
  • Monthly Survey
  • Letter from the CEO: My Review of the e-G8 Summit
  • MindTouch.us: Welcome to 11
  • Who do you think is most influential in customer service?
  • Replay of Organizing Help Content: Overcoming the Problem of Findability with Tom Johnson
  • Sheester MindTouch Add-On Available
  • Infograph of the Month | There are no traffic jams along the extra mile

Read more…

Our latest webinar, “Organizing Help Content: Overcoming the Problem of Findability” was a discussion between Scott Abel and Tom Johnson, technical communication expert and creator of the ultra-popular technical communication blog, I’d Rather Be Writing. The two talked about the problems that impede content findability and suggested strategies for helping attendees improve their technical support sites by making their content easily discoverable.

The webinar was recorded in full (60 minutes) and is available below. In addition to the recording, there were a handful of questions asked by the live audience that were unable to be answered during the webinar. I enlisted Tom to help answer them. You can find them below. Thank you again to Tom and Scott for an insightful webinar.
Read more…

The 2011 Technical Communication Innovation Awards aim to acknowledge some of the best — and most innovative — examples of technical communication available today. The awards also are designed to highlight some of the most innovative practitioners in the field. It’s not an exhaustive list. There are many people and organizations doing exceptional work in the technical communication arena. Instead, it’s a snapshot of some of the best examples of innovation that are likely to have a long-lasting impact on the future of tech comm.

The 2011 Technical Communication Innovation Awards are brought to you by The Content Wrangler and MindTouch. Here we go…
Read more…

imageDo we really have to wade through your 400 page text-based manual you’ve posted online in order to find out why an error keeps us from using your software?  Worse, when we finally find the answer it’s incomplete.  So what do we do? A Google search and find the answer elsewhere.

Really? Aren’t we done with just dumping paper based manuals online? No one reads that way on the web.  Do you realize how much time you’re taking away from us?  We cringe when we land on a site that’s stuffed with PDF’s and lacks a search function.

image

And maybe that’s why your product isn’t selling as well as it should. Read more…

The Technical Communicator community has many influential bloggers. Yet for an industry known for its communication skills, we were surprised by the lack of social media experience even among the elite. Astonishing, given the nature of the industry. I suspect that will change as Technical Communicators become more comfortable with today’s communication tools.

In compiling our ranking of the most influential Technical Communicator bloggers, we chose a variety of metrics to measure influence. Our Most Influential Blogger (MIB) formula consists of a weighted average across a range of metrics including Alexa, Klout Influence, Google Page Rank, Technorati Authority, and Twitter Followers.

In determining which bloggers are most influential the following criteria needed to be met:

  1. The individual needed to have a blog with regular updated posts.
  2. The blogger needed to have external activity on 3rd party sites like Twitter for additional influence points.
  3. The blogger’s focus needed to be Technical Communication subject matter

The MIB formula illustrates how much influence the individual has in relation to the other bloggers. These thought leaders were first scored for influence then compared to one another to create the top 25 ranking. For example, Scott Abel would have been the most influential had he been more active on Twitter.

Although Abel has 4437 followers, he is not active enough and does not engage others to promote his influence. According to Klout, “@scottabel needs to engage more with others or be more active to gain influence.”

Read more…