Bob is also in the STC discussion group and notices John’s intelligent posts. His company is hiring a technical writer, and he thinks John might have the qualifications for the job. He visits John’s LinkedIn profile and, impressed with his qualifications, sends him a tweet with a link, encouraging him to apply for the job. John researches the company and finds that the hiring manager is a friend-of-a-friend on Facebook.

John sends in his resume and asks his colleague to put in a good word for him to the hiring manager, Mary. She reviews John’s resume, checks his thorough Facebook profile and LinkedIn pages, and (following a link) reads John’s tweets. All become background information telling Mary that John would be perfect for the job.

Sound far-fetched? Not anymore; not in today’s social-media world. But only if you put in the effort. Join Rich Maggiani for an STC webinar, “Promoting Your Career through Social Media,” on Wednesday 23 June from 1:00-2:00 PM EDT (GMT-4), to see how you can make social media work for you. LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook all can be valuable social media tools to promote yourself and connect to an audience of prospects and employers. Let Rich Maggiani show you how.

Wednesday, 23 June
1:00-2:00 PM EDT (GMT-4)
Promoting Your Career through Social Media
Presented by Rich Maggiani
Members $79; Nonmembers $149; Student Member $29

Rich Maggiani, a communication consultant, is the president and founder of Solari Communication, a full-service corporate communication agency; an STC Fellow; and a director on STC’s Board. Rich views the world as metaphor. Through the solitude of mountaineering excursions, he gains the clarity that metaphors bring to an otherwise noisy world. Rich applies these insights to attain the simple, clear communication necessary to enlighten and bring people together toward a common goal. Read his related blog, Toward Humanity.

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And with that simple decision, I embarked on an incredible journey that has enhanced both my personal and professional life far beyond any heights that I could have imagined. To that, I am indebted to STC and its members.

Renewing my membership. I gain so much as an STC member, learning and applying an abundance of skills over these past fifteen years. My career has been enhanced, and my clients have benefited. Membership has opened new venues for me, some that I couldn’t possibly have envisioned. I simply cannot imagine being a professional technical communicator and not belonging to the one organization that supports and promotes that profession – STC.

This is a simple decision for me. I simply rejoin.

The cost of membership. There has been much debate about the dues for membership including belonging to a chapter and a special interest group (SIG). Is STC really worth the price of admission?

I look at this issue two ways. STC dues are about $5.00 a week, the same as a venti espresso drink. Isn’t membership in your chosen professional organization worth that? Not being a member also has its costs: lost benefits, lost access, lost opportunities, lost revenue. And those losses represent a far greater cost than dues.

Giving and receiving. I have given a lot to STC, volunteering for one position or another for every year I’ve been a member. While that might seem a lot, I have received in return far more. Let me enumerate.

Members. STC members are nothing if not passionate. This tells me a lot about the people who join, get involved, practice their profession, and commiserate with other members. STC members are the real deal. They—we—know our profession benefits others. There isn’t puffery or pound-ing chests. Just pure competence, integrity, genuineness. Case in point: my three newest clients were all garnered through my association with STC and its members. Billings this year alone will exceed many tens of thousands of dollars, with more next year.

My continued membership keeps me in touch with other members, many of whom are my friends. I continually meet other members. I almost always come away from encounters with members with a profound appreciation for that person.

My local chapter. Don’t ever let it be said that a few dozen people cannot impact the world. They can, and we did. At Giving and receiving. I have given a lot to STC, volunteering for one position or another for every year I’ve been a member. While that might seem a lot, I have received in return far more. Let me enumerate. Members. STC members are nothing if not passionate. This tells me a lot about the people who join, get involved, practice their profession, and commiserate with other members. STC members are the real deal. They—we—know our profession benefits others. There isn’t puffery or pounding chests. Just pure competence, integrity, genuineness.

Case in point: my three new- est clients were all garnered through my association with STC and its members. Bill- ings this year alone will exceed many tens of thousands of dollars, with more next year. My continued membership keeps me in touch with other members, many of whom are my friends. I continually meet other members. I almost always come away from encounters with members with a profound appreciation for that person.

My local chapter. Don’t ever let it be said that a few dozen people cannot impact the world. They can, and we did. At our meetings, we learn from each other. Our local chapter raised the bar for our profession. Employers and prospects look for and prefer STC credentials. Over the years, my company has received a number of contracts because of our STC membership, totaling well over one million dollars ($1,000,000+) in billable services.

Special Interest Groups (SIGs). Early on, I joined the Consultants and Independent Contractors (CIC) SIG. Later, I also joined the Marketing and Instructional Design SIGs. All three are ready platforms for ideas, assistance, perspective, and simple camaraderie. Through the listservs sustained by STC, I have met and discussed much with members from all over the world. Always a helping hand, from people I respect and trust.

Intercom and Technical Communication. Recently, I was instructing a client on how to create meaningful slides (incorporating graphics and text) for their presentations. They balked. “What’s wrong with bullet lists?” They wanted to know. I pointed to six articles from Technical Communication to support my position with valid research, as well as a number of articles from Intercom. That is the value of STC’s publications.

Friends. So, why aren’t you playing music anymore? – This question, from a close STC friend, spurred another one of those life-changing moments. I didn’t have a good answer. So I bought a new drum kit and began playing again. That led to the genesis of The Open Jam, which led to the formation of The Rough Drafts, and a number of gigs at STC annual conferences. This is just one anecdote in a procession of joyous encounters with my many STC friends.

Annual conferences. For a professional technical communicator, there is no other venue for collaboration, commiseration, education, repartee, consideration, reflection, growth, interaction, wonderment, and just plain excitement than STC’s annual conferences.

Professionalism. In 2008, I became an STC Fellow. I had been striving for that goal since first becoming a member.

While I am quite proud of my accomplishment, it’s more than just an award. What is most important is the professional that I have become because of that quest, how I am able to apply my expertise, how I have been remunerated, and the contacts I have made along the way.

Over the years, STC has provided the framework for my professional growth. My current level of expertise and professionalism is due in large part to the value of being an STC member. – Rich Maggiani

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The Pre-writing phase allows you to identify who you are writing for (your audience) and what you want to say to them; to identify the purpose of your writing, to determine the points you want to make and enumerate them; to begin drafting your ideas based on these points to get your thoughts on paper without restriction. This is where the bulk of your writing can take place.

The Reviewing phase enables you to clarify your draft: to embellish your words, to add more details, to tighten up your text, to clear up any ambiguities, to sequence thoughts better, to ensure your text speaks to your purpose, to delete anything that runs astray, to cut off tangents, to sharpen.

The Finishing phase is where you edit: to employ better words, to fix grammatical infractions, to correct mechanical errors, to change punctuation, to format for clarity and understanding.

Imagine my consternation, then—with a bit of a smile—when I received the following analysis of the process my son em- ploys for writing papers (including email and IM) at university.

In his own words…
This is how I really write papers: I wait until the last possible minute and the words just flow from my hands like simi-

Process Analysis, by Tyler Maggiani Let’s just start with the thesis and maybe I will come up with a clever opening line later. This analysis is about how I procrastinate, spell poorly, and desecrate punctuation; or five paragraph essays, three lines of garbage, and fast-as-I-can- type talking; or Word, Gmail, and iChat.

Let’s start with papers as the process is ongoing as I write this. The first planning stage is receiving the assignment which I promptly write down in an assignment book or on whatever is available, promising to myself that later in the quiet of my room I will transfer it onto a wall-sized planning calendar—which I don’t have. Then I usually try to come up with some sort of plan to get started on it early because, dammit, I’m not going to wait until the last minute again. Time check. It’s 2:30, time to hurry up.

This is how I really write papers: I wait until the last possible minute and the words just flow from my hands like simi-les flow from wherever they pool. I select a topic, usually having to do with something weird or vague so I have more leeway, and google for any sort of info on it. I write whatever it happens to be the night before the paper is due, on my computer, and with little to no attention paid to the specific format the professor dictated. I prefer a sans-serif font, mostly Helvetica, but for your sake I write with a more readable text. More from the prompting list: I don’t write for an audience, I don’t revise or do drafts, and if I have writer’s block, well, you can imagine how that works. The paper is ready to print when it is time for class or time to sleep.

Anyway, moving on, the exception to this really happens when I have a research paper, then the research starts very early. I have outlines, quotes ready, bibliographies waiting, but I still write the night before. My papers get no rough draft; they only get a few moments of fresh air after being printed before they are handed in. I don’t peer review, I don’t go to a writing help center, and I don’t ask the professor if I’m headed in the right direction. Awful system to most, works well for me. I think it allows my voice to come through and gives the work a more natural feel when I’m not trying to wring every last bit of amateurism from each sentence.

On to email… I don’t write professional email as that description would look a whole lot more important than this one. I send links, one word replies, and requests for money to my parents. That’s about it. The time it takes me to prepare for writing an email is the time it takes me to move my mouse to reply after reading one. Or the time it takes to hit compose.

There is no more preparing than that; I put less thought into email than I do into instant messages. I suppose there is the exception of when I email professors as those start with a greeting, well-formed sentences, and nice wording. Then a signature and it’s off. If this paragraph were an email, it would be far too long.

iChat is my program of choice for instant messages mostly because it is free and already installed. These are a little different for me than I suspect they are for most people. I try to write eloquently and capitalize while I make use of punctuation so it sound more like I am talking than typing. My IMs are perforated with e…llip… ses… and sem;colons and some very clever drawings using a plethora of punctuation, numbers, and weird cha®a©te®s. My IMs do tend to be short though.

There you are: a comprehensive guide on how to write if you are Tyler Maggiani. Now for a little restatement of the thesis: As you can see, I have covered how I prepare for and write papers, emails, and instant messages. All done!

Solari enables you to talk with your employees, customers, and advocates simply and clearly, because effective communication is vital to your success. We make the complicated simple. © 2009 Solari Communication. All Rights Reserved. www.solari.net Toll Free: 877-879-9330

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The use of Twitter has simply exploded over the past year. As your list of followers grows, so do the amount of tweets, retweets, and direct messages you receive. Most of these tweets are well intended, but how useful are they?

An increasing percentage of the tweets you receive are spam. Twitter is especially vulnerable, given its inherent automation. Anyone can easily follow tens of thousands of people, and then gain a large percentage of followers in return. An easy, ready market for spam from lurid “marketers”.

What does Twitter spam look like? Twitter spam can take many different forms. Legitimate companies spam when they endlessly promote their products through dummy Twitter accounts. These accounts often bear no resemblance to the products they pitch. Con artists attempt to shift your money and to gain your identity through a series of shady financial transactions. You are probably wary of these: “Help me access my dead uncle’s $20 million from a backward third-world country and receive a 15% fee.” Still, a small percent click through.

Many times, spam tweets are sent by members with few followers yet following as many as possible. This should be your first tip off when someone starts to follow you. These people send tweets with blind tiny URLs linked to those click-here-if-you-are-18-years-or-older sites—except that requirement is frequently omitted. These can easily be identified by the busty, cleavage-popping, young lady’s photo on the account.

Then there are the “See how I got 3,000 followers in one afternoon” spammers. Another come-on: “I can show you how to make $1,000,000 by tomorrow afternoon by following this simple method. No, really I can!” Hair removal treatment for women garners a good share of spam tweets. You get the idea.

The quality of tweets. Pear Analytics, a products and services firm based in San Antonio Texas, conducted a study of tweets. Over a two week period last month, they sampled the Twitter stream every 30 minutes from 11 AM to 5 PM for 10 days. They then organized this sampling of 2,000 tweets into six categories:

“Pointless babble”, 40.55%. Described in the study as the “I am eating a sandwich” tweets. These are the kind of tweets that blindly follow Twitter’s original query, “What are you doing now?” Let’s be honest though: who cares?

“Conversational”, 37.55%. That immediate dialogue, questions, answers, replies, and back and forth better suited for instant messaging. Again, who cares other than the two conversing, and even then…?

“Pass along value”, 8.7%. Retweets passed along from other Twitter members that actually might have some value.

“Self promotion”, 5.85%. Tweets that market the member, generally about products, services, demos, or the companies themselves. Actually, not that large a percentage.

Spam, 3.75%. The unwanted tweets you hoped never to receive.

News, 3.60%. Generally, these are re-tweets from mainstream or alternative media sources. As one wag stated, it’s sad that news tweets are more rare than spam.

So, what’s to make of all this? Here’s one thought: the vast majority of tweets—81.85%, the total of “pointless babble”, “conversational”, and spam—are virtually worthless. Adding “self promotion” to that total gets 87.7%, although this category could also contain valuable information depending on your point of view. That means that a mere 12.3% of tweets, between “pass along value” and news, contain worthwhile information. Thus, for the sake of argument, one could conclude that approximately seven out of eight tweets are spam or spam-like. That represents a lot of time sifting through your personal twitter stream to garner some real usefulness and value.

What you can do. First, Twitter has been especially proactive in identifying spam accounts. In late July, Twitter simply deleted accounts that automatically follow people. They called it “Correcting follower and following counts.” As a result, counts dropped on many accounts, some precipitously.

You can also reduce the number of accounts you follow. First, don’t automatically click to follow everyone who follows you. Take the time to check out followers before following them. Block them if you want. If you think they are spammers, don’t send them a direct message or retweet them. Instead, follow the official Twitter spam account: type ‘spam’ into Find People (the account from Twitter HQ uses a Spam can as its photo); click the account’s Follow button. Report suspected spammers to this @spam account. Go to the account’s home page for more tips on thwarting spammers.

As a final resort, consider ticking the ‘Protect my tweets’ check box under Settings/Account. You must then approve anyone who attempts to follow you.

Remember the point of Twitter: rapid, immediate communication that enhances your social media experience and hopefully educates, entertains, and informs. Anything less than that is unacceptable.

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You’ve found the blog of Shel Holtz, ABC, principal of Holtz Communication + Technology. Mr. Holtz has worked in corporate communications since the mid-1970s, online since the mid 1980s and on the Net since 1990. He wrote “Public Relations on the Net,” among other books, manuals and articles. He is available for consulting, speaking, and training engagements.

His information was provided to this STC-Marcom blog by a member of the STC leadership team.

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You can, however, be proactive in your approach. Through a well planned
social media strategy, you can influence your community of followers to be
your advocates and to build your brand. How? By engaging your social media
audiences in a compelling way.

Discover more by reading our latest position paper and blog entry entitled
“Influence Your Community by Engaging Them”. Read the posting in Solari’s
“Toward Humanity” blog and leave a comment. Or download a PDF .

Tell us what you think.
Copyright Solari Communications

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Blog.

Properly carried out, blogging is good for business. Your blogs can
cultivate a community of customers, prospects, and advocates to help attain
the goals mentioned above. You can discover how in our latest position paper
entitled “Embrace Social Media: Blogging and Microblogging”.

Read the position paper as an entry in Solari’s “Toward Humanity” blog: and leave a comment.

Or download the PDF and click the top link.

Tell us what you think. Your insights are welcome.

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Co-manager, TE SIG

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The question on everyone’s mind is ‘What is Twitter and why should I care?’
I can’t make your mind up on if you should care, but I can at least provide some insight.

Myths and Mysteries
My first reaction to Twitter was an absolute “NO”. I could see no reason for anyone to know what I was doing at all times. Don’t get me wrong, I love the social networking sites like LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook, but I don’t want everyone knowing what I am doing at all times. That is a whole new level of stalking that I am not ready for. (You CAN end sentences with prepositions. Your teacher was old and lied to you.) But, being too quick to judge, I found out that Twitter does not have to be the ultimate stalking tool. You don’t have to be the self-centered ‘Twit’ who posts about their daily grind!

How Can Twitter Help Me?
As I added valuable friends, which I consider as professionals in my industry and peers whose opinions I trust, I realized that their posts were not a 24hr fest of ‘Naptime over- now it is time for a trip to Half Price Books.’ Ok, so one of you DID post that, but I didn’t mind.

What I found from my friend’s posts was a time-delayed chat room of ideas and news. Professionals, teachers, friends, family, and members from professional societies posted their 140 character tweets on helpful writing websites, interesting news blogs, funny quotes, and book recommendations. Warning: Reaching 140 characters is not a hard task. Visit websites like TinyURL to shrink your long URL to only a few characters.

Feeling silly for my first post, “Writing…” I realized that I needed to try something a little bolder. So, I posed a question asking for free PowerPoint templates. I immediately received emails from two friends! Granted their responses were not on Twitter, as it is intended, I still received the answer I needed!

How Can Twitter Help My Company?
Consumers are getting smarter. Outbound mediums like commercials and spam are not applicable to all of your audiences. I know when I have a question about a product/service I will use my favorite search engine to find the answer. Companies beware— your consumers are not only looking at your website, but now a second option—Twitter! What is better than reading testimonials from the manufacturer’s website? Reading consumer reviews directly from the buyer’s mouth, sans the helpful copyediting from the marketing department. Completing a simple search in the Twitter toolbar on the bottom of the webpage, you can search for anything and probably find it! Example, as I am writing this, I am using the Twitter search tool for every other commercial that appears in the background. Sure enough, there are tweets on each product I have searched for!

Use your company’s voice and post the positive. Follow Twits who have something in common with you and your company to create some form of mutual bond. Beat the competitor to the punch line. Create a loyal readership by ‘following’ your ‘followers’.

Are you ready to spread your wings and tweet? Learn the best way to build your account.

Disclaimer: The thoughts contained in this post are mine. I wanted to share my one cent (sorry the economy forced me to cut back). Tell me what you think about Twitter. Do you or your company use Twitter? Why or why not? Speak up on Social Media. Testify!

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Baby Boomers. Most Baby Boomers simply don’t get social media. And why should they? Born at least 50 years ago, Boomers grew up when many telephones were shared party lines; when calling long distance required operator assistance and was saved for Sunday afternoons (reserved for the few family members living out of town); when all your friends lived in your neighborhood and you went to their house to talk with them; when television was black and white, had only three stations, and only broadcast during the day; when letters were written regularly; when essay test questions were answered by handwriting in ‘blue books’; where the library was for conducting research; and record players spun 45s of Elvis embodying the breathtaking new sound of rock ’n’ roll.

In that existence was a lot of time for personal interaction, face to face talking, and the patience for waiting. Social media is alien to that Boomer existence. Boomers ask: Where’s my privacy? How can I thrive with all these interruptions? Can’t I just talk to you? Do I really need to know what you are doing right now?!

Gen X. For this transitional generation, social media is a bit easier to get, but still, there is a bit of detachment. Gen X, in their 30s and 40s, grew up with the proliferation of computers; with green screen terminals morphing into desktop computers; when email, word processors, and desktop publishing spawned electronic communication; when the world wide web was liberated from the dusty halls of academia; when work environments increasingly became international and neighborhoods became developments; when television transformed into 24-hour cable with its incumbent dozens of channels; when overnight delivery mushroomed; with essay answers written on word processors; and when Elvis acted in grade B movies and crooned formula tunes on tacky remote beach sets. Gen X borders the simpler lives of their Boomer parents, as well as the convoluted lives of their Gen Y children. Gen X began the transition from interpersonal to electronic communication, so they can more easily accept the constant communication by machine, the interruptive nature and eroding of privacy engendered by social media.

Gen Y. Born plugged in, Gen Y is digitally active. Gen Y is about to turn 30. For them, everything is now. For their entire lives, everything has been computerized; physical boundaries have never existed, enabling global awareness; mobile phones have keyboards, so communication by voice, text, and images is immediate; long distance is irrelevant; Internet access has always been at their fingertips, replacing archaic cable television and libraries; eroding physical neighborhoods have been replaced with online social networks of friends, many of whom are not physically known, with varying levels of privilege yet these friends mean everything; essay answers are emailed to teachers; music is down-loaded, transported, and played on devices not much bigger then a credit card; and Elvis who?

Perhaps there has never been a generation of teenagers and 20-year-olds who have had such a profound influence on society as Gen Y. They get social media because they live it every moment; they created it and continue to define it.
Where does that leave us? Clearly, the different generations approach and embrace social media at decidedly different levels. Consider how each generation handles elements of social media.

♦ Interruptions. Constant. It’s not uncommon to respond to a text message while watching a movie and surfing the Internet. Everyone’s attention span is becoming shorter and shorter. Communication must be short, and visual.

♦ Privacy. Gone. What happened to it? Social networking sites, blogging, and streaming video enabled showcasing the intricacies of your personal and professional life to the world. Boomers see this as eroding privacy; Gen X doesn’t mind; Gen Y embraces it. After all, only your ‘friends’ are seeing it, right?

♦ Immediacy. It used to be that when your phone call went unanswered, only you knew. There was a certain finality in it. You moved on. Then answering machines came along. After an initial adjusting period (must I talk to a machine), they became essential and expected. Now, contact seems instantaneous and unavoidable, and with caller ID, missed call logs, text messages, picture messages, email, instant messenger, and social network mail, it is. How are you coping with it all?

The bottom line. Gen X took television to the next level of cable and satellite. Gen Y is taking the Internet and the world wide web to the next level—social media.
—Rich Maggiani

At Solari, we make the complicated simple,
helping you capitalize on the often overlooked,
yet vital role that simple, clear communication
plays in your company’s financial success.

© 2009 Solari Communication. All Rights Reserved. www.solari.net 877-879-9330

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