STC – Marketing Communication SIG

Online Portfolio – The Lone Star Community, April Meeting

The Value of STC: The Society for Technical Communication

Think of your life-changing moments. Rewarding, aren’t they? I had one in the spring of 1995 when two local technical writers asked me to join them and others to start the Vermont chapter of the Society for Technical Communication – STC. Sounds worthwhile. Sure, I join.

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. Read the rest of this entry »

Who Is Our Target Audience

Years ago I learned a very valuable lesson while attending a writing seminar. At the time I was writing for a medium-sized newspaper and the first question the speaker asked us was “who is your target audience.” As he polled the class he received the typical answers. The magazine readers, newspaper readers, or more detailed as in women, men, tradesmen, and so on. At each answer the instructor shook his head and said nope. He said your audience is your editor. Your editors audience is all those other folks.

I found that my writing was much more fluent and I was more productive when, within the guidelines of good writing, I focused on what the editor wanted. Keep sentences active, don’t back into a sentence, keep the construction logical, draw effective word pictures, and the best advice of all, give the reader a break. Don’t make it a struggle to understand and get the point and if you don’t have a point, stop writing and go get one. Let the editor worry about the article’s reception.

This advice had two immediate benefits. Audience evaluation became much easier and it allowed me to focus on the individual who had the most direct impact on my employment, my editor.

Now What Do I Do?

WOW did I make a mistake today. I am working for a company that publishes textbooks, posters, training materials, and other published items. The professional they hired to produce this material has no experience in publishing. Has access to the entire suite of Adobe products and is preferring to use Word and Powerpoint, even though these are being printed commercially. The products were sent to press without a press proof; “What’s a press proof she asks?”

Recent project, this person’s self-described best work, is a poster with umpteen different fonts, every box has a gradient, with a different color, no borders between text boxes. No style guide rules for grammer or design were followed. So, I tried to offer some suggestions. It was not received well, so I assembled a number of reference sites and sent them over. The strategy was that this would take the “personal” out of the dialogue.

It was like gas on the fire. I started a war, even though I did not actually throw my Chicago Manual of Style. The question is, how bad do we let something that is representing our company get before we speak up. I probably butted in where I did not belong since I am the web developer but holy-cow, we are charging for this stuff.

What Great Mar-Com Blogs Should One Subscribe To?

A couple of weeks ago, Kevin Muldoon posted a list of 101 Great Blogs You Should Subscribe to over on Blogging Tips.

I’m not going to repost his link here, but this is what you’ll find:

• Eleven links to Designing & Coding blogs
• Three links to Productivity blogs
• Ten links to Writing & Freelancing blogs
• Eleven links to Social Media blogs
• Twelve links to Search Engine Optimization blogs
• Eight links to Marketing blogs
• Two links to Affiliate Marketing blogs
• Ten links to Entrepreneur blogs
• Five links to Domain Name blogs
• Eight links to WordPress blogs
• One link to Copyright blogs
• Nineteen links to Blogging blogs

Kevin compiled a great list and I’ve been delighted to explore the ones that I don’t already subscribe to.

What I found missing, however, were some of the great blogs of my fellow Mar-Commers and STCers. So, I’m asking you, dear Subscribers to help build a list of the top blogs by and for our group.

Yes, that’s right, I’m calling on you lurkers out there to step up and help us build a kick-a** list that will be a resource for both you and your colleagues. In your response please share the following:

• Blog title
• Blog url
• Blog Author
• STC member or non-member
• One sentence description of the blog’s focus

READY! SET! GO!!!!!

Writing 201: Analyzing the Writing Process

Being a writer, I follow a fairly strict process when writing—the same process that I preach about when teaching clients how to write: Pre-writing: planning and drafting; Reviewing: rewriting and revising; and Finishing: editing, applying mechanics, and formatting. I’ve taught this process to many people (including my children). After all, there is a very good reason: it works!

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… Read the rest of this entry »

Conducting the Job Task Analysis: Stickie Bingo for Better Course Design

Join the IDL SIG for a Webinar on October 29

Have you ever wanted an effective way to determine what information to include in your courses? This Webinar will teach you how to identify tasks, steps, processes, objectives, and assessments for a specific job using a visual method that quickly derives results.

Highly Respected and Expert Presenter
Jane MacKenzie-Smith, is a Certified Performance Technologist from the International Society for Performance Improvement who has developed training for classroom, multimedia, and e-learning for most of her life.

As owner of JEM Communications, LLC, she provides course design and workshops on instructional design and e-Learning. She is the Past Manager of the Instructional Design & Learning (IDL) Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Society for Technical Communication (STC), a newly elected STC Fellow, and a popular presenter at STC events.

Your Investment
$20 IDL SIG member of the STC
$30 STC Member – Join the IDL SIG to break even on this Webinar, and save money on future Webinars.
$70 Non member – Consider joining the STC today. You can enjoy the valuable benefits of being an STC member, and receive great member pricing for this Webinar and others.

Sign Up Now! Register for the time of day that fits your schedule. Please be sure to sign up for the correct time (day or evening) because we cannot switch you to the other Webinar time.
Also, be sure to select “Show in My Time Zone” when registering.

• Day Webinar: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/227142842
  1:30 – 2:30 PM (Eastern Time); 12:30 – 1:30 PM (Central Time);
  11:30 – 12:30 PM (Mountain Time); 10:30 – 11:30 AM (Pacific Time)
• Evening Webinar: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/718996682
  8:00 – 9:00 PM (Eastern Time); 7:00 – 8:00 PM (Central Time);
  6:00 – 7:00 PM (Mountain Time); 5:00 – 6:00 PM (Pacific Time)

  After registering, you will be directed automatically to a payment selection page. After paying, you will receive a confirmation e-mail within 2 to 3 days.

  Session Materials and More
  Several days before the Webinar you will receive an e-mail with login details and instructions for viewing session materials. After the Webinar, you will receive information for viewing the recorded Webinar.

  System Requirements
  Audio can be through either your computer (VoIP with a fast Internet connection, microphone, and speakers), or a long-distance telephone connection. For more system requirements, see FAQs, Attending a Webinar at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/en_US/island/webinar/support.tmpl.

  Questions about This Webinar?
  
  Contact either:
  Jane MacKenzie-Smith
  Linda Stinger

How Useful Is Your Twitter Stream?

The quality, authenticity, and benefits of Twitter communication are at stake.

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? Read the rest of this entry »

WordPress Users Encouraged to Upgrade to Version 2.8.4 ASAP

Over the weekend, Facebook and Twitter users spread the word about a malicious worm going around that is attacking self-hosted WordPress users. While this isn’t “hot-off-the-presses” news as the upgrade was released a few weeks ago, I thought we’d pass along the information in case some of our readers have somehow missed the urgent need in the current upgrade.

WordPress posted How to Keep WordPress Secure at the beginning of the weekend to explain this worm’s threat.

If you haven’t already, be sure to upgrade to version 2.8.4 as soon as possible and pass the news along to your clients and communities.  You can download the upgrade or install it automatically through your admin panel.

The Conversation Happens With or Without You

When we are in the planning stages of creating a social media plan for our clients, one of our talking points is to allow comments or not to allow comments. If the company is just beginning their social media presence, a look of concern clouds their representatives’ eyes and someone inevitably utters, “But what if the comment is something we don’t want to hear?”

This simple question represents a significant change in marketing practices (discussed in more detail in an earlier post). Companies can no longer hide behind artfully crafted marketing pieces and not be willing to engage in a conversation with their customers. Your company’s not providing a forum won’t stop the conversation.  Ask Dell.

For those of you who don’t know the story…. Dell had a few unhappy customers and didn’t provide the customer support they expected, and even worse, refused to acknowledge the unhappy folks. One of the unhappy ones decided to launch a forum at www.ihatedell.com where other unhappy folks came to bash Dell and help each other quickly solve their issues. It didn’t take Dell long to realize that their clinging to business as usual didn’t exactly work so well for the bottom line.

Dell’s solution? Read the rest of this entry »