Social Media and Technical Writing in Today's Economy

At some high-tech companies, there may be active use of social media resources among their technical communication groups.  However, at a number of companies, many parts of lower management have heard of the hacking of Target's customer database and have an active fear of the weakness of their company's Internet and Intranet systems.  Fear of letting proprietary information about the company product out on the web paralyzes quite a few supervisors.  Still, possibilities exist within social media applications (SMAs) (Stolley 350) that could be useful to technical writers like me.

The safest proposal to advance tomanagement would involve setting up a wiki on our local, protected Intranet.  On that wiki, both technical writers might be able to share information, post edited photos of new components, and store copies of style guides or other reference documents (Wagner and Schroeder 71).

Additionally, I think that it would help technical writers to use tagging to find what blogs, Twitter, and other new media might be saying about the company products (Stolley 356) (Urbina 3).  If I were to be able to prove the value of letting technical writers bookmark sites for an hour and reviewing the results for a few hours per month (as opposed to limiting ourselves to only revising documentation)(Stolley 356), then we might be able to produce documents that address the needs of the audience.

The problem with both of these proposals will be that most technical writers in today's economy are up to our necks in work.  As Panke and Gaiser mentioned (and Amidon and Blythe before them), many corporate writing groups have “minimal physical presence” (323).  Therefore, asking for something that takes time will be a big request.  Still, as Zarella points out, the price is right because:

“New web technologies have made it easy for anyone to create—and, most importantly—distribute their own content. A blog post, tweet, or YouTube video can be produced and viewed by millions virtually for free.”

References

Panke, S., & Gaiser, B. (2009). With my head up in the clouds: Using social tagging to organize knowledge. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 23(3), 345. doi: 10.1177/1050651909333275

Stolley, K. (2009). Integrating social media into existing work environments: The case of delicious. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 23(3), 356. doi: 10.1177/1050651909333260

Urbina, N. (2010). A super-role for technical communicators. ISTC Communicator,  Retrieved from http://www.farbey.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/ISTC_Supplement_on_Social_Media.pdf

Wagner, C., & Schroeder, A. (2010). Capabilities and roles of enterprise wikis in organizational communication. Technical Communication, 57(1), p.71.

Zarella, D. (2009). Social media marketing book O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Technical Writer Theme Song

For those under the delusion that the image of technical writers has improved over the past 50 years, please consider the concepts central to the following video.

Then again, has anyone considered the light that Dilbert puts on engineers?

Subject Matter Expert Interview Tactics for Technical Writers

For New Projects\New Subject Matter Experts\New Tech Writers

Set Up your Part in the Project

Introduce yourself. If you are new to the company, introduce yourself as the new technical writer. If you are new to the subject matter expert(s), introduce yourself as a writing and editing resource. If you are starting a new project, let everyone know that you control the project.

Get Resources to Study Arrange access to sales material (pamphlets or brochures), web resources, engineering drawings, and legacy manuals.

Arrange a Documentation Kick-Off Meeting

Have a meeting for the team members.  Facilitate having the subject matter experts seeing others involved in documentation.

Present the document development schedule. Provide the major milestones and the delivery dates.

Define the document type and the subject matter expert input needed. So that the subject matter expert will know what topics to bring to the interview, define the type of document to be produced (for example, procedural). Provide specific goals and objectives.

Planning for the Interview

Set up for the Interview

Arrange for the room to be used during the interview.  It is best to select a neutral territory rather than using either your office or the office of the subject matter expert.  While arranging for the room, take consideration of the resources you will need during the interview.  Will you need an outlet or network cable for a computer?

Get stakeholder buy-in.  For every company, there are people who control (and will benefit from the success of) the products produced and the projects.  These are the stakeholders of the company.  Once you convince that stakeholder of the need for your document, you will need to get proof of this.  By getting a letter, note, e-mail, or just an agreement from the stakeholder, it will be easier to get the cooperation of your management and the subject matter expert.

Get management buy-in.  Once stakeholder buy-in is procured (or if no stakeholders can be contacted for support of your documentation), get the support of your management.  Their support will help when subject matter experts must return documents from review in a timely manner.

Get subject matter expert buy-in.  Finally, convince the subject matter expert of the importance of your document.  It may be important to the subject matter expert to have his or her name.

Get approval for the equipment that you will need for the interview.  Specifically, ask for permission to record.  If you will need to photograph equipment or take screen captures as the subject matter expert outlines the necessary procedure, have the camera or computer approved.

Studying for the Interview

Research common knowledge on the topic.  Read textbooks, web pages, trade publications, applicable standards, and other resources.

Research competitor information sources.  Delve into their web sites, brochures, and pamphlets

Research the company’s information sources.  Read legacy manuals, advertisements, brochures, and pamphlets.

Research the audience.  Talk to the sales department and find out whether the purchaser will be the audience.  Look into the audience’s possible education level, supposed interests, language, and ethnicity (for a starting point).

Schedule the Interview

Consider the document schedule.  Consider the date assigned for delivery of the document.  Does the timing of the meeting allow you enough time to accomplish the needed tasks?

Consider the subject matter expert’s schedule.  Your subject matter expert will likely have a number of products to work in addition to providing verbal input to your document.  Whether the subject matter expert is an electrical engineer, programmer, physicist, or other professional, thAlso consider the time that the subject matter expert must spend in review of your text. 

Consider your other projects.  As a technical writer, you can expect to work on four to five projects concurrently.

Prepare for the Subject Matter Expert

Meet the subject matter expert.  Observe his or her demeanor.  Make note of co-workers’ opinions of the subject matter expert.

Determine the subject matter expert’s position in the organization.  Figure out how powerful a position the subject matter expert holds. 

Determine the subject matter expert’s organizational needs.  Does this programmer seek a higher position that could come out of a successful product?  Does this physicist want to publish papers, but needs a proofreader familiar with the publication’s requirements?

Create the Questions for the Interview

Ask open-ended questions.  For example:

• Who uses this product?
• What do they need to know before starting?
• Where does the user enter the commands?
• What maintenance must be done?
• What common errors might the user make?

Center some questions on the process and the product.  With your new knowledge of the product and the user, determine topics that could be confusing and have those topics clarified.

Center some questions on the user.  Make yourself the user’s advocate.

Sequence the questions logically.  You might order the questions to follow the process involved in running the product.  You might order the questions by the type of the input needed (such that physical machinery questions, computer input questions, and questions involving ultrasonics might be addressed separately).

The Interview

Craft the Interview to fit the Subject Matter Expert

If the subject matter expert is uneasy about an interview, start with small talk.

If the subject matter expert is rushed, start the interview.

Listen actively.  That is, listen most of the time, but also repeat back primary points to the subject matter expert.

Listen.  As someone who has only read recently on the technology, the technical writer must allow the subject matter expert to provide the most verbal input.

The Follow-Up and Review

The Follow-Up:  Reviewing the Notes

Perform your note reading and recording review as soon as possible.  Add more text to make your notes understandable.

If there are questions, get back with the subject matter expert as soon as possible.

The Review

When the document has been written, highlight the text that came from your interview so that the subject matter expert can review it for correctness.

Provide an achieveable due date when you send your document for review.

More Reading

Alberts, D. J. (2007). A model of multidiscipline teams in knowledge-creating organizations. Team Performance Management, 13(5/6), 172-183.

Flammia, M. (1993). The challenge of getting technical experts to talk: why interviewing skills are crucial to the technical communication curriculum. Professional Communication, IEEE Transactions on, 36(3), 124-129.