A little bird told me... about a good page in your user guide

Sarah Maddox | Tweet @sarahmaddox | Blog http://ffeathers.wordpress.com | Email [email protected]

A little bird told me…about a good page in your user guide

Sydney CBD Technical Communicators4 May 2011

Twitter in and around your documentation


About me@sarahmaddox

Technical writer at Atlassian

http://www.youtube.com/travellingworm

http://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahmaddox

http://www.flickr.com/people/31065906@N08/

http://ffeathers.wordpress.com

http://www.facebook.com/#!/sarahmaddox.fb


Introduction to Twitter

Twitter as a medium for release notes

Tweeting hints and tips

Interactivity in your documentation: Dragon Slayer

Twitter and your career

In this presentation

TwitterDocsYou


Max 140 characters

People really do tweet about lunch

What is Twitter?

Show me


But that’s gobbledegook!

Conventions add meaning, like @, RT and #

Twitter linguistics and conventions


Tweet a message

Include the # tag in your tweet

See the Twitter stream: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=SydneyTechComm

#SydneyTechComm

Let’s tweet – right now

That’s metadata!We know all about that!


Why use Twitter in your documentation?

The social enterprise

Engaging customers and readers

Documentation as a living, interactive hub

Our readers are already discussing us on social media

Let’s join the conversation

Hear what they have to say

Show them we care

Use the media for our own good


Tweeting your release notes

Ooo-er, did I tweet that?

Bite-sized chunks

Interactive

Shareable

On an iPhone


Live Twitter stream embedded into the page

Tips via Twitter #ConfluenceTips

Show me


Cool integrated development suite but

Complex installation and configuration

Emerging technologies (gadgets, OpenSocial)

Dragon Slayer docs to the rescue

Lead you through the setup

Demo the cool integration possibilities

Document the steps and the pain

Track the improvements

Turn pain to fun

Dragon Slayer – the problem


9 stages, each with many steps

Rewards:

Charlie’s clothing and armour

Fun and camaraderie with Atlassian and other dragon slayers

Getting the complex task done

Sense of achievement

T-shirt, fun

Dragon Slayer – the game


Fun stuff is at top and bottom of page

Good solid, well-tested “how to” instructions in between

Dragon Slayer pages


Live Twitter stream on the page

Auto-tweeting link

Dragon Slayer interactivity


Adding an auto-tweeting link

http://twitter.com/home?status=My status


People love a game

Dragon Slayer Twitter stream

Show me


Conversation

Swapping information

Ideas

Fun

There’s more to Twitter


Tech comm chat on Twitter

Tag: #tcchat

Next session:

Thursday 5 May, 11am (Sydney time)Wednesday 4 May, 6pm (US Pacific time)

“Making Docs More Interactive and Interacting With Customers”

Thank you Julie Norris


How to join the #tcchat session

Sign up for a Twitter username (optional)

Log in to Twitter at 11am tomorrow

Do a Twitter search for #tcchat

Read the tweets

Go to your own Twitter home page and tweet Hallo, I’m Sarah in Sydney #tcchator something similar (optional)

Tweet your contribution to the topic (optional)


Contacting me

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @sarahmaddox

http://twitter.com/sarahmaddox

LinkedIn: http://au.linkedin.com/in/sarahmaddox

Blog: http://ffeathers.wordpress.com

Other blog: http://travellingworm.wordpress.com/


References 1 Download this presentation: http://bit.ly/iEzdkV

Twitter

Twitter: http://twitter.com/

Twitter’s note about the limitations of the search: http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Things-Every-Developer-Should-Know#6Therearepaginationlimits

A site that will URL-encode your text for you: http://www.albionresearch.com/misc/urlencode.php

Twitter as a medium for release notes Blog post, including an introduction to Twitter and many useful

comments from readers: http://ffeathers.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/twitter-as-a-medium-for-release-notes/


References 2

Hints and tips via Twitter

Our “Tips via Twitter” page for the JIRA documentation. http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Tips+via+Twitter

Our “Tips via Twitter” page for the Confluence documentation. http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Tips+via+Twitter

Blog post about tips via Twitter: http://ffeathers.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/hints-and-tips-via-twitter/

Rewarding people for tweeting hints and tips: http://ffeathers.wordpress.com/2010/08/14/badges-for-twitter-tips-and-thanks-to-technical-writers/

Tech comm chat Home page http://www.facebook.com/TCchat1#!/TCchat1 Guide http://www.2morodocs.com/2010/09/twitter-chats-101/


References 3

Twitter for interactive documentation

The Dragon Slayer documentation: http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/ATLAS/Here+Be+Dragons

Blog post about the Dragon Slayer documentation: http://ffeathers.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/i-got-dragons-and-tweets-in-my-docs/

Blog post on how to embed Twitter streams and prepopulate tweets:http://ffeathers.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/how-to-embed-twitter-streams-and-prepopulate-tweets-in-your-document/

The end – thanks folks!


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A little bird told me... about a good page in your user guide

Career

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