Blogging as Non-Traditional Support Documentation

Transcript

1. Blogging as Non-Traditional Support Documentation Elizabeth Urello - @eurello elizabeth@automattic.com WordPress.com Happiness Engineer Tuesday, April 1, 14
2. Why Blog? Tuesday, April 1, 14
3. Readers Can Subscribe • Blogging provides an incremental introduction to various topics. • Email updates are occasional prompts to keep learning. • Subscribing to a blog builds knowledge in a gradual and fun way. Tuesday, April 1, 14
4. Blogging Turns Documentation Into Conversation • Readers can comment, and staff can reply. • Readers can use sharing buttons to promote the post. Tuesday, April 1, 14
5. Blogs Have Authors • Regular readers get to know the writers of the blog. • This creates an ongoing relationship between staff and users that is based around creativity and proactive support rather than merely troubleshooting. Tuesday, April 1, 14
6. More People Can Blog • Not all staff members will know how to construct technical documentation, but most can write a blog post. • Creates an opportunity for developers and others to interact with users. Tuesday, April 1, 14
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8. Blogs Can Be a Fresh Start • It’s easier to begin a new blog than to overhaul your entire support documentation system. • Blogging lets you experiment. • What you learn from blogging can then be applied to the documentation. Tuesday, April 1, 14
9. The WordPress.com Blog (en.blog.wordpress.com) Tuesday, April 1, 14
10. Introduce New Features and Partnerships: Tuesday, April 1, 14
11. Explore a certain topic/feature in depth: Tuesday, April 1, 14
12. Interview staff & articles highlight our bloggers: Tuesday, April 1, 14
13. Announce Automattic activity: Tuesday, April 1, 14
14. The Daily Post (dailypost.wordpress.com) Tuesday, April 1, 14
15. Weekly Photo and Writing Challenges: Tuesday, April 1, 14
16. Daily Prompts: Tuesday, April 1, 14
17. Task-Based Instruction: Tuesday, April 1, 14
18. General advice on writing and blogging: Tuesday, April 1, 14
19. Interviews with our bloggers: Tuesday, April 1, 14
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25. •ZTH Participants: Posted an average of 9.6 times per blog •This was about an 89% jump in posting from the previous month for these users •Random sample: Posted an average 0.2 times •Participants voluntarily used shortcodes!! This means that consistent blogging by staff helped those users publish 48 times as often as a control group! Tuesday, April 1, 14
26. • Blogs promote incremental learning and ongoing engagement. • Blogging turns documentation into conversation, and helps you build positive relationships with your users. • Blogging is fun for the whole company! • Blogging is a low-investment, easy fresh start and ongoing “dev site” for experimentation and iteration on your existing support documentation. In Sum: Tuesday, April 1, 14