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Blogging as
Non-Traditional Support
Documentation
Elizabeth Urello - @eurello
[email protected]
WordPress.com Happiness Engineer
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Why Blog?
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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.
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Blogging Turns
Documentation Into
Conversation
• Readers can comment, and staff can reply.
• Readers can use sharing buttons to
promote the post.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The WordPress.com Blog
(en.blog.wordpress.com)
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Introduce New Features and Partnerships:
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Explore a certain topic/feature in depth:
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Interview staff & articles highlight our bloggers:
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Announce Automattic activity:
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The Daily Post
(dailypost.wordpress.com)
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Weekly Photo and Writing Challenges:
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Daily Prompts:
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Task-Based Instruction:
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General advice on writing and blogging:
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Interviews with our bloggers:
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•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!
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• 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:
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