*NOTE: This is the original version of this presentation - Please see the TC Camp version for the most recent and comprehensive version. *
Are you on social media?
Do you know which ones you should be on?
Should I have a blog?
Do you think it's all just a bit silly?
Ed Marsh, a 20-year technical writer, shares his experience with blogging and with sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
6. you have a unique insight
for fun and profit
find your niche!
my unique insight
podcast
content aggregation site
▪ also, because lazy.
employers noticed.
7. what are mindtouch’s top 50 doing?
twitter – every single one.
linkedin
blogging
an unbelievable amount of self-promotion
http://www.mindtouch.com/blog/2014/04/25/top-50-most-influential-techcomm-experts-lets-
connect-at-the-stc-summit-2014-techwhirl-or-writethedocs
9. only if you don’t want to commit career suicide.
19. if you're introverted, create a persona
no-pressure way to put yourself out there.
become a content curator
20. news
breaking
industry
coverage of conferences
follow industry thought leaders
they’re self-promoting
they’re people — most of them will respond to you!
networking
23. research
what are your customers doing/thinking?
what are their pain points?
what are your competitors doing?
crowdsourcing
anyone know why x is crashing when y?
what’s best practice for x?
you can answer questions, too!
Show of hands, who’s using LinkedIn? Twitter? Facebook? Facebook for your business?
I’ll put this up on Slideshare. But one thing should make clear… [next slide]
I’ve been on Twitter since November, 2007. As of Tuesday, I had 748 followers.
does anyone think all of this is a little silly? A lot of it is. But there is also a ton of value.
This is not really optional anymore!
A lot of the personal projects I’ve done have helped me in my day-to-day
Here’s your selling point – you have a unique insight. We’ll talk about this throughout.
Hiring manager (not a recruiter) – reached out to me on LinkedIn and then almost immediately called my work number because he wanted to talk to me that badly. “We have in common our love of Jersey and liking to go out for beers”. My blog and content content showed I had passion for what I did.
Anyone else notice MindTouch isn’t doing rankings any more?
Literally everyone in this list is defined by their twitter handle!
I've seen a very prominent tech comm influencer promoting their blog on reddit. And that's fine, because realistically, it's what you need to do now.
Does anyone have any questions before we get into specifics? This is a talk about social media, please feel free to stop and ask questions throughout.
Look, if you choose one thing to sign up for, it’s this one.
I’ve found forums are mixed on LI. A lot of noise, frankly. But that’s an opportunity for you to stand out.
Pulse is LinkedIn’s version of medium. It’s an app, a blog, an aggregator, but it seems to hold some weight, possibly because it’s prettier than the forums. And, it’s a link you can share if you’re looking for your next gig.
Let’s take a look here. 67 views, 5 likes. Notice there’s no comments, yet, because getting them is hard!
Like everything, it depends!
Also noted in my profile that I wasn't looking, and still got spammed. One person took enough time to note that I wasn't looking, but what would interest me to look? I followed that person. But, here’s my concern
Like everyone else, it’s important for recruiters to continually expand their network. It’s really up to you to decide if you want to connect, and the possible repercussions.
Questions about linkedin before we move on?
I went to a conference where I was literally the only person tweeting. I had someone come up to me and ask why I liked twitter and that prompted this talk.
I’ve made some great friends first through Twitter. It was great when I got to meet people like Marcia, Rahel, Bill Swallow at conferences.
If you’re not sure, if you’re not outgoing, there is literally no barrier to entry.
Here’s where the real value lies.
Conference coverage – if you follow Danielle Villegas (techcommgeekmom) she documents every session she attends in real time.
Again, it’s a great place for promotion.
Tell Marcia story – refer to podcast.
Answer questions – unique perspective!
I have a list of Ed Marshes!
At information development world, I created a list of people that were blogging – one-stop shopping.
Self-promotion!
Here’s an example. Having a bad day, getting a lot of pushback. Needed some advice.
I think this is a really great example of the power of social media. Asked a question, targeted my audience, added a bit of personality/humor. I want to point out the graph icon, because we’ll talk about that later.
Generated a *conversation*
Note that not just my tweet was favorited and re-tweeted, but others in the conversation
At the end, I gave credit and summarized.
You can now get a ton of information on what works and what doesn’t through Twitter analytics. Spoiler: the genius posts you think will get 100 retweets won’t, and the stupid ones will.
Another “it depends” situation.
I’m not really friends with too many tech writers, so I don’t get much engagement on it there. if I have a geek question, then usually I’ll get some sort of response. Because I have geek friends.
Anyone here ever actually click a facebook ad? The only person I’ve ever heard of that clicked a Facebook ad was Danielle Villegas (TechCommGeekMom), who saw an ad for NJIT and was looking for a grad school to attend at the time
This goes back to what I was saying in the beginning.
Data-driven content. Isn’t this what we’re all looking for now?
This is a chance for you to stretch your legs. Tom Johnson told me during our podcast that a good blog is not like technical writing, it’s exploring. you’re asking a question and trying to find an answer through the writing process.
Data-driven content. Isn’t this what we’re all looking for now?
One of the reasons I’m here is because I want more people to listen to my podcast! I’m having fun.
I used to believe in “living in public”. Then it got tiring and I got stressed.