Editor’s Note: This was the feature article in this month’s TechCom Manager newsletter, reprinted here with permission. Click the previous link to subscribe to the newsletter.

by Nicky Bleiel

Software companies have been interacting with their users online for many years. It’s common to find forums where users can interact with one another AND the company, as well as with web sites that provide multiple forms of assistance. Since 2004, ComponentOne has maintained HelpCentral, a web site that includes forums, knowledgebase articles, FAQs, videos, documentation, access to tech support, and code samples. Search engines can easily locate the site and its content.

Except for the forums, none of this falls into the social-media category. However, HelpCentral is an example of a one-stop, user-assistance shop that includes user peer-to-peer conversations, with a large helping of self-help information. But, as described by supply-chain folks, HelpCentral is a “pull” system. You have to open the site and to see what it offers, or use a search engine and find it.

(more…)

In his blog, Many Ways to Learn, Mike Petersell asks, “Learning vs. Recruiting: Who Would Win a Social Media War?“

In the post, Mike gives examples that helped him reach his conclusion that:

“If learning people faced recruiting people in a social media war, the learning people would lose.”

.
Probably the most telling example was that his local ASTD chapter hosted an excellent and informative meeting on social media usage. The guest speaker? A recruiter.

We think Mike (a proponent of using social media for internal training purposes) has a valid point. We’ve learned this from actual experience, in fact. Trying to find professional trainers and instructional designers/developers in social media is no easy task, while it seems recruiters are everywhere you look.

But it’s not just learning professionals who have been slow to join the social media bandwagon. We’ve also brought up the point with our recent post, How Technical Documentation Professionals Can Use Twitter.

We’re not entirely sure of the reasoning behind this, but it could be partially due to the fact that recruiting firms are all about marketing: marketing jobs to candidates and candidates to employers. Because social media has taken such a stronghold as a new marketing tool, it would only make sense that recruiters would be among the early adopters.

Admittedly, even as professional specialty recruiters, WAI has only recently joined the wonderworld of social media. It is indeed a strong marketing tool, but we also find that it helps us stay in touch with what’s going on with both candidates and potential employers.

Social media certainly holds considerable promise for learning professionals, technical communicators and a myriad of others. It just seems that those uses have not yet been fleshed out to the point where they’ve reached adoption by the masses in these professions. What do you think?

Source: Learning vs. Recruiting: Who Would Win a Social Media War?
Related: How Technical Documentation Professionals Can Use Twitter

Since WAI has recently joined Twitter, I really hadn’t had time to think much about how technical documentation professionals like technical writers and others could really make the most of having a Twitter presence.

This post by Anne Gentle published on Twittip certainly stirs the imagination. While her post applies mainly to staff tech writers, she first discusses how technical writers can get started with Twitter:

• Monitor and listen first
• Play your part
• Give more than you get
• Measure

These steps apply to pretty much anyone who uses social media in general and Twitter specifically, but it’s the suggestions she has for how members of a company’s technical documentation team can help provide information on products and applications they document through Twitter that caught my eye, such as the idea of using Twitter as a medium for release notes.

I’m sure with the ingenuity and creativity many in the technical documentation community enjoy, it’s just a matter of time that this method of keeping customers advised really takes hold.

In what ways are your technical communications and tech support staff using Twitter or other forms of social media to get the word out about your products, latest releases, etc.? Have you given it consideration?

LinkedIn, like other forms of social media and social networking sites, is growing increasingly popular as an effective way to recruit employees.

While recruiters are still using big job board websites, like Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com and CraigsList.com to find applicants to fill job vacancies, contacts from these “traditional” sources often include hundreds of resumes from unqualified applicants and plenty of spam.

In her article, Use LinkedIn for Recruiting Employees, Susan Heathfield, About.com Guide to Human Resources provides specific insight from several recruiters on how they are using LinkedIn to find qualified applicants for open positions. And, as she correctly points out:

“The potential for LinkedIn and other social networking sites to play a major role in your employee recruiting strategy increases as millions of potential employees profile themselves on these sites each year.”

Source: Use LinkedIn for Recruiting Employees
For Applicants: Social Media – Are You Missing Out?
Follow Us on Twitter

According to research from PJA Advertising + Marketing and community site Toolbox.com active use of social media has become a vital part of many HR professionals’ careers. This research shows that HR pros now spend more time interacting on social media sites than in reading editorial content.

About one-half of respondents said a social media presence helped build their personal brand and made them more valuable as a job candidate.

Professional networks, such as LinkedIn and Ryze were tops for HR pros followed by best practice social communities, like Toolbox.com and StackOverflow.

Results Summary and Charts on eMarketer

by Karen O’Keefe

In the same way that some people adopted cell phones and “smart” phones right away and others didn’t, there’s a huge discrepancy right now between those who understand the value of social media and those who don’t. You may know bloggers, Tweeters, or “people who Facebook,” or have friends with profiles on LinkedIn. You may even have participated in one or more of these social-media activities yourself. However, chances are good you still have something to learn, especially if you are over 35-40, which is where the generation gap falls. Older people tend not to be users, while younger people do. However, the trend is growing in all age groups, with baby boomers stepping it up in increasing numbers (www.mashable.com).

If you don’t currently use any social-media tools, let me share something with you a recruiter told me during my own job hunt last year: Executives and hiring managers at all Fortune 500 companies have a presence on LinkedIn, and 70% of high-tech jobs are now found through LinkedIn. Furthermore, more than 30 million people in the US and 60 million worldwide are on LinkedIn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn).

If that doesn’t give you pause, try this: Of those people on LinkedIn, users with incomes of $250,000 to 350,000 are seven times more likely to have 150+ connections (http://socialmediastatistics.wikidot.com/linkedin).

What does this mean? In a slow economy, you need to use all the tools at your disposal, and social networking is both inexpensive and effective.

Let me tell you my own story. Last year, I moved to Portland, OR and needed to find work. What did I do?
(more…)