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Keys to Being a Trusted Source of Information: Gryphon Mountain Journals

by Tom Johnson on Jul 15, 2009
categories: technical-writing

Keys to Being a Trusted Source of Information: Gryphon Mountain Journals. My colleage Ben Minson reflects on one of the key benefits of engaging in social media: trust. And then he analyzes trust in relation to the help materials we create as technical communicators. "If our audience thinks about us, they likely see us as just another part of the team that develops the product. We're not their friends—we're one of the people trying to make money off of them. We're hiding inside the big office building or within the business park and don't know them. But Joe Schmoe knows them. They're him. He bought the product, figured out some best practices, and posted them on his blog as he went." I agree, but I'm not sure how to expose personality and establish a friendly, personable image for corporate documentation.

About Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson

I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.

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