I'd Rather Be Writing » marketing

Moving Towards the “Dark Side”: From Technical Writing to Content Marketing

Tom Johnson — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:19:13 +0000

In some of the previous tech comm circles I’ve been in, I’ve heard some people refer to marketing as “the dark side.” I think this term is used to suggest that marketers are involved in thinly stretched promises, flashy features material, and other manipulative, fluffy materials for customers. In contrast, technical writers are writing truth, creating content that is helpful, informative, grounded in reality, and beneficial/wholesome to users.

I don’t know how widespread this antagonism is toward marketing. When I think of marketing, I usually think of someone calling me with a recorded message telling me I’ve won something and just need to call them back. I generally group marketers with business types, and think of both as money-obsessed opportunists, more eager to sell me something than to tell me the truth.

My connotation of marketing with “the dark side” makes it all the more difficult to understand the direction I’ve been headed for the past six months. I have become increasingly frustrated by the lack of awareness of our products among our users. We push out new sites, tools, and other technical resources at an astonishing pace, yet our general user base tends to only be aware of about 20% of the products.

Part of this awareness problem may be characteristic of my organization. Since I work for a church, technology is never the end in itself. Technology is a means to an end. The end is the message, not the means. And certainly people can become zealous about the means (technology) without focusing on the message.

Still, even if the message is more important than the technology, it makes little sense to spend so much money developing the means if we also don’t have a plan to make users aware of it. Why create the technology at all, then?

Without a good plan for awareness, many of the other efforts related to technical writing — good user help, a usable interface, accurate requirements, bug-free functionality, and so on, don’t matter a whole lot.

The world of marketing has changed considerably in the last ten years. Marketing is no longer about flashy sales gimmicks and special-time-only deals. Marketing is now about providing content that users find useful. This is what’s known as “content marketing.” Joe Pulizzi explains,

Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action…. Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. It is non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent. The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.

If marketing is now about creating content that your users value, then marketing may not be such a dark side after all. Shouldn’t good help materials fall into this category? Attractive quick reference guides, helpful video tutorials, short role-based user guides, and visual storytelling guides can all be collateral for content marketing efforts.

If marketing is really about creating good, informative content that users want, and not about figuring out the right promotional gimmick to spike sales, then maybe marketing might not be so bad after all. It may not be so unlike this post, which attempts to get at a truth and in the process win people over toward a particular idea.

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My Brand Is …

Tom Johnson — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 08:14:03 +0000

I’ve been thinking lately about my brand. I’ve always hated this marketing term, but the word “brand” does help answer a question. When you think of me, what comes to your mind?

I’ve written about a lot of different topics on this blog, everything from findability to podcasting, blogging, technical writing, flare, wikis, screencasts, project managers, content organization, and more.

My content is diverse enough that when people ask me to speak at conferences or chapter events, they sometimes aren’t sure what topic I should cover. Maybe this broad focus dilutes my brand. At the Dallas Summit, for example, one organizer told me that when I submitted to speak about my topic, the committee didn’t feel I had a well-known expertise in it, but they trusted me anyway. And I came through.

Some people have established their brand in a strong way. Here are a few that come to mind: Anne Gentle is an expert in wikis. Sarah O’Keefe is an expert in XML. Ellis Pratt is an expert in marketing. Scott Abel is an expert in content management. Rahel Bailie is an expert in content strategy. Alan Porter is an expert in corporate wikis. RJ Jacquez is an expert in Adobe. Jack Molisani is an expert in business strategies. Ann Rockley is an expert in enterprise content. Neil Perlin is an expert in online help. Stewart Mader is an expert on starting wikis in organizations. And so on.

Most of the people I named are consultants specializing in these niches. But what if you don’t have that background? How can you build an online identity that brands you as an expert?

Here’s one strategy. To brand yourself as an expert, write about the topic you want to show expertise in. Even if you don’t know much about it, people will soon think or feel that you do. Either way, by pushing out post after post on the topic, you’ll soon be associated with the topic by default, regardless of your expertise. It’s kind of like those marketing surveys where they ask you what brand comes to mind when you think of cars.

That said, I want to refocus my brand. What I do most of all on this blog is … blog. I like to think of this as writing, but since everyone in tech comm is by default an expert writer, this strength isn’t a selling point. Additionally, a person blogs/writes about a specific topic (except for blogs about blogs, which I think miss the point.)

I guess I find myself leaning towards “new media.” But I’m not entirely sure what new media means, and in many ways my strength is the opposite of new media — I enjoy writing, which isn’t new. Is new media the only bucket that holds blogs, wikis, screencasts, wordpress, web-based help, web 2.0, user-generated content, and more?

I’ve written a few posts on content strategy, but I come across as abrasive towards this subject. For the record, it’s content strategy for tech comm that I raised objections to, not content strategy for the web. The latter I agree with, the former any good technical writer should already do, to an extent.

I do like content, but who doesn’t, and what does that mean anyway? For me, it means I like ideas, and substance, and eye-brow raising arguments. I like an interesting opinion, or an intriguing exploration of a topic. I like articulate thoughts in a well-structured form. Not only do I like content, I am also a content creator. But what kind of person specializes in content itself?

I also enjoy innovation. Conventions and status quo never sit well with me. I like to push new forms and try new techniques. I explore different paths. A colleague once told me that I’m an innovator – I create new sites, post about new ideas, and experiment with new strategies. But again, is innovation really something one specializes in? Maybe Scott Berkun, who makes a living off of this topic, can specialize in innovation. But sooner or later that topic catches up to you.

I also like to share personal experiences in transparent ways. These experiences are often the substance of my writing. But they’re a bit navel-gazing. When I find myself focusing too inward, I think of this quote from Jorge Luis Borges:

Through the years, a man peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, tools, stars, horses and people. Shortly before his death, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the image of his own face.

I also like story — the raw, yearning narrator essaying against a conflict or idea at all odds and costs. Just when the conflict seems insurmountable, the narrator finds a new perspective that leads to a transformation and resolution. Stories drive meaning and engagement. Stories connect people to each other. Did you know I’m telling a story right now? It’s my struggle to define my brand. Transformation is coming, just hold on.

I know WordPress well — or well enough to pass as a WordPress consultant, anyway. But tool branding is pigeonholing. I know someone who feels trapped by his branding for Flare expertise. Once you’re branded with a certain tool, it’s hard to break free of it. What I like about WordPress isn’t the tool or technology itself, but the capability it provides to publish and design content.

I’m also a contrarian, but I don’t want to go down that path again. Psychologically, it’s probably indicative of a deep inner disturbance. Those doors are best left shut.

There are a few more sides of me you rarely see. I rarely write about those topics, because I like to maintain some privacy in my life. But sometimes I do write about them, and it feels good to be free to wander off my usual paths once in a while.

I am glad I am not bound into such a narrow niche as a brand. Maybe my brand is to resist brands?

In the end, though, my brand is probably writing. I’d rather be writing. But there’s a lot of latitude in that. The space is as wide as a desert landscape, with a lot of space to move around and explore.

I choose these goblin landscape things in the background as my brand. They go on for miles and offer countless paths and maze-like channels. This is Goblin Valley in southern Utah, by the way.

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Personal Branding: You Are What You Write About

Tom Johnson — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:47:56 +0000

Last month I was selected as the Personal Branding Winner of the month from Jason Alba’s Jibber Jobber site. I met Jason Alba at Podcamp SLC last month and enjoyed his easy-going, confident style. He said I should be charging $250 an hour for WordPress consulting, not $75. Jason’s site, Jibber Jobber, is one of the most successful career sites for job seekers and career strategists.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking about what being a personal branding winner means. Just six months ago, I hated using the word “brand” with blogging. It felt too much like marketing and sales. I don’t necessarily write to a brand, I thought. I just write.

Then the other night I had dinner with Alan Houser of Group Wellesley. Alan (@arh) is one of the Summit chairs responsible for selecting and shaping the content of the STC Summit. As we were talking, I learned that Alan provides training and consulting on the Adobe Technical Communication Suite. This surprised me, because in the past I had seen Alan present only on DITA and XML, so I assumed DITA and XML was his niche, not the Tech Comm Suite. He said was aware of the DITA/ XML branding and wasn’t sure he wanted that as his brand.

I know that I’ve branded myself as someone knowledgeable about blogging, podcasting, and WordPress. Being branded is always a mixed feeling. On the one hand, you do want to be recognized as someone worth listening to on specific topics. On the other hand, it always feels stifling to be categorized and labeled. Alan did acknowledge that I write about a broad range of topics on my blog.

Branding is an inevitable consequence when you pursue a specific niche. But here’s the cool thing about branding and blogging: you can construct your own identity, more or less, by simply writing consistently about those topics.

For example, do you want to be an expert on XML publishing? Start an XML publishing blog. Do you want to be an expert on career management? Start a career management blog. Do you want to be an expert on cincillas? Start a blog on cincillas. You get the point.

The path to branded expertise is not so different from traditional branding paths — it’s just easier. Traditionally, to brand yourself as an expert on any topic, you publish articles in journals, you write books, you give presentations, etc.

The difference is that with blogs, you can just start writing, publishing, and presenting without the hassle of editorial rejection and filtering. Your content still appears in a print form online (or in audio or video), and to the general reader, seeing you expound on a topic in a semi-interesting way is enough to persuade him or her that you know what you’re talking about.

In sum, just as blogs simplify publishing, they also simplify and streamline identity management. The real question is deciding who you want to be.

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Marketing Yourself and Your Experience to Others in a Web 2.0 World

Tom Johnson — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:14:41 +0000

I’m excited about a panel that I’m going to be on with Scott Abel, Rahel Bailie, Chris Hester, and Ann Rockley tomorrow afternoon at the STC Conference in Philadelphia.

The panel is titled “Evangelizing, Proselytizing, and Preaching: Strategies for Marketing Yourself and Your Expertise To Others.” That’s a mouthful. In simpler terms, we’ll be talking about how to market yourself in a web 2.0 world.

At first I didn’t think I had much to say about this topic. After all, it has the M word in there (“marketing”), and the last thing I consider myself is any kind of marketer (disgusting) doing any kind of marketing (repulsive). But when I changed the terms a bit to “influencer” (while talking to Chris tonight), it made everything come into focus. And I suddenly realized that I’m the perfect person for this panel.

Since only a small selection of my readers can actually attend the panel (and because recording STC sessions is prohibited), I’ve posted my panel notes below.

1) How can an employee at a company that wants to move to XML structured authoring become the domain expert in the company? What marketing tactics might they use to position themselves as the expert in the field?

First, as I indicated earlier, I dislike the term marketing. I don’t think of myself as a “marketer” or as someone who is engaged in marketing. I prefer to think of myself as an influencer.

But how can you transform yourself from the lowly technical writer who sits in a cube all day to a domain expert? Or into key influencer on the project team?

First, you need to get a foot in the door. Let your project team know that, for the user documentation, you need to be kept in the loop of anything related to application functionality or the user interface. Make sure you insert yourself into the right meetings and get on the right email loops — under the guise of staying updated.

But instead of just absorbing information in these meetings or email threads, speak up and demonstrate your domain expertise by offering suggestions, analysis, and other insights into the problems the team is trying to solve. If you’re really a domain expert, it will show.

If you have access to a corporate blog (for example, a SharePoint blog or other space), use that and promote it as much as you can in your company. Share your domain knowledge through this publishing space. The more information you share, the more others will see you as the go-to person for information on this topic.

But even if you don’t have aspirations to become a domain expert, you can still transform from tech writer to key project influencer by becoming a user expert. Your largest leverage point is your knowledge of users. The more you know about your users — their complaints, the features they want, the feedback they’re giving, their profiles and habits — the more influence you have on product design. User knowledge transforms you into a key influencer on the product team.

Without this knowledge of your users, you’re only an absorber of information. But if you’re dripping with user knowledge, it can make you one of the most valuable players on the team. Many of the priorities that developers work on for the products I document are priorities based on the user feedback I’ve given them (much of which I gathered while giving training and interacting with users). The project team often turns to me and asks what the users want or what they’re saying about such and such feature. I love that focus.

2) What can an employee of a company do outside of their company firewall to promote themselves as an expert — and why would this matter to others with whom they work?

Outside of a company, you have access to a TON of web 2.0 tools — blogs, twitter, video, Flickr, Second Life, and more. But before you jump into these tools, you have to think about your purposes and the audience you’re trying to win over.

Your web 2.0 endeavors won’t do much good if they don’t reach your audience. Is your audience other technical writers? Great. Is it companies looking to hire contract technical writers? Fine. If you’re trying to market yourself, your content needs to attract that audience.

Once you establish the audience and the content that appeals to them, you need to pump out valuable information in a prolific way. For example, you don’t increase your visibility by blogging once a week or even twice a week. If you’re planning to really crank up your visibility and promote yourself as an expert, blog as much as you can (e.g., daily) about the topic you want to promote yourself as an expert in.

Blogging prolifically comes naturally if you’re 100% engaged in what you’re passionate about. If you’re trying to promote yourself as an expert in XML, immerse yourself in journal articles, books, other blogs, podcasts, email lists, and any other content on XML. Write about what you’re reading. Reflect, analyze, and apply your knowledge.

You’ll have plenty to blog about, and the more you blog about the topic, the more you’ll teach Google to find you in search results. Those searching for information on that topic will naturally be drawn to you, recognizing you as an expert and potentially hiring you. You will saturate Google.

One key technique to increasing your visibility is to search-engine-optimize your posts. People find you through keyword searches in Google. I didn’t really believe this until I started watching my readers via Woopra. 65% of my visitors find me through Google. Those posts I’ve purposely optimized rise to the top. Stack your keywords at the beginning of your title and at the beginning of the first paragraph. Think like a searcher and the keywords will naturally come to you.

3) What things can a technical communicator do who wants to prepare themselves to leave their employer and become a consultant or self-employed?

If you want to leave your employer and become self-employed, I think you have to do more than simply blog. You have to do something that catches the attention of your audience in a major way. One web design company does this extremely well: Headscape. Paul Boag and his colleague Marcus Lillington have a popular podcast called Boagworld.com that has thousands of listeners. It’s a marketing vehicle that promotes their company (Headscape) by branding them as experts and attracting new clients.

Even my little podcast, Tech Writer Voices, has made a sizable impact on the technical writing community for me. It has allowed me to make connections with hundreds of people. Each week about a 700 people download podcasts I’ve recorded. In May I had 4,000 downloads. That’s a lot of reach, and it’s a reach that’s more personal and powerful than merely writing a blog. Wherever I go at this conference — each hall, room, or back alley — I run into someone I know through either my blog, podcast, or Twitter.

Still, despite the effectiveness of my podcast, if I wanted to increase my reach, I could make it a lot more informative. I could make it entertaining, like This American Life. Ira Glass interweaves interviews with an in-depth exploration of a theme.

I could prepare all the content myself and relay it like Jason Van Orden does with the Podcasting Underground. His podcast on podcasting helped him promote himself as the go-to guy for podcasting. He wrote a book, created a course, and provided other peripherals.

Or I could focus the podcast on a topic that there’s not too much info about (e.g., DITA, or breaking into technical writing). I could provide insights, tips, and tricks on this topic on a weekly basis, and then promote peripherals through the podcast — a book, course, CDS, and consulting services.

Another approach to increase your reach is to do a roundtable similar to Leo Laporte’s This Week in Tech, which presents and discusses the latest tech news. This roundtable format works exceptionally well. About four guys go on Skype and discuss the latest tech news. If you have some disagreement, it makes for a really engaging, entertaining show. If you were to create the same show on a topic you’re trying to promote yourself as an expert in, it would brand you as an expert.

Conclusion

Any time you provide a lot of valuable information, you’re going to attract an audience. And you can sell that audience something. The cool thing about blogs, podcasts, and other Web 2.0 marketing vehicles is that it isn’t conscious marketing. You’re unconsciously marketing yourself, building networks, and increasing your potential client reach — all without really thinking you’re doing any of it.