Social Promoting and Sharing

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I’ll take a page out of my social media life and point something out that was an obvious oversight on my part and a great story for anyone who wants to share information on the internet.

Where were the RSS/Share buttons on this blog?

Ben Woelk pointed out that I didn’t have easily accessible means to share the content that I publish. That was true because there was no RSS link anywhere on the site, neither a FeedBurner link, nor a link to send an email to a friend. Thanks to his suggestions, I added HTML to the right-column with RSS feed links and reviewed a couple of WordPress plugins to make sharing my blog easier.

I narrowed it down to a couple of plugins and I may flip/flop with two of them for a while until I am satisfied with the results (unless someone has a better plugin). The two WordPress plugins are AddToAny and AddThis. What I love about these two plugins are three characteristics: free, simple, and customizable.

Both plugins are free via the WordPress.org/plugins site, which have received numerous downloads and popular ratings. Each of these plugins work almost the same way; it displays buttons and links for sharing blog posts and pages to 300+ sites on the web. Some of the popular places to share information are Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, and Digg.

AddToAny and AddThis are simple to install and run. Through the WordPress Dashboard, I can instantly download the plugin and voila! Now my readers can share content with hundreds of websites should they choose so.

The last aspect that these plugins have is the ease in which I can personalize individual features such as visual display, custom icons, and links, without looking through the code and ripping it apart in order to make it show up a certain way. This makes it simple and easy to place buttons without destroying current theme layouts.

What does this mean for TCers? A lot. Consider using social sharing tools to drive more traffic to your sites. My example and thoughts are for WordPress, but there are similar social plugins for content management systems like Drupal and Joomla. These features are helpful because if you run a business, organization, or blog, any reader can share their interest in your products, services, wisdom, philosophy, or advice. Perhaps the next business or professional opportunity may arrive from a reader who came across your website that was shared on another site.

TC at work daily

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The two part-time positions that I currently work at don’t necessarily incorporate technical communication, but for some reason when I live, breathe, and speak TC, I can’t help but apply it in situations where my job description doesn’t require it.

When I’m working my regular annual job at the community college, I take notes for a specific department. I would not imagine that TC would creep into the workplace, but I use it daily. When I take notes, I write clearly for a specific audience and learning level. My other tasks while at work include ghostwriting, editing, reviewing, and public relations. I can’t help not utilizing my skills while on the job, even when they are not required for the position that I hold.

My other job is working at a worldwide non-profit. My goal while I’m working there is to help proofread their paperwork and their training materials. When attending training sessions, I couldn’t help but markup the handouts with my edits. What stood out the most were the spelling instances of than/then and ensure/insure. I’m positive that I can help my employer improve their documents so they look professional for future readers.

Besides using TC at work, I speak about my background and let others know what I do as a technical communicator. When I entered into the field of TC nearly seven years ago, I had trouble explaining what a TCer does. I believe, lately people are understanding what my profession is about and see the need for one.

Connecting after STC Summit

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What I regret the most about previous STC Summits is that I would receive business cards from professionals but I forgot why or how I met them. This year was different, I made it my personal effort to remember why I had their business card in my pocket. The best way I could remember who each person was because I took notes on the back-side of their card. That was just half the work.

The next job I had was to make room on my schedule to sit down and reflect on my time with them at the conference. Thankfully those notes on the reverse side essentially jogged my memory well enough to replay events in my mind so that way I could email them or connect with them through Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. I’m sorry for those in which I failed to remember why I have your card, but I genuinely do not want to forget about you. I’ll do some hunting on the STC Zerista and MySTC websites to figure out why and/or how I met you. In any case, find me first if you can!

Additionally, I connected with professionals via my online presence at the Summit. Each one found me from my Twitter updates and subsequently found my LinkedIn profile or searched for me on MySTC. I gave away business cards this year with my email address and websites. Thanks to Tony Chung, I was able to create a QR code and place that on my business card. Anyone with a smartphone can read my QR code and add my contact information easily.

I had a great time at the conference and I look forward to adding more professionals on LinkedIn and Twitter as everyone settles down and returns back to work. I hope to stay in touch with as many as possible throughout the year until we meet again in 2012 in Chicago.