Let's Tech Communicate
May 2017
In this month's Let's Tech Communicate! we explore next generation voice-interactive manuals, discuss using meta tags in social media, and learn a technique called Knowledge Modelling. This and much more from around the ‘Net!
Next generation
Technical communication guru Tom Johnson discusses how Amazon’s technical writers are taking their manuals to the next level using voice-interactive features in Voice Interactive Manuals.
Meta tags and social media
At the recent TechCommNZ conference, Jaco Swart talked to us about web meta data for technical communicators and shared two articles that may be of interest. The first is from the Kissmetrics site which describes what you need to know about mastering open graph meta tags for Facebook and Twitter.
The second article describes how the Facebook crawler works. It highlights how you can use the Sharing Debugger to share information and the Batch Invalidator to refresh the information for multiple sites, plus other technical tips and tricks.
A special thanks to Jaco for providing these useful and practical articles.
Techniques and methods
In I don’t have to know that! – Knowledge modeling and technical communication, Mark Schubert and Sabine Stoye highlight the effectiveness of knowledge modelling for technical communicators and what is involved.
Lucky number 7!
The Content Wrangler contributor, Barry Saiff, describes the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Technical Writers. In it, he discusses that technical writers need a passion for learning, and they need to focus their mastery on learning technology, writing, and working with others.
Sticking with the lucky number 7, here are some tips for kicking your technical communication business into high gear. Find out more in 7 steps to profitable tech writing
Collaboration
In Better together: technical writers and content marketers, Davin Pakulis highlights something that interests me – the unified customer experience. In this instance, technical communicators and content marketers work together to deliver high-quality content that helps people solve problems.
Larry Kunz discusses the interesting people you meet walking the tech writing beat.
Latest Tech Comm tools
Finally, there are some interesting enhancements happening with Information Mapping software. In the new release of FS Pro 2020, you can now publish securely to the cloud. Watch the demo.
Until next time, happy tech communicating!
Luke Pivac