TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Re: Resistance to allowing anonymous web access to online help?
Subject:Re: Resistance to allowing anonymous web access to online help? From:Lawrence Orin <startingfresh1 -at- gmail -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Mon, 20 Jun 2016 09:38:41 +0300
The larger trend is definitely to open tech writing content to the web and
index it in the major search engines. But fear of competitors is real in
some companies. It's important to remember that there's content which shows
the great features of the product, but then there's also content which
might show up the product in a less positive light. Often these are:
* Release notes containing a list of known issues, or
* Troubleshooting articles, which show lists of errors and mishaps.
Regarding troubleshooting topics, the trend there is also to open up, to
help deflect customer service requests, which has huge financial benefit,
but often managers want some troubleshooting content to open only to
existing customers, not prospective customers.
For those companies who want to carefully stage manage their product's
image, there are some excellent web help portals which allow you to segment
your published content easily, so that some designated topics remain hidden
behind a login, while the bulk of your content is public, advertising the
product's features right next to the traditional marketing material,
helping with sales and showing off the product. A good help portal would
make all this available from the same search box, so customers and guests
have the same experience, but those without a login never see the hidden
content. This is what we did in my company, using Zoomin Docs. This ability
quietened down the fears and gave everyone what they wanted.
Lawrence
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy and content development | http://techwhirl.com
