Like most people running businesses, I wear many hats at TechWhirl. A majority of my work focuses on business development, project management and operations but I also manage our weekly curated post called Tech Writer This Week (TWTW). We publish TWTW so we can share some of the Tech Comm and industry articles from around the web. It’s as much public relations as it is a service.
I loathe doing it on a weekly basis, not because it’s not a worthy activity but it’s a farking time-sink. Thanks to Storify’s terrible embed functionality I have to create the Storify version and then do some small writeup on TechWhirl. The hardest part is trying to think of some theme each week. Now-a-days I use whatever is happening in my life as the little theme.
TWTW does force me to follow what is happening in my own industry, which is good. My background isn’t in tech comm and my daily job isn’t focused on the mechanics of the authoring tools, but the overall trajectory of TechWhirl. Luckily Connie is far more connected to this side of the business so she focuses on ensuring that we’re publishing content that’s relevant and interesting for our readers.
While I find the detailed details of Tech Comm less interesting than reading shampoo directions, I do find the larger role this version of communications plays in a business really interesting. Actually, I find the fact that a majority of companies, and by that I mean managers, completely overlook the value in helping their customers property understand the product they’ve purchased fascinating.
How did a majority of managers and leaders miss the fact that the experience their customers have with the product will determine resale and influence brand? I’ve mentioned this idea to a few of my branding friends and it was as if I’d given them a sheet of clear aluminum.
Now that my life is starting to get sorted out, I plan on writing more on the role of technical communications in the role of business and customer experience management. It’s an area that really does need explained better to help marketing and branding departments better understand it and prioritize it in their businesses.
