Sorry, everybody, I’ve been silent a little too long these last couple of weeks. It has nothing to with you, I assure you.

I took a short holiday at the beginning of August. I had too many things to do to get ready to leave and then a bunch more to do when I got home again.But now I’m back and I have a couple of great articles that will be ready within the next day or two.

As you may (or may not) be aware, I also write and edit the Web Developer’s Blog, and I have some more articles over there to get posted over the next few days. But my web development work is what will be keeping me busy over the next few days.

I’m reviewing my social media strategy to apply it more consistently and appropriately across multiple networks. I need to keep my personal Facebook updates separate from my professional Facebook updates, but have my professional updates consistent with updates on my professional website (which I ignore all too often). As well, I’d like my regular microblogging to appear on Twitter and my personal Facebook page.

From the research I’ve done into numerous social media feed publishers (e.g., Tweetlater.com, Twitterfeed.com, Ping.fm), I think I’ll end up building my own scripts to post my updates through the mutiple channels. I hope it works out. Any suggestions?

Twitter is an interesting phenomenon. I generally (but not always) have TweetDeck running in the background while I’m working on my desktop. And while I don’t read every single tweet that shows up, I look at a lot of them. By following some of the links that seem interesting, I come across some interesting people with interesting blogs. I will usually follow them and subscribe to the RSS feed of their blog. It may give me that many more blogs to read (that I don’t have time for) and that many more tweets to read (that I don’t have time for), but it often results in some interesting new insights that I otherwise wouldn’t have found.

Like this great post, and in general this great blog, about getting a second set of eyes to review your work, or decisions, or whatever:

[W]hy wouldn‘t you ask someone to look at all of your stuff? Business plans, new boyfriend, marketing strategies, new suit, tagline, dinner party menu, web copy, first home, logo…

A new set of eyes is likely to find the flaws. You know, when you’ve looked at something so many times, they just seem natural and right to you.

The post talks about closing your eyes and assuming a specific yoga pose, then opening your eyes and reviewing your actual pose or posture. The writer is confident that you will find yourself well out of alignment and probably looking a little odd, but it will feel correct to you.

As with anything that you do, what feels or looks or otherwise seems correct or comfortable, may not be. It’s always worthwhile to get a second opinion.

Image by Free-StockPhotos.com

How long is something considered to be “new”? In this age of Twitter and blogs, days? Hours? Minutes?

Television networks tend to advertise their shows as “all new.” But for how long are they new? We watch the episode and discuss it the next day around the proverbial water cooler, but what then? Then it’s old. Whoever missed the episode or had to record it is out of the loop and will probably not have the chance to discuss it again after having watched it.

Blogs and tweets are pretty much old as soon as they’re posted. In the volume of tweets from the people I’m following, I see maybe 20% and only read about half of them; but only because of the volume. And with the volume of blogs available to me, I can read through less than 20%. Once read, both the blogs and the tweets are old.

Which brings me to technical writing, documentation and communication. Monday I discussed the problem with the dictionary changing because language changes, and Ron Creel responded to Friday’s post by adding that books are only useful if they’re actually used. So even my important writing resources can quickly get old. (Even an editor can fail to respond to changes, and then even your edited work is old before it’s written.)

So how to stay new and relevant? (This may seem contrary to my earlier comments.)

• To highlight updates in other areas of your documentation, use blogs or news messages.
  • To publicize your blogs and news messages, if available to you, use Twitter or Facebook.
• To draw people back to otherwise old communication and documentation, update a “hints and tips” section of your website or newsletter.
• As you get comments on your communication or documentation, update your frequently-asked questions.
• Solicit feedback from your technical support department and add to or update the frequently-asked questions and troubleshooting guides.

Without having to update your existing documentation, you can always keep it fresh and new by directing users or readers back to older content. Because it is “old”, users or readers may have forgotten it or be implementing it incorrectly, this is a chance to set them back on the right path.