Given that Darren Barefoot is a well-known blogger, marketing communicator, and has just published a book on marketing strategies using social networking media, how does this connect with the convergence of social media and technical documentation?

A number of years ago, Darren first demonstrated his knowledge of how to leverage the then less-known aspects of social networking by integrating technical information (his lesser-known background in technical communication came in handy here) with technologies that responded to user need: the social factor. It’s many years later, yet many companies are still talking about the “fire and forget” method of brochure-ware marketing, whether that be websites, PDFs, or physical bulletin boards (do business people still actually browse those for business information - well, anybody with any decision-making power?).

The content publishing world has gotten a lot more complex over the last decade, and without a way to coordinate efforts—to converge content where appropriate, to integrate content where appropriate, to aggregate, to syndicate, to archive, and otherwise govern your content—you’d spend all your time creating those authentic conversations and no time getting any other work done. To get some work-work balance going, you need to learn and apply techniques that help you devise a strategy that works for you and lets your maintain your sanity. How you do that is to listen to Darren speak at Documentation and Training West where he is delivering both a keynote presentation Social Media 101: now Everyone is a Technical Writer and a 60-minute presentation, The Many-Armed Starfish: Today and Tomorrow in Social Media. And, grab a copy of his new book, Getting to First Base: A Social Media Primer (co-authored with Julie Szabo).