Tag: technical communications

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It’s a good thing.

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom
Taken from http://www.today.com/video/today/51786904#51786904
See, even Martha Stewart needs to take time on her social media accounts.

I know I haven’t been on my blog all that much. What can I say? Life gets in the way. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve had a busy summer, and it is shaping up to be an even busier autumn.

“Why would that be, TechCommGeekMom?” you may be asking. I’m glad you asked.

Work has picked up quite a bit, in a good way. I’ve spent a large part of the summer working on three significant internal websites at work, and they are all near finalization. But the big news is that at the end of this month, I’ll be having training on Adobe CQ5–which is a new CMS for me to learn–and I’ve been given a high profile section of the external website for the company where I’m consulting. This is huge! In all my years of being a content manager/publisher, I’ve only worked on one “standard” CMS/WCMS, namely SharePoint. All the rest have been “franken-systems”. I’ve been told that eventually the company will be moving all its internal content to that SharePoint, but first they have to get all the current sites into the current system before they can make that move. In the meantime, the external site is moving forward in a big way using Adobe CQ, and I’m being brought into the fold with a big project.

There are several things that excite me about this project:
1) I get to learn a new WCMS, and I like the challenge of learning something new and useful.
2) This WCMS is one that will help bring the company’s website into the 21st century–there’s a big push on responsive design, social media, and localization for the website, especially the section that I will be working on. I’ve only been learning about these kinds of sites for the last two to three years, but not being able to put what I’ve learned into practice. Now I can!
3) I’ve been given a preview of how the website will be structured and how the content has been chosen and mapped out. I like the content strategy that’s been decided for the overall project and the direction it’s pursuing.
4) I can’t say what section I’m working on at this point, but when I say it’s a high-profile section, it’s a VERY high-profile section. I’m really honored that the company has asked me to work on building this section of the site. For me, it shows me that they like the work I’ve done so far, and they trust me to make good decisions. That means that it’s a big responsibility, and I can’t be lazy on this project. They’ve placed a lot of trust in me, and I can’t let them down.

So, that’s going to be taking up a huge part of my daytime hours. And quite frankly, work has been exhausting, but in a good way. You know when you have a really good workout, and by the end of the day you feel a genuine tiredness from being physically tired, as opposed to being tired simply because you’ve been up for a while? It’s like that, but it’s mentally. Well, it’s physically for me too, since I’ve started trying to squeeze in actual workouts into my daily routine, too, to try to lose weight since I sit on my bottom all day. Throw in responsibilites for my local STC chapter (which I’m still trying to get a handle on), and mom-related responsibilities–there’s a lot going on! So, getting info into TechCommGeekMom proves to be challenging these days.

I think I earned a cupcake for this--what do you think? Yum...chocolate cupcake....
I think I earned a cupcake for this–what do you think? Yum…chocolate cupcake….Maybe Martha Stewart can bake one for me! 

I haven’t given up on this blog, but being as busy as I am, I’m sure you’ll understand. It was much easier when I started, as I was unemployed with plenty of free time that has slowly diminished as time has gone on once I became employed. Now, I’m taking care of my health and taking on other new responsibilities, so priorities change a little bit. This is still my connection to my tech comm family. And without this blog, I wouldn’t have had the opportunities I’ve had to learn about content strategy or social media practices that I’ll be applying to this project. Like I said, I’ll finally be able to use all the information that I’ve been learning post-grad school from all the conferences and online conversations in practice, and that is exciting to me! The trick for me right now is figuring out how to balance it all effectively, and I’m still figuring that out.

So, if you find that my postings are more intermittant, you understand why. Ultimately, when looking at the big picture of events going on, they are steps in a positive direction. In the words of Martha Stewart, “It’s a good thing.”

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Weight Loss is all about content strategy. No, really.

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom

IMG_0178.JPGFear not, TechCommGeekMom readers, I am still here!

I have had an incredibly busy summer. While some places might have a slow-down during the summer, my summer cranked up instead! I’ve been so mentally exhausted by the end of the day that writing or even curating content has been just out of the question. The good news about that work-related mental exhaustion is that most of what I’ve had to do this summer was truly dig into some content strategy with several clients at work, so at least it’s been productive. I’ve now found a free moment while on vacation to see if I can catch up a little bit here.

One of the things I’ve been working on this summer is myself. I’ve been really unhappy with my health, more specifically, my weight. Anyone who has met me knows that I’m a “fluffy mama”, as my son says. It’s been finally time to do something about it, so I’ve been really concentrating on that. I’m fortunate that among those who support my weight loss efforts of eating better and exercising are several of my STC/tech comm friends, which makes it that much easier to bear. At this writing, I’ve lost over twenty pounds this summer (although it doesn’t look like I’ve lost an ounce), and I’m eating very differently (a lot less!) and exercising by walking long distances and by using my stair-elliptical machine like a crazy woman.

One of the things I figured out early on in this change in my lifestyle was that it really is all about content strategy. Yes, weight loss and getting healthy really is all about content strategy. No, really, it is. Let me explain.

The first thing that makes me align weight loss with content strategy is counting calories. Counting calories is like doing an inventory assessment of your content. You have to look at how much food you are eating, and see if you are eating too much, or eating too little. In my case, I was eating too much. I had to learn to cut back, and start doing word counts–I mean, count calories. Part of that assessment also involves figuring out what content can stay, and what needs to go. I figured out that having Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Therapy Ice Cream had to go, but small amounts of chocolate frozen yogurt could stay. Choosing the right content is part of the process. Yes, I can still have chocolate, but I have to make different choices of which food items would fit into my eating plan. Counting calories is also like keeping within a budget. One is allotted a certain number of calories, and if you go over the allotment, then you have to answer for it. You can balance that budget with cost-cutting measures like exercise, which gives you an opportunity to show what works with your content and what doesn’t work. What foods are providing energy and which ones aren’t? Which ones enhance your calories counts, and which ones don’t? What is providing positive results or negative results? Which tactics are helping you reach your weight loss goal, and which ones are making the process more difficult?

Every single day for the last few months has been a daily task of doing an inventory assessment, keeping within a budget, figuring out the right content that should go into my body, and what would be the best content to make my weight loss work. Managing this content will need to be done on a continual basis until I reach my weight goal (about 65 pounds from now) and proper maintenance of this balance content will always have to be adjusted even once I reach my weight goal, to make sure that the content will help support whatever status my system needs in the future.

Doesn’t it all sound familiar?

Even if you aren’t watching your weight, look at your own health as a content strategy project. You’ll find the similarities in the process amazingly similar. You’ll also find that the content you put in and edit will improve, just like it does when you are writing and editing content.

(For those who are curious, I’m using FitBit and the My Fitness Pal apps to help me assess my daily stats. Call them my personal Google Analytics. If you want to follow my progress or support each other in health goals, let me now and we can connect!)

What do you think?

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“Lucy, you have some ‘splanin’ to do!”: Considering your ESL Customers

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom

Lucille-Ball-Desi-ArnazContent Rules Inc. was kind enough to extend their invitation to have me blog for them again. This time, it’s on a subject that’s near and dear to their hearts as well as mine.

This article talks about my own personal experiences in trying to use standardized language. Whether you use standardized language in your personal or professional life, it’s something that one needs to keep in mind as a writer, especially when writing for a global audience, and even more so if you are writing for a digital format that is easily accessed through the Internet. It’s not easy to do, but it’s something that should be tucked in the back of every writer’s brain.

Read the article for more:
“Lucy, you have some ‘splanin’ to do!”: Considering your ESL Customers

Many thanks again to Val Swisher and the gang at Content Rules, Inc. for the opportunity!

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Wonder Woman Techno-Loving Geek–Present! Celebrate Geekness Day.

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom

wonderwomanlaptopEmbrace Your Geekness Day will be on July 13th this year. Who knew there was such a holiday? Not me! It was brought to my attention by Lisa Margetis of SingleHop (a provider of private cloud services, on-demand servers, and managed hosting*), who asked me if I would write something about how I embrace my geekness.  This makes some sense, since I am the TechComm GEEK Mom!

First, I have to clarify that I think there are a lot of different kinds of geeks. My interests sample several genres, but I’m only naming a few here in this post. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you see geeky stuff dropped in posts quite often. Yet, it wasn’t until I was an adult that I was able to fully embrace my labelling as a geek.

How could any girl NOT want to kick butt like Wonder Woman?
How could any girl NOT want to kick butt like Wonder Woman?

As a kid, unlike most of my female peers, I thought watching superhero shows on TV were the best entertainment. The old 1965-era Batman reruns was just awesome–I wanted to be BatGirl so much! I also loved watching “ElectraWoman and DynaGirl” and “The Secrets of Isis” on Saturday morning. But ultimately, it was Wonder Woman who I loved the most! I think I loved all these female superheroes because, well, there weren’t that many being promoted, and I felt I could be just like them!

After a while, my little bit of comic book joy was being suppressed–it was “childish” and “not cool”. But secretly, I continued to enjoy my female comic book heroines.

I suppose it was at the same age that I discovered computers, or rather I was introduced to them by my dad. He initially started with the Apple II, and we had a few others including the first IBM PCs. I remember my dad teaching me VisiCalc and teaching myself the basics of BASIC language, as well as figuring out how to do simple graphics. I was on a roll! But somewhere along the line, while I showed great early aptitude, I was discouraged being the only girl in computer club, and being told only math people (which I was not one) could be computer programmers. Well, gee, thanks for the encouragement.

BatMom emerged in 2009!
BatMom emerged in 2009! (Yes, that’s me.)

Fast forward to thirty years later…my computer aptitude, despite the lack of a computer science degree, is what gets me ahead in my career. I discovered that while I missed out on getting deep into computer science, I still understood enough that I could link the creative, humanities side of me with the technical side of me through technical communications. At the same time that I discovered technical communications and was completing my Master’s degree, I reconnected with an undergraduate friend on Facebook who was a writer and editor of a website called “Geekmom.com“. A geek…mom? Being glorified? Geeks are cool…even if they are moms? It was reading this website that let me know that my quirky interests were perfectly acceptable and embraced! So with this realization, I found that I could embrace my geekness with pride. TechCommGeekMom was born, and now I express my geeky ways in my blog, and in my life.

Geeks rule!

* PS–If you want more info about SingleHop, check out their new private cloud hosting page.