Writing Matters

Download Social Media Toolkits from Mass.gov

From the National Association of Government Communicators list, I'm reposting information about a great resource: three social media toolkits from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (Thanks to Susan Parker, Director of Mass.gov for this info.)  The toolkits cover

• blogging
• Twitter
• legal issues pertaining to social media

You can read the toolkits online or download the blogging and Twitter toolkits as PDFs. (The legal guidelines toolkit isn't available as a PDF.)

Highlights from the toolkits

Legal Guidance Toolkit
I was thrilled when I read the opening sentence of the Legal Guidance Toolkit: "There are no legal prohibitions against state agencies using social media sites or having social media identities." Such unequivocal language should help reduce the unreasonable fear of social media that prevents many government agencies from trying new ways of communicating with constituents. 

Blogging Toolkit

The blogging toolkit includes a Blog Preparation Checklist, which reminds agencies to answer these questions before they jump into blogging:  

1. "Who is your audience?
2. What business goals can your blog help you meet?
3. What topics will you blog about?
4. How will you administer your blog?
5. What is your publication plan / schedule?
6. What changes do you need to make to the template privacy, terms of use and social media policies? Have they been posted to your Secretariat or agency website?
7. What changes do you need to make to the template comment policy?
8. How will you publicize your blog?"

Twitter Toolkit
The Twitter toolkit includes a Twitter Best Practices list with plenty of practical advice. In particular, I like these three points for government Twitter-ers:

• "Be transparent. Who exactly is blogging for your agency? Is it a person? Is it a department? Make sure people know how they can reach the party behind the tweets. It makes a big difference in the perceived authenticity of your efforts."
• "Be proactive. Make sure you promote your Twitter page. Include a link to your webpage on your Twitter account, and a link to your Twitter account from your webpage. Include it in your formal communications plans. Insert it into your email signatures."
• "Be realistic. Twitter isn't quite as easy as it seems. You need to plan to devote time and resources to active engagement on Twitter. Additionally, building an audience may take longer than anticipated. Don't let slower than hoped for results diminish your commitment."

Susan Parker promised future Mass.gov toolkits that will cover YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, wikis, and survey tools.  If she posts more information, I'll link to it here.

Does your organization have a social media toolkit or guidelines you could share? If so, please let me know or post a comment. Thanks.

-- Leslie O'Flahavan

Research Report: Old Writing Rules Apply to New Social Media

While updating our web writing courses, I've been scouring usability research to find new studies that apply to web writing. The findings from two separate research studies from the Software Usability Research Laboratory (SURL) at Wichita State University remind me that old web writing guidelines apply to new media—social networking sites. Both studies flagged common writing issues—confusing and unfamiliar terminology, and inadequate user feedback and error messages—as problems that harm usability.

1. Usability Evaluation of Three Social Networking Sites. The study evaluated the usability of MySpace, Facebook, and Orkut. Users completed 10 tasks for each site, including adding new information to a profile, making a photo album, and changing notification options for messages. Users rated the difficulty of each task and their satisfaction with each site.
2. Trick or Tweet: How Usable is Twitter for First-Time Users? Users performed eight tasks on Twitter, including creating an account, posting a tweet, and responding to a tweet. Users rated the ease of use and their satisfaction with the site. 

Confusing and Unfamiliar Terminology
SURL researchers found that inconsistencies in link terminology resulted in users' failure to complete tasks. For example, My Space uses the Term “My Account” as a link. But clicking on the link brought up a page with the heading “Settings.” 

Users were confused by unfamiliar terms. MySpace users clicked on “Photo Cube” expecting to make a photo album. They found that “Photo Cube” is a function that allows users to print photos. Twitter users were unclear about whether to use “Profile” or “Setting” to edit their information.

Not surprisingly, most new users “had difficulty learning the ‘language’ that was unique to Twitter.” What was the difference between followers and following? Users were confused about Twitter-unique terms such as “RT” (retweet) for reposting a message from another user, the use of @symbols to indicate usernames in tweets, and the use of hashtags (#) to indicate topic tags for messages.

Twitter language proved so confusing that users had very poor success rates in some tasks: Only 15.4% were successful in sending a message and only 38.5% were successful in replying to messages. Users concluded that Twitter was “complex and felt they would need to learn quite a bit before using it.” Participants reported that "they would not use the service often.”

Poor Feedback and Unhelpful Error Messages
Poor feedback and unhelpful error messages also contributed to the failure of social network users to complete tasks. MySpace provided a poor error message to users who forgot to give their photo albums a name. Twitter users often weren’t sure whether they had successfully completed a task  such as sending a message. They were looking for feedback, a completion message or visual confirmation—an icon or a change in font color—to confirm their success.

Tips for Applying the Research to Your Writing
The studies’ usability findings are specific to social networking sites. But applying the recommendations to your writing will improve the usability and user satisfaction for both traditional and new media websites. 

• Use terms consistently. Don’t change language mid-stream. For example, is “editing” a profile the same as “updating” a profile? If so, choose one term and use it throughout the site. Consistency is especially important for links because the repetition of link language assures users that they’ve landed on the correct page. If users click “My Account,” the landing page should be labeled “My Account” not ‘Setting.”
• Use plain and intuitive language. The link “print photos” is more intuitive than “photo cube.”
• Explain new terms. You may think a term is self-explanatory, but first-time users may not know your language: tweets, followers, following, photo cube, wall. Provide a brief explanation of terms when users encounter them or link to a glossary.
• Provide helpful feedback and useful error messages. Provide confirmation messages to users: “You have successfully added photos to your album.” Write error messages that explain why the user failed. “Your user name and password do not match” is more helpful than “login failed.”

--Marilynne Rudick

Will They (Tweeters) Change Grammar?

It’s not news that language evolves. Nor is it news that the Internet has accelerated the evolution. So no wonder grammar has become a hot topic among Twitter users.

The conversation is focused on a grammatical oddity: we have a gender-neutral plural pronoun they but not a gender-neutral singular pronoun.  If you are talking about more than one person you’d write: “They all keep in touch by texting.” But if you are referring to just one person, you’ve got to be gender-specific: "He (or she) keeps in touch by texting."

Perhaps it is Twitter’s limit of 140 characters per tweet that has pushed this debate to the forefront. Why spend nine characters writing he or she when you can do it with four (they). Twitterers are asking: "Why can’t we have a gender-neutral singular pronoun?" Among the nominees: s/he, he/she, shhe.  Or why can’t we use they as a singular and plural pronoun? “Anyone who thinks they qualify for the bonus should contact their supervisor."

Of course grammar traditionalists say we already have a gender-neutral singular pronoun: he.  But since the 1970s, we’ve been making language gender neutral. Chairperson has replaced chairman, mail carrier has replaced mailman, flight attendant has replaced stewardess. And: “Each applicant will have his or her loan documents reviewed.”

Some grammarians have thrown in the towel on the they-as-singular-pronoun debate: R.W. Burchfield, editor of The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage, writes that it’s only a matter of time before this practice becomes standard English. The Chicago Manual of Style straddles the fence. “Though some writers are comfortable with the occasional use of they as a singular pronoun, some are not, and it is better to do the necessary work to recast a sentence or, other options having been exhausted, use he or she.” 

I’m not about to weigh in on this grammar controversy. (If you think the health care debate is nasty…) Instead, I’m offering three character-light options for editing this sentence: Each applicant will have his loan documents reviewed by the committee. (71 characters)

Three Twitter-Friendly Work-Arounds for the Singular/Plural Pronoun Problem

1. Use a plural nounn.
   Applicants will have their loan documents reviewed by the committee. (68 characters)
2. Eliminate pronouns when possible.
   Each applicant will have loan documents reviewed by the committee. (66 characters)
3. Use second person pronouns you or your.
   The committee will review your loan documents. (a slim 46 characters!)

What’s your opinion on the they-as-singular-pronoun debate? Please post your comments.

-- Marilynne Rudick

 

 

 

Tweet Government: Following Your Leaders

With a Blackberry-addicted president in the White House, it’s no wonder the federal government is focusing on ways to use new media to communicate with the public. Increasingly, officials and agencies are harnessing the immediacy and mobility of Twitter.  

President Obama leads the Twitter pack with almost 800,000 followers. (But Twitter may have lost its glitter for the President since his last tweet is dated March 25!) Congressional representatives and senators are taking up the slack. Surprisingly, more than twice as many Republicans (83) as Democrats (40) are tweeting. 

You can find out whether your congressman and senators are tweeting at Tweet Congress. And if they are not, you can sign a petition asking them to “join Twitter to engage the citizens in real discourse about the issues facing the nation.” Arizona Senator John McCain is the congressional leader with more than 400,000 followers, far outpacing second place Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill with about 20,000.

 It not just the legislative branch that uses Twitter. Many government agencies are tweeting about policy, legislation, and schedules. Some agencies are using Twitter to send just-in-time information. 

• The U.S. Geological Survey posts earthquake warnings.
• The FDA posts food recalls.
• The National Park Service posts snow reports and bear sightings for Yosemite. 
• NASA posted updates from Mars during the Mars Phoenix Lander Mission. 

Who else in government is tweeting?  BearingPoint has compiled a GovTwit Directory and updates it on Twitter. 

Do you know of innovative ways the government is using Twitter? Let us know!

--Marilynne Rudick