User-Generated Content, Time-Saving Tools, and Dance Music Djs: Slide Decks From The STC Summit

June 4, 2008 Blog No Comments

As a convenience to our readers—and to those who attended the Society for Technical Communication Summit in Philadelphia this week—I’ve published the slide decks for three of my presentations here. If you have questions about any of the presentations, send me an email. I’m always happy to help others learn what I know. Augmenting your Technical Documentation with User-Generated Content Your user community can be an invaluable source of information about your product or service. Using Web 2.0 technologies, you can augment your existing technical documentation with user-generated content. The …

Finding Mr. Right 5.0: Lessons For Business From The Personal Relationship Trenches

May 12, 2008 Blog 22 Comments

By Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler and The Content Wrangler Community I am a lot of things. I am a writer, a consultant, a community owner, a blogger, a Hoosier, an uncle, a gay male, and many other things. If you were to tag me like a web page you want to remember, you might use tags like content manager, conference organizer, The Content Wrangler, and a host of other descriptive words of meaning to you—limited only by your imagination. But, chances are, just from reading my blog or being …

The Content Wrangler Makes Junta42 Top Content Marketing Blogs

May 6, 2008 Blog No Comments

TheContentWrangler.com ranks among the top 25 blogs in Junta42’s Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs list. The Top 42 list is designed to organize and feature the best blogs on the internet that discuss some aspect of content marketing. Each blog on the list has been rated by Junta42 experts in terms of content strength, depth, regularity and, to a very small extent, popularity. Junta42 members are also able rate each blog by Hitching (or voting) on the blogs they like the best, creating an independent user rank in the process. …

Over 1,200 Have Joined Our New Social Network for Content Professionals

April 1, 2008 Blog No Comments

The Content Wrangler Community, the new social network for content professionals is attracting a global audience of content professionals from around the globe. More than 1,200 knowledge workers from all walks of life are congregating online and forming special interest groups focused on software tools, content standards, information modeling, job hunting, technical communication, web 2.0, marketing and more. In addition to allowing the formation of groups, the community provides members with online forums, a blog, keyword searchable member directory, video and photo sharing, discounts on upcoming conferences, event announcements, training …

New Groups, New Members and Lots of Interesting Discussions

March 12, 2008 Blog No Comments

The Content Wrangler Community is off and running. Over 600 members have joined in just three days. There are many interesting discussions taking place today among members, including a great discussion in Writing for Reuse, a group run by content guru Pamela Kostur. Pamela kicked off the introductory discussion by asking group members to discuss the challenges they face when writing reusable content. Several group members have participated in sharing their challenges and the things they did to overcome them. Do you have something to add to the conversation? What …

Variable Data Printing – Delivering Personalized Marketing Campaigns That Work

February 27, 2008 Blog No Comments

By Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler It’s no mystery. Most marketing campaigns suck. They use old-school methods with new technologies and don’t deliver the results they should. Most often, campaigns fail to perform as well as they should because most marketing folks don’t have the tools they need to properly segment and deliver personalized marketing messages. Nor do they have the time nor resources to create and manage such campaigns efficiently. That is, until now. To help marketing professionals accomplish their goals, we’re offering a new service called VDP Complete, …

You’re Invited: Join LinkedIn For The Content Wrangler

February 7, 2008 Blog No Comments

If you are subscriber to The Content Wrangler monthly email newsletter, you’re invited to join The Content Wrangler Group on LinkedIn. The goal of this group is to help members: Find and communicate with other members—keyword search the community directory; send messages to other members Accelerate career/business goals through referrals from group members—rate others; get rated Know more than a name – view rich professional profiles from fellow members Discover professionals who share interests and experiences similar to yours Find answers to content management and technical communication -related questions Joining …

Extreme Makeover: The New Content Wrangler

September 12, 2007 Blog No Comments

The Content Wrangler needed an extreme makeover—badly—and for quite a while. Information designer Kevin Shoesmith (Venn Communications) tackled the challenge by stripping away much of the out-of-the-box blog design that had been part of the site since our first post back in 2003. He separated the content into discreet units so we could practice the “write it once, use it often” mantra we preach to others. He also took full advantage of web 2.0 technologies, including AJAX, RSS feeds, and tagging functionalities to help you get more value from your …

TheContentWrangler Rated Top Blog In “The Right Time” Survey

June 8, 2007 Blog No Comments

This one slipped by our radar screens while we were hard at work on a new project. The readers of The Right Time Tech Comm Blog have rated TheContentWrangler.com as “Best Blog” (in a tie with monkeyPi) and one of the “Most Frequently Read” (in a near tie with Tom Johnson’s popular I’d Rather Be Writing blog). Thanks to all of our readers who participated in the survey and helped make us number one.

Content Management Professionals Select Scott Abel As New Executive Director

January 7, 2007 Blog No Comments

I’m excited to announce that I’ve been selected as the new Executive Director of Content Management Professionals, the international content management community of practice. Founded in 2004, CM Pros – which has grown from a founding group of 30 content management experts to more than 900 members – provides information, expertise and support to content management professionals and the organizations they serve. Through peer-to-peer interchange, the collaborative development of best practices, a series of educational events and definitive knowledge resources (including the content management lifecycle poster and our popular “Malcontents” …