Writing for Web 2.0 – Interaction
Posted on October 21, 2007
Category Best Practices, Web 2.0 | 4 Comments
So is writing for Web 2.0 different for all the other writing that you’ve done over the years? Like so many things in this world, there is no fast and hard answer. The best answer might be “it depends”.
It depends on how you write now, why you write and who your readers are.
In many ways the differentiation between Web 1.0 and 2.0 is the level of interaction that the users/readers expect. In the bad old days of Web 1.0, the web was often used as a simple publishing medium. Create information, post it to the web and hope people would find it through various search engines, or by browsing through your site. Once they found the information you had created, that was it. They had what they needed. They could copy it to their computer, print it out for future reference or ignore it entirely.
You were unlikely to ever hear if they thought it solved their problem, or answered their questions. The web was largely a one-way publishing medium, and once the information was out there, your job as a writer was over.
Not any more.
Readers expect to be able to interact with the people who created the information. Wikis, blogs, conferences and comment forums all are all part of the new face of the web, and their users expect a conversation, not declarations.
The key is to know as much as possible about your readers, including what they are looking for, what their needs are, what they already know and how they expect to interact with you.
You also need to decide how you will interact with them and what level of autonomy you’ll grant them. Will they be able to make changes to the information you have provided (possible if you are using wiki software to disseminate information) or will they just be able to make comments and ask questions (e.g., blog)? If they can make comments, will the comments be “moderated” or will they be posted immediately? Who will answer questions or field comments? Will one person be delegated to reply to the readers? Will they represent the company, or themselves as an individual writer? Will negative comments be displayed or not?
Write using good online writing practices, and ensure you can answer the questions above, and you’ll have a good start in the Web 2.0 world.
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Hmmm, I agree with what you are saying but surely the title is “Publishing for Web 2.0″ (or perhaps “Information in the Web 2.0 world”?). The writing side hasn’t changed, you still need to know why and who, but the approach people have towards information is key.
I took a stab at understanding this very thing a while back, not sure I’ve fully got to grips with it but I agree. In the Web 2.0 world we need to be smarter about how we present what we write.
One of the interesting ways to communicate via blogs is simply to link to other blogs. Most times the bloggers can see the incoming links to their blog via the dashboard of their blog’s admin panel, or through pingbacks. It’s one way that blogs are self-aware.
[...] hält den Grad der Interaktion mit dem Leser für das wichtigste neue Kriterium bei der Planung von Online-Texten: Readers [...]
I wrote an article on this topic a while back in Intercom. I agree with the direction you’re headed with this. Our audience is gaining more and more control, and expects to be able to interact. This will increase even more over time as the next generation of users becomes the next generation of consumers.