Presentation about user assistance and SolidWorks Social Media use, GIven by myself and Keri PRasky, at SolidWOrks World 2012. also available at The SolidWorks World 2012 proceedings site http://www.solidworks.com/sww/proceedingsi

1. Help yourself…
...to a whole lot of user assistance
Keri Prasky Mary Beth Raven
Online Community Sr. Consultant Sr. Manager, User Experience
DS SolidWorks Corp DS SolidWorks Corp

2. Where do you go when you need help?
 SolidWorks Help
 Online
 Social Media

3. Where do you go when you need help?
 SolidWorks Help
 Online
 SolidWorks.com
 SolidWorks Forums
 Knowledge Base*
 Social Media
 Twitter
 Facebook
 Blogs
 Youtube

4. SolidWorks
 Introductory
 Introducing SolidWorks PDF
 SolidWorks Fundamentals
 SolidWorks Help
 Help Topics
 Context Sensitive
 Help.SolidWorks.com
 Searching from Google:
site:help.solidworks.com/<version><search string>
 Turning Web Help on/off
 Glossary

5. SolidWorks
 What’s New
 Within Help Pages
 By Topic
 Moving from 2D to 3D
 Moving from 2D system to SolidWorks
 Tutorials
 Quick Tips
 Prompts
 Search from within SolidWorks

6. SolidWorks
 Tip of the Day
 Setting up Dynamic Help on first startup
 Administrative Guides
 API Help
 Add-in Help

7. Where do you go when you need help?
 SolidWorks Help
 Online
 SolidWorks.com
 SolidWorks Forums
 Knowledge Base*
 Social Media

8. Online - SolidWorks.com
 SolidWorks Product Information
 By Product
 By Industry
 Purchasing
 Support Area
 Support
 Downloads
 Forums
 Online Help
 Learning Resources

9. Online - SolidWorks.com
 Community
 Blogs
 User Group Information
 Forums
 To log in or not log in?
― Read-only access
 Searching the Forum

10. Online – SolidWorks.com
 Resource Center
 Many Types of Content
 Videos
 Tutorials
 Tech Tips
 Education

11. Online – Knowledge Base*
 Subscription Customers
 SolidWorks Knowledge Base
 Free Product Support
 eDrawings
 3D ContentCentral

12. Where do you go when you need help?
 SolidWorks Help
 Online
 SolidWorks.com
 SolidWorks Forums
 Knowledge Base*
 Social Media

13. Social Media: SolidWorks Approach
 Actively engage existing and potential users
 Distribute information
 Provide learning resources
 Better understand user needs
 Participate in social media
 See what other SolidWorks users are doing
 Keep the fun feeling from #SWW12
 Win Prizes!

14. Social Media
 SolidWorks does NOT provide direct support through social
media
 SolidWorks resellers: primary support
 Then why include social media in a talk about user
assistance?

15. Social Media

16. Social Media - Twitter
 @SolidWorks:
 Matt West
 Get news and
updates
 See who else is
using SolidWorks,
doing similar design
 Over 7,000 followers
 Mainly professionals
 https://twitter.com/
#!/SolidWorks

17. Social Media - Twitter
 @SWUGN
 Richard Doyle
 News about all the
SWUGN activities
and meetings,
worldwide
 Over 400 followers
 https://twitter.com/
#!/SWUGN

18. Social Media - Twitter
 Follow this twitter list
for tweets from many
SolidWorks users
 https://twitter.com/#!/
SolidWorks/solidworks-
contacts/members

19. Social Media - Twitter
 Hash tags
 #SolidWorks
 #SWW12

20. Social Media - Twitter
 Who follows any of these SolidWorks accounts?
 Are we tweeting about the right things for you?
 What could we stop tweeting about?
 What could we start tweeting about?

21. Social Media - Facebook
 Read stories about
engineering and design
 Mini resource center
 Audience is younger
than Twitter
 40% are 18-24
 35% are 24-35
 Audience very
international
 20% from Turkey
 Many from
Malaysia, Indonesia
 https://www.facebook.
com/#!/solidworks

22. Social Media - Facebook
 Who has befriended SolidWorks on Facebook?
 Is Facebook a good mini-resource center?
 Would can we do better there?

23. Social Media – LinkedIn
 Professional Network
 Find Jobs that involve
using SolidWorks
 Seminars
 SolidWorks does NOT
own this group.
SolidWorks does NOT
post anything here
 Completely managed
by the community
 http://www.linkedin.co
m/groups?gid=82201&
trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

24. Social Media - LinkedIn
 Is anyone a member of the LinkedIn SolidWorks group?

25. Social Media - Blogs
 SolidWorks Blog –
company updates,
innovation, product news
 http://blogs.solidworks.co
m/solidworksblog/
 SolidWorks Community -
http://blogs.solidworks.co
m/swcommunity/

26. Social Media - Blogs
 SolidWorks Teacher
 http://blogs.solidworks.co
m/teacher/

27. Social Media - Blogs
 Many other blogs
related to
SolidWorks
 http://www.solid
works.com/sw/re
ad-solidworks-
blogs.htm

28. Social Media - Blogs
 Who follows the SolidWorks blog?
 The SolidWorks Community blog?
 The Teacher blog?
 What blog topics do you want us to cover?

29. Social Media - YouTube
 SolidWorks has
a channel
 Short how-to
videos
 http://www.youtub
e.com/user/solidw
orks

30. Social Media - YouTube
 Who here has watched any of the SolidWorks videos on
YouTube?
 What improvements or changes would you like to future
videos on the YouTube channel?
 What (if any) integration of social media into SolidWorks
would be useful?

31. Give us feedback here at SWW!
 Come to the usability lab
 In the Hilton Bayfront
 Pod in the SolidWorks
booth in the exhibition hall

32. Give us feedback all year long!
 In addition to using
the forums and
social media, send
us your log files

33. Questions?
Post to the
Documentation and
Training area of forum
https://forum.solidworks.com/co
mmunity/solidworks/help_and_t
raining
Click here!

34. Thank You!
Twitter: @MaryBethRaven
Personal blog (about social media use):
www.MaryBethRaven.org

35. Summary
 SolidWorks Help
 Online
 SolidWorks.com
 Knowledge Base
 SolidWorks Forums
 Social Media