Best practices for vendor and partner articles

[#1]

Note: All Atlassian partners and vendors must adhere to the official Community guidelines.

So you have an announcement you’d like to share with the Atlassian Community — great! We have more than 3 million members with a wide array of expertise across our product suite. Here’s how to create a standout article that will appeal to the masses:

Step 1: Familiarize yourself with the content architecture on Community.

• Product collections: A collection is just an online space for a particular topic or product. We have one dedicated to each product in the Atlassian suite, as well as interests like agile and off-topic.

• Watch functionality: A great way to stay on top of the latest posts on a particular topic is to “watch” that collection. You decide what and how often. Example:

(To view a list of your current notifications, click on your avatar in the top-right corner of Community, select “Manage settings” and then click the “Notifications” tab.)

• Proper permissions: To keep the quality of articles in the Atlassian Community high, only certain roles have clearance to write them: Atlassian Staff, Community Manager, Community Leader and those in our Atlassian Authors program. Vendors and partners can request article-writing permissions by commenting on this thread.

• Community demographics: Keep in mind that the Atlassian Community is a global one. Expertise ranges from beginner to advanced, so it’s important to appeal to a broad range in your writing.

Step 2: Create an outline before you start writing.

Don’t bury the lede! Think about what your key takeaway(s) will be. Put yourself in your readers' shoes: Why should I, as a community member, care about this post? Example: At the end of this article, readers will understand how Trello can help them create an editorial calendar.

Once you have an objective or two, you can start building an outline to support your goal. Our Community content lead, Bridget, suggests bulleting out statements of the points you’d like to make, such as:

• Trello allows for flexible list structure

• Butler allows me to easily label content that needs to be ported to other boards

• The Calendar Power-Up provides great visibility for other teams

Step 3: Decide on a format that aligns with the content.

Now that you have your list of points to hit, you have some choices to make about the format of your article. A standard essay format might make sense if you’re telling a customer story or sharing a use case. If the reader will have to follow instructions to get set up, consider different sections with headers or a numbered list.

Bonus points for rich content like:

• Screenshots

• Code

• Videos

Curating a list of questions in advance that you anticipate being asked shows that you’re proactive and may save you some future effort. This post about Atlassian for Visual Studio Code is a great example.

Step 4: Fine-tune the voice.

If an article is brilliant but no one reads it, was it really brilliant at all? The voice and tone of your article matter almost as much as the content because readability is crucial in conveying your objective! Write like you’re explaining your points to a friend or colleague, and care if they understand or not. (It can never hurt to send your piece to an actual friend or colleague to gut check.) Still unsure? Check out the Atlassian Community’s voice and tone guide.

Step 5: Hit the publish button.

Don’t feel like you have to go it alone. If you would like an editing eye before making it official, feel free to email Bridget at bsauer@atlassian.com anytime for feedback.

Step 6: Respond to comments in a timely manner.

Don’t be surprised if other users have questions or comments regarding your article. You should receive a notification by email if someone responds, or you can check your Community notifications. Keep in mind that your answers should be optimistic, inclusive and empowering. Acknowledge when opinions differ from yours, and celebrate when they’re aligned!

Inspiring A+ articles:

• My love of Trello power-ups

• How to run Jira in a Docker container

• The Admin's tale - User Macro filtering a Confluence table

• Like the content of Confluence, our knowledge is never complete

• Building a career with Atlassian knowledge

Happy writing!

[Mirek]

For me this article @Erica Moss should be also an A+ example :) Thank you for putting this together! Great! 

[Erica Moss]

@Mirek Yay! Glad it's useful. 😄

[Mohamed Benziane]

Thank you @Erica Moss to bring us so good informations and lead in us in the right way.

[Kat Warner]

Wow - 2 of my articles linked as inspiring. Thank you so much!

[Pete Sinclair]

Hi, @Erica Moss may I have permission to write articles? I'm the CEO of Obo, an Atlassian partner. Cheers and thank you, P. 

[Erica Moss]

@Pete Sinclair I see you requested to join Atlassian Authors, so you should be hearing back from Bridget Sauer, who runs that program!

[Ken Paetzold]

Hi @Erica Moss may I please have permission to write articles? This is the Atlassian Community account for Marketplace app Git Integration for Jira, managed by our marketing team. 

[Pavan Belagatti]

Hi @Erica Moss, may I have permission to write articles? I have written an article on Harness and JIRA integration and would like to contribute to the forum.