They’ve finally figured it out! Who are "they," you ask? Organizations of all types, big and small, public and private sector, across the globe. They’ve finally figured out that the different consumers of their content—customers, suppliers, partners, regulators, tech experts, and end users– all read at different levels and abilities.

Through sometimes painful experience, these organizations have learned that using Plain Language means clarity and ease of understanding for the reader, and that it pays off in customer satisfaction, loyalty, trust and “stickiness”!

When you buy a new car it comes with a sleek little owner’s manual that fits into your glove box. With a new jet airliner, things aren’t that simple.  Every jetliner comes with a massive library of documentation covering every aspect of inspection, maintenance and repair of the plane’s systems. And “every aspect” is no exaggeration.

Over the last six months we here at Information Mapping have been in the process of moving all our information to the cloud. While the decision to move to the cloud was an easy one for us, the move itself hasn’t been as simple. Knowledge Management is our business. And yet, like the cobbler’s children who have no shoes, we had a lot of work to do to organize our information before moving to the cloud.

For many people it’s a problem to read and understand the confusing instructions that come with some medication. Last year over 125,000 Americans died simply because they didn’t take their pills or follow doctors’ orders. On addition to all those deaths, thousands more experienced continuing ill health or required additional hospitalization. Healthcare professionals call this “patient noncompliance,” and it’s a very expensive problem. In 2012 it cost the public an estimated $289 billion.

If you’re among those who think government isn’t working very efficiently nowadays, just wait until next year. As of 2014, more than half of our federal government’s civilian employees will be eligible for retirement. Considerably more than half of those eligible are expected to actually retire. Fully 30% of the government’s workforce will walk out the door.

Writing for the web today can sometimes feel like you’re trying to put a puzzle together with a blindfold on. It’s difficult to imagine how the final page is going to look and feel because all the content you are writing is input into small silos in a Content Management System.

I first ran into this experience a few years ago as I worked on the development of a website in Joomla. The experience really became very frustrating without a method for organizing the content and understanding all the different ways and places the information might be used.

Have you seen the ads that healthcare companies are airing on TV? They feature soothing music and heartwarming customer stories about the personal attention they’ve received from the company’s representatives. The message is pretty hard to miss: “We’re not just another huge, faceless corporation. We really care about you.”

Despite those tug-at-the-heartstrings ads, American consumers’ perception of the healthcare industry is largely negative. Most of us dread having to interact with our health plan providers. That’s because the industry suffers from serious communication problems.

As we celebrate President’s Day in the US this week I cannot help but think about how lucky we are to have the right to vote for our President here in the US. It is a right that many envy, worldwide. Every US President we have elected has been chosen by the people. People who come out, stand in line, and cast their vote.

Watching the confusion caused by the Super Bowl power outage reminded me that we all need to be prepared to deal with unexpected interruptions to our electrical service. I was reminded of this again this weekend, when my lights went out as a blizzard blanketed New England with over two feet of snow.

2013 is well under way now, and it’s shaping up to be an exciting year for technical communicators. Judging by the constant buzz and the sheer volume of banter and bickering on the profession’s favorite discussion forums, this is a great time to be a writer. And the ever-growing amount of content that organizations need to capture and control offers a new Golden Age of opportunity for those with the skills and savvy.

But, as always, the pitfalls are still there. Here are three mistakes you'll want to avoid making during the coming months.