Social Media
Content strategy is one of the key initiatives in DevRel. While we use the term “content” broadly, it encompasses various formats:
Among these, blog posts are particularly accessible and often the first initiative I recommend when helping with DevRel at MOONGIFT.
In DevRel blog strategies, tech blogs are frequently mentioned, but there are distinct differences between the two. Let’s explore these differences in detail.
Both tech blogs and DevRel target developers as their audience. Their primary goal is to provide technical information to developers.
Content serves as an output strategy, aiming to provide value to readers.
Establishing an editorial system is essential for consistently producing high-quality content. The editorial team typically handles:
Some tech blogs operate without any review process while still maintaining consistent content production. However, reaching this level requires significant time and cultural maturity.
While both target developers as readers, their specific audiences often differ. For example, if you provide a managed database service, your internal development team might have accumulated knowledge about:
When publishing such knowledge, the readers might be database administrators or engineers working at companies managing their own databases. These articles often provide deep insights valuable to database engineers.
However, developers using your cloud database service might be:
These developers are often not experienced in large-scale database operations. They’re interested in your service because they want to ensure their applications can scale and operate securely in the cloud.
You are the product experts and masters in your target technology category. In contrast, DevRel often targets people who want to use your product but are beginners in that technology category.
Additionally, when multiple alternative services exist, you might publish technical information to demonstrate your company’s leadership in the market.
Tech blogs typically focus on technical information, featuring articles such as:
In contrast, DevRel blog content varies by purpose, including:
Tech blogs typically serve three main purposes:
DevRel blog articles, on the other hand, serve four main purposes:
While tech blogs focus on technology, DevRel content focuses on products and market aspects.
In tech blogs, many visitors arrive through web searches looking to solve specific technology-related problems (such as database performance, security, or scaling issues). Therefore, search keywords often include technical terms or even error messages.
However, since the focus is more on output, there’s less emphasis on strictly considering search keywords. Moreover, constantly thinking about marketing aspects in tech blogs might diminish the motivation to produce content.
For DevRel blog articles, it’s crucial to deeply understand the target audience and their daily challenges. The target audience represents your persona. Without well-defined personas, articles tend to target broad keywords, making it difficult to rank high in search results regardless of how many articles you publish.
While tech blogs and DevRel blogs both target developers, they differ in purpose and content types. Simply producing content in the style of tech blogs won’t effectively contribute to DevRel KPIs.
MOONGIFT supports your DevRel & developer marketing in the Japanese market. If you’re interested, please contact us.
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