Social Media
DevRel is all about “deliver correctly the right information to the developers who need it”. Getting any one of these things wrong can lead to major problems and damage.
You know that none of these things will work.
The challenge, then, is how to “deliver correctly the right information to the developers who need it”.
Correct information can also be defined as accurate information. In general, correctness should be as follows
We put Q&A sites at the bottom of the list because the initial information (questions) is generally wrong. In response, a bona fide third party provides the answer, which becomes correct information. If the question is left as is, incorrect information may be propagated.
The reason the official blog is second is that many blog posts have an expiration date; information that was correct at the time may naturally become wrong or deteriorate as the SDK is upgraded or as prerequisite market conditions change. While it is best to review the information on a regular basis, many blogs do not take the time to do so. Therefore, it is common to hedge the risk by putting out a warning such as “This information is one year old.
In some cases, the priority for social services is not correctness, but rather immediacy and visual impact. As a result, the accuracy of the content must be slightly degraded. Especially on Twitter, there is a limit to the number of characters, and in many cases it may not be possible to convey the message as intended. While taking such points into account, be aware that incorrect communication on social media can lead to the risk of flames.
Transmissions by third parties (community members, users, etc.) provide readers with a sense of security that the information will be written from a fair perspective. Therefore, it is also true that it is easier to gain trust when a third party says “it is a good product” than when official information transmits “it is a good product. Nevertheless, it is also true that some articles written without knowledge of the internal process or without a complete understanding of the specifications may be based on incorrect assumptions or misperceptions. If such articles are not approached with care, they may be perceived as intimidating or demotivating. To build a good relationship, keep a mild approach in mind.
Developers in need are exactly the people who need your information. Depending on the type of information, they may not know your product yet, or they may already know (or use) it. Depending on such differences in knowledge, the way information is delivered will differ.
People who do not know your product are, in other words, your intended users. It is only when information is delivered to the intended users that they will consider using the product. In order to do this, we need to do some filtering and narrow down our target audience to those developers to whom we want to deliver information.
Filtering is an attribute, so to speak. For example
Depending on these attributes, developers work differently and gather information in different ways. Therefore, the best channel must be chosen.
Finally, communicating correctly has two aspects.
It is a bad idea to be so concerned with the accuracy of information that the text becomes redundant or difficult to read. In BtoB, it is tempting to use stiff sentences, but if the sentences are unintelligible, it is a waste of time.
People have a form of information that is easy to recognize. This is not uniform, but varies from person to person. Some people find it easier to understand text, others find it easier to understand an explanation by a person, and still others prefer video. Some people may prefer novels because they can picture the scene better, while others may find manga easier to understand. Therefore, it is important to deliver information in a variety of formats, even if it is only one piece of information.
The other aspect is as a DevRel. Some marketing may use fear-mongering, inflated numbers, or other tricks that seem to be trying to trick the other side. Such bad tactics may achieve the instantaneous goal. However, they are not suitable for building a medium- to long-term relationship with the developer (customer). Developers who feel cheated will never use your product again.
Honesty is also an important aspect of DevRel. All you have to do is to admit that you cannot do what you cannot do, and then utilize the feedback (feature requests, etc.) from developers in the development of new features. The only reason you get good feedback is because you have built a good relationship between you and the developers.
In this article, I have explained the importance of DevRel, which is to “deliver correctly the right information to the developers who need it. Instead of just sending out information in the dark, always try to communicate based on the perspectives introduced in this article.
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