Reach Corporate API Devs On LinkedIn, Independent API Devs On Twitter

by Kin Lane on 03/23/2012

Every Monday I generate a list of all new API developer who registered for the CityGrid API the week before. This list has the name and email address for each developer, and I manually go down the list, and email them individually, letting them know I’m here to help.

As I email each new API developer I use Rapportive to identify more information about them, such as their website URL, Twitter and LinkedIn profile. If a developer has a Twitter or LinkedIn profile, I engage them on those networks.

After 3 months of doing this, I’ve noticed that developers who work for larger companies have LinkedIn profiles and developers who either are freelance, own or work with a smaller development shop tend to have Twitter.

It makes sense. Twitter is a more public forum, and smaller companies tend to need to market their skills and services and actively engage the world around them. While established companies tend to keep their developers in a more closed environment, suitable for the business social network LinkedIn.

This type of information helps me segment my API developer audience into various groups allowing me to craft blog posts, announcements and share other information with them on appropriate channels. I’m not a big fan of emailing, so being able to push out information regularly on LinkedIn and Twitter, and engage with users that are active on these networks, works very well for supporting my approach to API developer support.