Please Tell Your API Stories

Many of you that have attended any of my talks, have heard me tell the audience about the importance of sharing your API stories. As an API provider it is the most important tool in your toolbox, above and beyond any technical or business advantage you have. I'm spending more time lately, gathering up the things I say over and over in my talks, and other in-person conversations, and craft simple stories that echo these little nuggets of wisdom on the blog.

If you do not tell the story of what your API is doing, nobody will know--it really is that simple. The drumbeat from your blog, should echo the activity that is going on via your API. Your day might be filled with a hectic stack of activity from your view, but your API consumers, analysts, and storytellers like me, we do not see any of this activity, and we all need to hear about your day on your blog, amplified by your active Twitter account.

I can tell you that the APIs who are doing interesting things, and are telling the story of these things, end up on my blog, and in the major tech blogosphere much more often, than those that do not. I'm not telling you to craft amazing essays about your operations, I'm just asking that you blog daily, or every couple days, on the often mundane, but potentially highly valuable stories from the trenches of your API operations--it is something that, the more you do, the easier it wil gets.

While the goal of blogging is to communicate externally with your API consumers, and the public at large, my secondary motive is to expose you to a very beneficial by-product of blogging in this way. When you get into a rhythm where you are working through your ideas, operations, and API road-map, in such a public way, you develop a very different view of your platform, one that is closer aligned with your community, and potentially the industry you are looking to play a role in.

I want you to share your API stories, but more importantly I want your API to be successful, and regular telling stories to your community, and the public, will increase these odds significantly in my experience.