Web2Expo NY 2009 Presentation

Building a Site for your Developer Community
Lauren Cooney
GPM, Web Platform & Standards
Microsoft
lcooney@microsoft.com
www.twitter.com/lcooney

Who Am I?
Not Evil
Microsoft (Web Platform & Standards, Developer Division)
- IBM (Apache Geronimo; Info Management CTO Office)
BEA Systems (dev2dev)
Apache Foundation
Eclipse
CodePlex Foundation
Advisory Board, Web2Expo SF

Porter’s 5 Forces?

Cooney’s 5 Forces of Site Community

#1: Clarity

Why am I building this website? What are my Top Level Goals?
Questions to ask:
What need am I addressing?
Does my company already have a site that addresses these needs?
What results do I want to see?
How am I going to achieve these goals?
What does success look like?

#2: Customer

Who is my Target Audience?
Address:
Who is the target audience?
Is there another community out there that fits these needs (competitor/partner?)
Do I partner or do I create my own community?
What is my differentiator & how do I create that (is there one of value)?

Who is Your Customer?
Customers are different than “target audience.”
Figuring out your site customer involves segmenting the target audience
Both of these audiences require different types of content and different types of websites and communication mechanisms

How do I Segment my Audience?
Less is More:
Tips and Tactics (on the cheap)
Look at competitor sites.
Data is available on lots of different websites for free or a fraction of the cost of analyst reports/DevTrackers
Scouring public blogs, wikis, research sites
Sometimes analysts offer up free reports
Talking to people in the industry

#3: Content

Content: At the Core of Websites
Why Content is so Important:
Content is KING
Good content is absolutely critical; poor content means you’ll lose customers (no repeat visitors)
Helps new users or current customers learn about news, new products & information critical
Important in helping customers build out their skill set
Core way to get developers plugged in/bought in.

What Content is Good?
What is Good Content?
Less is More (Good Content v Bad Content)
Developer websites need code
Interactive content is good (but keep it short & to the point)
Short Videos
Learning tutorials
Demos
Step by step articles/how to
Interviews with the experts
Blogs
Syndication

How to Get Good Content
Tips & Tricks (on the cheap):
Have a volunteer Editor
Ensure you have company buy-in; ask engineers/product managers to contribute
Ask the community to contribute
Syndication deals
Search for good bloggers
How do I ensure it’s good?
Commenting
Rating ability
Provide editor’s email address (be accessible)

Once You Get the Content
Information Architecture is Critical

#4 Community

Characteristics of Great Community Sites
Great mechanisms for conversation
Allow for feedback & bi-directional conversations
Employees listen & react
Voting/commenting/rating abilities
Clean UI/easy to use
User Contribution is high
Useful information & code samples

Trying to On Ramp To Our Stuff – Where Do You Start?
How do I onboard the community?

How do I Start to get Noticed?
Real World Example (www.microsoft.com/web)

SEO SEOSEO
Works on both
Windows & Linux Sites!
www.microsoft.com/web/downloads
Microsoft SEO Toolkit

#5: Connect

Listen
Listen
Critical to have an outlet for community and customers to provide feedback & ask questions
Newsgroups
Comments sections
Phone number
Email aliases
A real Person

Respond
People & communities want answers to their questions & comments.
Provide access to real people
Increases customer relationship & stickiness to community
Respond in public if possible; likely other community members have the same questions

Audience Connection Methods
Pick your methods of communication
Ensure it scales
Make it easy to remember/access/push method: user names, links, RSS, ATOM
Commitment
Be Patient

Provide Personalities
Provide Interesting Facts/Tidbits/ Information
What are you doing?
Be polite and respectful
Take time to respond
Be relevant; be credible
HAVE PASSION!

Core Takeaways

Questions?

Lauren Cooney Web Platform & Standards, MicrosoftFollow me on Twitter: @lcooneyEmail me: lcooney@microsoft.com
Thank You!

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Web2Expo NY 2009 Presentation

by Lauren Cooney on Dec 10, 2009

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