Community Response Guidelines for Developer Communities

One important part of managing developer community is to engage and respond to your community members in a way that provides value.

When replying to community posts in communities I manage, I use the following guidelines:

• Respond within 24 hours
• Be kind
• Put yourself in their shoes
• Add some type of value, especially before you ask anything of them

Response recommendations

Here are my top tips for how to respond to questions and comments in your developer community.

Address the person by name

Hello, _______, …..

Introduce them to fellow community members that can provide value

Helping your community members build their networks is a huge value add that will build trust with them and keep them coming back to your community.

Link to other applicable threads, blog content, or documentation that will help

Someone else is bound to find this post in search results, so make sure the answer is somewhere that is being updated and will be available for years to come.

Solve the problem

Mostly importantly, solve the problem. If you don't have the answer, tag someone into the conversation that does. Review their history to be sure you are not sending solutions they have already tried.

Ask for an update

You want this conversation to continue because you want them to come back to your community. Ask for an update or leave a CTA of some kind to further their engagement.

Shout out to Richard Millington from Fever Bee who presented a session on similar content and a great example, inspiring me to begin leveraging these guidelines years ago. They've been incredibly valuable!

This article was originally posted on Devocate, which joined the Common Room family in August 2022. For more developer relations insights and resources, check out the Common Room blog. Learn more about Common Room’s solution for DevRel teams if you're looking for an intelligent community growth platform to educate, empower, and enable your community.