Why do software developers need social media?

This may come as a surprise to developers, but social media is crucial to the software you write, which is crucial to social media. Are we confused yet?

Let me explain.

Say, for example, your company sells software that enables users to upload pictures to Flickr. You can select as many images as you like, tag them, and upload them to your Flickr account. You’ve released the latest version, people get to your site because they are looking for a tool to upload their images to Flickr, and all of a sudden you have 3,000 people using FlickrMeister (dibs on the name!). And people start commenting on Twitter.
“Why isn’t there a keyboard shortcut to upload? #Flickr #tool”
“Add face recognition, so I don’t have to work so hard #newfeature”
“I want to change the default colour scheme – where do I do that? #addthis”

This is what kicks off Social Media Marketing.

In the old days – 3 years ago, but that’s eons in Internet-time – the software would be checked by QA, who would give you helpful hints on what users might prefer, and then it would be released into the wild. MAYBE you would have had a control group look at your product after 6 months, and they would tell you what they think is missing. It’s possible that you would get feedback from your users via email, and possibly implement some features, based on your ideas. But today? Your customers are talking to you immediately, letting you know what they want, what is missing. Twitter, Facebook pages, blogs, user groups – you name it, your users are there, talking about you.

Of course, it’s still up to you to decide how to react. You can’t develop every single feature that users want, and sometimes, don’t want to – translate all the interface to lolcatz, for example – but this is an excellent place to engage your users. Blog about the features that people want, maybe have a poll or three to see how popular a feature will make your software. See if people are willing to pay to have that feature added. Create a Facebook group for (or against!) and see how your users and customers react. The bottom line is, the more you listen to your users, the better you will be able to adapt your software and respond in kind – either with a polite “this feature may be implemented later”, or with an excited “that’s an amazing idea! we’ll get right on it!”.

“OK”, I hear you ask, “I understand why social media is crucial to software, but why is software crucial to social media?”

It’s simple – almost every software today helps its users to connect, both to the company and to each other. The FlickrMeister updates your Facebook profile every time you upload a new photo, your friends are notified every time they are tagged in a photo, and every user that downloads the software can join the forums and join in the conversation. Today, good software provides users with the ways and means to continue the socialisation, even when they aren’t actually on Twitter, or with Facebook open. Take a look at Picassa or this iPhone application to learn about genetics they don’t HAVE to have the social sharing option to work – but they do.

Because today, EVERYTHING is about social networking, and social media, which is good for business, of course. Once, you had to work hard to introduce a viral element into your software, if you wanted more and more people to use it. Today, you just add the social element – and each user’s entire network of family, friends and colleagues can see your software being used.

In other words, your software is being promoted for free. And you can’t beat free.

So the next two things on your list should be:

What are you waiting for?