We are absolutely delighted to introduce our exceptional guest, Eleftheria Batsou, as a distinguished addition to our esteemed Champ Life Series. Eleftheria serves as the Community Manager at CrabNebula and stands as a significant content creator on Twitter.
We’ve curated a compelling set of questions for Eleftheria to delve into her remarkable journey and the many milestones she has achieved
As the Community Manager at CrabNebula, how do you effectively engage and nurture a thriving developer community?
As the Community Manager at CrabNebula, my approach to effectively engaging and nurturing a thriving developer community involves a multifaceted strategy that prioritises communication, collaboration, and empowerment.
Active Listening: First and foremost, I make it a priority to actively listen to our community members. This means monitoring our social media (X, LinkedIn, and Mastodon) and blogging platforms (Medium, DevTo, and Hashnode) to understand their needs, concerns, and suggestions.
Clear Communication: Clear and consistent communication is essential. My team and I are using blog posts, and social media to spread awareness about the Company, Rust, Tauri, and other elements that are important to us like 1-on-1 meetings, and working 4 days per week!
Empowerment: I believe in empowering our community members to become advocates and contributors. Through social media and blog posts we offer resources and tutorials to help them succeed (mainly in the fields of Rust and Tauri). We also support open-source projects and other initiatives that align with our goals. You can read more about it here.
Internal Evaluation: My strategy is not static. My team and I regularly evaluate our approach, gather feedback, and adjust our tactics as needed to ensure we’re meeting our evolving needs.
In summary, building and maintaining a thriving developer community at CrabNebula is a dynamic process that relies on active listening, open communication, empowerment, and a commitment to mutual growth
Could you share some insights into the importance of developer relations (devrel) in fostering a strong developer community and driving the adoption of new technologies?
Absolutely, fostering a strong developer community and driving the adoption of new technologies heavily relies on effective Developer Relations (DevRel). DevRel plays a vital role in several key aspects:
Building Relationships: DevRel builds bridges between the developer community and the company. By nurturing genuine relationships and fostering trust, it creates a sense of belonging and partnership.
Understanding Community Needs: DevRel professionals are often the first point of contact with the community. They gather feedback, understand pain points, and relay this information to the development teams. This insight helps in tailoring the product to meet actual user needs.
Advocacy and Evangelism: DevRel advocates for the company and its technologies. They create awareness, share success stories, and demonstrate the value of using the company’s products. This advocacy is pivotal in attracting and retaining developers.
Education and Support: DevRel provides educational content, tutorials, workshops, and support to the community. This helps developers in effectively using the company’s technologies, making them more likely to adopt and continue using them.
Feedback Loop for Product Improvement: Through DevRel efforts, companies receive immediate and direct feedback from developers. This feedback loop is crucial for iterating products, fixing bugs, and adding features that align with the community’s expectations.
Community Growth and Collaboration: DevRel fosters collaboration within the community. By organising events, meetups, and forums, it creates a space for developers to interact, share knowledge, and collaborate on projects, thus expanding the community.
Influencer Engagement: DevRel often involves engaging with influential developers. Their endorsement and feedback can significantly impact the community’s perception and adoption of new technologies.
DevRel is the linchpin for building a robust developer community. It nurtures relationships, facilitates communication, understands needs, educates, and acts as a feedback conduit. Ultimately, this engagement accelerates technology adoption and ensures a thriving developer ecosystem.
As a content creator, what inspired you to start sharing your knowledge and experiences through various mediums such as blogging, videos, and public speaking?
I started as a “learner” and I want to believe that I still am. My first posts on social media were on X and they were about the challenge #100daysofcode. Every day I was coding and wanted to show to the world what I was doing. As I got more comfortable with that, and started implementing bigger coding projects, I realised I wanted to write about them (so I created my first account on a blogging platform) and show how I coded them (and that’s how I started creating videos).
As far as public speaking is concerned, I recently wrote an article about where I share how I started.
I’m general, I like learning new things, and I find it very important to share with the tech community. So that’s how I keep doing it!
Being a public speaker, what topics do you enjoy discussing the most, and how do you prepare to deliver engaging and informative talks?
There are two kinds of topics I like to talk about: motivational/career guidance and UX, UI-related topics. In both cases, my preparation starts with a good amount of research! I need to understand something well before I talk about it. Sometimes, I’ll even go to social media and ask related questions about my topics so I can better understand what other people think about them.
To make sure I have an engaging talk, I’ll include in my presentation images, gifs, funny memes, quotes, and short text but I’ll also try to engage with the audience by asking them questions, maybe trying to make them laugh, etc! I also always leave my social media links and email so the audience can easily reach me.
What are some of the challenges you’ve faced while creating content and collaborating with others? How do you overcome these challenges?
It depends if I’m creating content for my personal brand or for a company. I’ll start from the latter: When creating content for a company it’s important to always keep in mind that you’re representing the voice of the company (and not yourself). One good practice is to ask for reviews, but the challenge comes with who will review your content and how time-efficient it can be?! I’d suggest for these cases to keep a calendar with your content and ask in advance your team members for reviews!
When I’m creating content for my personal brand, things are a bit easier, but the audience can “judge” your content more harshly! Through the years I learned to receive feedback and adjust my content accordingly. I try to stay away from controversial issues and be as transparent as possible.
Could you share some of your favorite projects or initiatives you’ve worked on that have had a significant impact on the developer community?
I’m most proud of the talk I gave many years ago about #100DaysOfCode at the Umbraco Conference that was republished in FreeCodeCamp’s Youtube channel.
The reason I’m more proud about that and feel it has a significant impact on the developer’s community is because even today, after so many years, I receive messages from people saying that my talk inspired them to start the challenge and now they have a portfolio, feel more comfortable with GitHub and even got an internship/job.
How do you stay up to date with the latest trends and advancements in coding, CSS, and technology? Are there specific resources or communities you find particularly valuable?
I daily read online magazines and blogs, and I also daily browse X, which is a great resource for finding trendy topics and staying up-to-date. I also have a couple of YT channels that as soon as they publish a new video I’ll watch it!
Looking ahead, what exciting projects or goals are you currently pursuing, and what impact do you hope to make in the developer community in the coming years?
Professionally wise, I aspire to keep working as a community manager and more specifically, keep working on the company I am today (CrabNebula). We have a lot of exciting news to share and I want to be part of them! My goals are to keep sharing valuable content on social media and on blogs and also increase awareness as well as create a big community around my company’s products.
As for myself and my personal brand, I wish to keep sharing interesting things about web and app development, career advice and devrel! My plans are to collaborate with more people and companies and keep helping devs through my mentorship portal.
Concluding our session! We want to say Thank you Eleftheria Batsou for generously sharing her time and for imparting her stories and valuable experiences to our esteemed audience of champions.
