Social media for a software company – harder than you think

Five years ago I started at xappido. Back then, a lot of it was trial and error.

Not only for me. For the whole team as well.

Because how do you actually bring software development onto social media?

And more importantly: how do you get developers in front of a camera at all?

At the beginning it took trust above all

At the beginning it was often about very simple questions:

Who will even take part in a video? Who volunteers to say something on camera? What feels authentic – and what does not?

Because many people in a software company are not usually in the spotlight. They develop. They analyse. They solve problems. But they do not speak into a video camera every day.

Which is exactly why one thing mattered above all: trust. Trust that you are allowed to try something out. That not every sentence has to be perfect. And that at the end someone will make something of it that still feels real.

From the first shoot to a practised routine

Today many shoots are quick and straightforward. We are a well-practised team by now. Videos often come about spontaneously between meetings, development work or a coffee in the kitchen. Not always perfect, of course. But that is precisely what often makes social media more credible today than glossy advertising. And even so, a lot of it keeps moving.

New formats. New ideas. New platforms. New expectations. And for some time now, of course, AI.

AI changes content, but personality remains decisive

AI in particular has changed the world of content and marketing enormously. Ideas come faster. Text, images and video can be produced more easily. At first glance much of it looks professional. But that is exactly why something else suddenly matters even more: personality.

Because there is more than enough interchangeable content by now. What really interests people is people.

Making software visible is harder than many think

And in a software company that is often harder than many think. Software cannot simply be photographed like a product, a meal or a hotel room. In the end you usually see only this: a platform, a customer portal or a new feature. What you do not see: the conversations behind it. The ideas. The discussions. The small details. The people who work on solutions for days.

Not only our work, but the people behind it

So at xappido we try to make not only our work visible, but above all the people behind it. Developers. Project managers. Personalities. Teams. Real thoughts and real challenges.

Because good software does not simply come out of code. It comes out of collaboration, trust and a great many people working on solutions together. And making exactly that visible is, for me, the most interesting part of social media in a software company today.

What I have learned after five years

After five years I know this: for us, social media does not simply mean “producing content”.

It means explaining complex subjects in a way people understand. Trying new things again and again. Making visible the people who would rather work in the background. And working out together what really suits our team. Or, put simply:

Making software visible without losing the people behind it.