What Are Office Hours and Why Do They Matter?

Office hours are dedicated time slots where developers can hop on a call or join a chat to ask questions, report issues, or discuss upcoming features with your DevRel team. This format stands in contrast to the traditional ticketing or forum-based systems which are often impersonal and slow. Holding regular office hours signals that your team is available, approachable, and committed to engaging directly with users.

More importantly, office hours give voice to the community. These informal sessions can help detect pain points early, build rapport with power users, and gather insightful feedback—often before it’s even submitted through official channels.

At Social Strudel we’ve seen how this method becomes especially powerful when combined with targeted communication across our integrated platforms including Slack, Discord, LinkedIn, and even Twitter. A well-promoted office hour session via Instagram Stories or Facebook Posts can dramatically increase attendance and visibility.

Level Up With Sample App Walkthroughs

Imagine you’re about to launch a new SDK or add a significant update to your API. Dropping documentation into your repository is just the first step. Ambitious developers want more than a “Hello World.” They want to see it in action.

That’s where sample apps come in.

By offering detailed, working examples that showcase real-world use cases, your DevRel team can communicate both the power and the simplicity of your tools. Want to show off your latest cloud functions? Build a to-do list app with smart notifications that integrates seamlessly with platforms like Zapier or GitHub Actions. Thinking about flutter support? Create a mobile app that interacts with Firebase through your SDK.

Even better, walkthroughs of sample apps during office hours or posted on platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, or TikTok can break down these example projects piece by piece. Done right, walkthroughs can bring a deeper understanding and faster time-to-value for your developer community.

SDK Change Logs: Make It Digestible

On their own, change logs might not be the glittering star of your DevRel efforts. But like coffee and documentation, developers depend on them. The challenge is making them digestible and actionable.

DevRel teams can incorporate SDK change log reviews into office hour sessions. Think of this as a mini roadmap in real-time, where developers not only see what has changed but also learn why and how it impacts their apps. Use this opportunity to demystify breaking changes and demo new helper methods. Align your explanations with short demo clips across TikTok, Twitter, or Instagram Reels for quick consumption.

Social Strudel supports content publishing across all major platforms, allowing your DevRel content to meet developers where they already are. A three-part change log series via LinkedIn articles? A TikTok explainer video for beginners? Absolutely.

Issue Triage: Show You’re Listening

Triage doesn’t have to be just another internal meeting. Bringing light triage discussions into public office hours can show the community you’re serious about listening.

Use the time to walk through community-submitted GitHub issues. Show transparency about prioritization. Let developers know which bugs are critical and which have workarounds. It’s a humanizing experience, and it creates a sense of collaboration between your team and your users.

Social Strudel can help amplify these efforts. By distributing recaps and issue updates to email subscribers, Slack communities, LinkedIn followers, and Discord channels, your triage meetings don’t have to stay behind the scenes. They become active engagement.

Roadmap Previews: Generate Excitement, Foster Feedback

Despite everyone’s best efforts to keep things lean and agile, developers crave roadmaps. They help them plan. They stir excitement. They create anticipation.

Previewing upcoming features, SDK improvements, or even documentation overhauls provides a huge opportunity during office hours. These previews give your community something to look forward to. They also open a feedback loop that helps you validate your plans.

Make it multimedia. Record roadmap walkthroughs and share them on your YouTube channel. Draft sneak peek posts for LinkedIn, Substack, or via your developer newsletter. Social Strudel helps you plan and format all this content across multiple social platforms. This means more awareness and more feedback from all corners of your audience.

Conference Recaps: Capture the Moment, Replay the Learnings

You send your team to major developer conferences—but what happens when they return? Instead of just uploading slides and calling it a day, use conference recaps as an engagement tool. Schedule a special session during office hours to present the key themes, new tech trends, and relevant tools that developers may have missed.

Record your recap session and cross-post it on LinkedIn Video, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok—each tailored for its specific audience. With Social Strudel, you can automate snippets of the session across platforms like Facebook and Instagram. This helps your conference presence live well beyond the final keynote.

Include a “favorite tools of the conference” highlight in your Discord or Slack channels. Tag partner companies and keynote speakers to expand your visibility even further.

Gamifying Engagement: Badges, Swag, and Conference Passes

To foster ongoing engagement, rewards can play a crucial role. By showing up to an office hour, contributing to GitHub, submitting bug fixes, or helping answer community questions, developers can earn recognition.

Social Strudel allows you to manage these campaigns across platforms using a unified dashboard. For instance:

– Grant exclusive digital badges for those who attend 3 office hours in a quarter
– Qualify contributors for exclusive swag drops (hoodies, mugs, or even custom emojis)
– Host contests for “best sample app built using SDK 2.4” and reward winners with a conference pass

This type of recognition is not just flashy—it nurtures long-term advocacy and loyalty. Plus, when developers post about their rewards on platforms like Facebook or Twitter, your reach grows organically.

Unlock DevRel’s Potential with Social Strudel

The best DevRel teams don’t just communicate—they connect. Through office hours, sample apps, and transparent practices, you can build a developer community that is loyal, informed, and passionate about the tools you offer.

Social Strudel makes these efforts go further. Plan, promote, execute, and repurpose your DevRel content across all your integrated platforms from one place. Facebook group event? Check. TikTok walkthrough teaser? Check. LinkedIn roadmap post series? We’ve got you covered.

Migrate from Ad-Hoc Engagement to Strategy-Driven Connection

DevRel is more than just documentation. It is demos, conversations, real roadmaps, and genuine partnerships. Give your developers the touchpoints they need to succeed, and let Social Strudel help you share the journey across every digital stage.