What are some reasons for a company to have a developer-oriented blog?

Question

I'd like to put together a public-facing company-wide developer blog. I like what companies like Flickr, Panic, and AtomicObject are doing with their blogs, but I'm having a hard time putting in words why they are good for the company.

What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

Is this a public-facing blog or internal? I would argue for these benefits:

1. Lets your users know that your devs actually care about the software (or at least gives that impression - don't mention this part).
2. Provides code snippets, how-tos, and tutorials which may avoid wheel-reinventions.
3. Can be used to outline upcoming features or significant fixes/improvements.

Answer 2

If it's a public-facing blog, then it's all about the insight (or as Alex mentioned the perceived insight) into the developer's activities. For example, it's less frustrating for a user to know that a developer is hammering away at a bug, as opposed to complete radio silence while work is being done on it. Another major benefit is that the blogs can be used to release news (about new features, new ideas, events, etc) in a way that feels more natural to the reader than an all-out press release or something of that sort. It all just adds up to giving the reader "insight" to what goes on "behind the scenes."