Wonder

Log in

Research Outline

Prepared for Mike S. | Delivered February 11, 2021

Top Content Platforms for US Computer Programmers

Goals

To determine the most popular content platforms for US-based computer programmers aged 18 to 26. This should include creating a list of the most popular content based social platforms of the target audience, the approximate size of the reachable audience, average time spent on the platform, and the frequency of use. This research will inform a decision as to which platform is chosen to build an online community.

Early Findings

Content-Based Online Community

  • There are a range of different community platforms that host content. They can be free or owned. Examples of free platforms include Facebook and Twitter.
  •  Owned platforms offer some advantages over the free platforms as they provide greater control over the community. This means owners can more easily personalize them to meet their requirements, making it easier for brands to develop their own identity on the platform.

Popular Online Communities

  • A review of online communities for computer programmers found the following communities popular among programmers:
    • Women Who Code;
    • Hashnode;
    • freeCodeCamp;
    • StackOverflow;
    • HackerNews;
    • Hackernoon;
    • SitePoint Community;
    • Kaggle;
    • Indie Hackers; and
    • Code Newbie.

Summary

  • We have had some difficulty locating the required information. The question related to content platforms that were most popular among the identified audience, the purpose being to build a community on the platform. We have assumed that what was being looked for was the platform that is hosting the online communities. In these instances, there is very little information available regarding the audience using the platform, which depends on the communities built on the platform.
  • Given this, we have identified six online content platforms that may meet requirements. We have entered them into the attached spreadsheet. As we have not had the opportunity to evaluate them in our first hour of research properly, not all of them may be appropriate. We have begun to enter data for one of the platforms.
  • Given that the demographic and audience information were not readily available, we have expanded the brief to include different elements that may help assess whether the platform is a good fit. We suggest continuing research along these lines; while we will attempt to locate the required demographic and audience information, we do not believe it will be available to the degree of specificity needed. If audience information is available, it would be general in nature.