Software Developers - how can they be reached (as users) : best practices?

Building a product can be tough and fun if you are lucky. But what happens after that?

Getting your first users can be very insightful as it is the first time (not entirely true since you might have spoken to users before) that you get feedback on your site, your value prop, and you see the very first users actually USING your platform.

Where do you get these users? Everywhere. Of course it depends on whether you are a b2b or b2c product but basically you get your friends to use it and spread the word. Or you run some ads. Or you run some social campaigns. And much more.

But what if this audience is developers? Whoever builds a product for them thinking that the traditional go to market approaches will work as expected , I ve got some bad news :).

What I am experimenting with (at the latest product I am launching) is:

1. Paid ads (I have selected ethical ads) for the first campaign. These folks show minimalistic ads to developer focused sites. You then baidcally pay per 1000.impressions.

2. Documentations articlesz guides that imwill post on dev.to, and other developer focused communities. Building expertise and engaging in discussions, learning etc.

3. Social media : not convinced that this is the best route but I am targeting on focusing on twitter.

4. Engage with start ups and engineering managers with influence inside a company.

What is your experience ? Where would you focus as a creator/marketer and how would you like to learn about new tools (as a developer)?

Cheers and thanks in advance for all the comments and ideas.