Tool or spreadsheet: when it makes sense to switch
It is worth saying this on a tool's blog: for plenty of people, a spreadsheet is enough. And it is worth saying where it stops being enough, without inventing urgency.
What a spreadsheet does well
Holding day, network, theme and text in a grid. That is eighty per cent of the problem, costs nothing and works offline. Whoever publishes twice a week on one network probably needs nothing more.
Switching tools before the spreadsheet hurts is trading the problem for a subscription.
Where it breaks
Four points, all recognisable when they happen.
- When you have to copy everything somewhere else to publish.
- When there are two or three networks and the text changes on each.
- When someone else needs to approve before it goes out.
- When you want to know what worked and the spreadsheet has no idea.
The question is what you gain, not what you get
Every tool has a long feature list. The useful question is different: how many hours a month does this save, and what is your hour worth? If it saves no hours and prevents no missed posts, it does not pay off however pretty it is.
And the maths changes over time. What did not pay off at one post a week usually pays off at three posts and two networks.
What no tool changes
Deciding what to say and knowing your customer. No tool solves that, and whoever switches tools looking for it switches again in three months.
The right tool takes the mechanical work out of the way. The thinking stays yours, and that is what makes the difference between two accounts in the same trade.
If the spreadsheet does not hurt yet, keep it. When it does, what you are looking for is what puts text, calendar and publishing in one place.