UX & Product Designer

Chi Wai Li



Work I've done

Buffer, please tell me I am wrong. I want to give you my money



I really like Buffer, what they do is pretty neat, it saves me from geek spamming everyone continuously on stuff which I personally find interesting. I find it so useful, I have installed the browser extension on all my computer, have the app on my phone and on my Nexus 7 tablet. The analytics they can provide is also very handy for marketers and social media specialists.
The Buffer team blog is also pretty darn awesome, I regularly read interesting post from the founders Joel and Leo as they discuss productivity, running a multimillion dollar business and experimenting in everything -I highly recommend it.
However, I haven’t gone as far as paying yet, that would be the ultimate vote of confidence as a consumer. There are some apps/SAAS I have tested are happily pulling out my wallet out for, such as Dropbox Google Drive, LastPass and Evernote. I just cannot work without them, Google Drive allows me to continue working from anywhere, Lastpass saves me from remember a million passwords while Evernote is pretty much my external brain, i have so many ideas and thoughts there. More on what I recommend regarding workflow and productivity can be found in a previous post.
The reason why I am holding back from paying Buffer $8.50 USD a month, is because I suspect posts made via buffer doesn’t appear as regularly on facebook as original facebook posts. I REALLY hope I am wrong, (Buffer, please tell me I am wrong) A good sign is that when I tried Googling about this, I couldn’t find anything, all the results are singing perfectly understandable praises on this fantastic app. So, naturally I did a few quick experiments.

Experiments

I would first try posting a post via one platform (FB directly or via buffer) see how many response I get and after a few days, I would post it again using the other platform and see how many interactions I would get in return:

Example

I posted a cool plate art article on facebook. First by using the Buffer extension, then 2 days later directly via facebook at the same time of the day, this is an example of the result I would get:

Via Buffer extension, using Post Now – 0 interactions
Via direct post 2 days later – 5 likes in 8 minutes

Result?

By no means can this be considered as proof that buffer doesn’t work. But it is a slight nudge in the wrong direction (I also have plenty of posts that had zero interactions via both platforms – goes to show how geeky or unpopular I am). I am fully aware since I am repeating myself the whichever platform I use last would have an unfair disadvantage. I’ve also been testing with very few posts and as well as only having a relatively small following on Facebook (639 friends and 29 followers). There is always a chance that facebook and/or buffer might be testing different algorithms for different users. Please also bear in my I am using Buffer as as a user and not a facebook page, this might again change how posts appears. After all, facebook does want to make money by asking you to use sponsored posts as much as possible. 
I wanted to write this post because I want to see if anyone has experienced this, I really hope I’m wrong because I do like Buffer. So please don’t forget It still works great for Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ PAGES. For one last time I wish to stress how much I hope I am wrong, I want facebook and buffer to work well together, when I am convince of that, I would happily give my money to the awesome peeps of Buffer. So, could someone please tell me I am wrong.