Good bye Buffer. I knew you so well. I relied on you a lot to schedule my many posts that I created each and every day.

But as the weeks have gone by, I’ve learned a lot of things about third party apps and about platforms in general.

Things are meant to be difficult.

This isn’t me complaining at all about some of the changes that are being made on social media and on other platforms. I think by this point I’ve made my stance pretty clear where I stand on that with posts like these ones:

I see these changes as more like puzzles that need to be solved than anything else.

But it doesn’t answer how much it actually takes for us to be thriving on social media. Or thriving on any kind of platform in this day and age.

I’ve proposed solutions as simple as making conversation with people. As I’ve outlined in those posts it’s clear to see that a strategy of conversing with people, but having time away from social media is something that can help us.

But how many conversations should we have?

What should we be talking about?

What should we get from those conversations?

How long should we take breaks for?

The answer to all of that is I don’t know. As much as it’ll take for you to grow, get a good strategy, and can get your audience moving in the way you want them.

But I can tell you the solution isn’t to sit and complain about systems changing — even if it sets you back a lot. It’s important to look at the bigger picture.

Think about the companies that supply these third party platforms. Not just their end users.

They’re probably royally fucked and need to overhaul their entire system or close shop and vanish into obscurity.

The thing is, we’ve all been down this road before. It’s the path that we’ve taken to get to where we are right now. In the end, there are no distinct winners of this game and the rules are constantly changing.

What it takes to thrive on social media is a lot. It’s demanding. And the third party options are starting to become quite limited as well. A lot of us can’t rely on automation any longer.

Sure it’s a bummer for people who need it due to their several businesses that they are juggling, but I don’t think it’s as necessary as people might think.

As much as content is important, so too is being human and taking a break. Moving away from social media for a few hours, or even a day. In a sense, the shifts in these platforms have allowed us a better opportunity to move away from being constantly on the platform.

And sure third party apps were built to facilitate that, but it still feels processed. It’s hard to explain.

Regardless, what it takes is a lot and this is merely a test to see who is going to make it through and who will trail behind.

Call to action