Many people use Buffer as a tool to automate the process of sharing links to social networks. I even used it for a while to do this. I have no complaints with the Buffer product. It's reliable and user friendly. A couple of weeks ago though I decided to cancel my subscription with them. There's a number of reasons why I did this.

Limited value in sharing

One of Buffer's unique selling points is that it automates the step of sharing a link at a specific date and time. This allows you to queue links to your social media accounts so that you gradually share these links over a period of time. Recently though I've started to question the value in regularly sharing other people's links on social media.

My preferred programming language is Ruby. I already subscribe to a number of blogs, podcasts and newsletters about this language and the Ruby on Rails web framework. As a web developer I see the value in consuming these links for myself but I don't see the value in sharing these links on social media. There's already a good content funnel for digesting these links, other developers just need to find it.

I do share the odd link every now and again but not at the volume that warrants my use of Buffer.

Better analytics with Twitter

When Buffer first started one of its unique selling points is that it has analytics on the links that you shared to your social networks. I can't say how good these are for other social networks, but the analytics on Twitter links are good.

Recently though I've added the analytics on both of these accounts and I've found them to be more informative than what Buffer has to offer as Twitter's analytics cover more than just clicks. I'm not religious about my analytics but once a month I'll check them to see if there was anything that received significantly more clicks.

Minimal social media footprint

I've got two accounts on Twitter that I use. One is my own account and the other is for my freelancing business. With just two accounts to manage and the fact I only use one account for sharing links on a frequent basis, I can't see the point in using Buffer for queuing up links when I can easily do it on my own.

Buffer is a useful tool if you have a content sharing funnel that needs regular updates to your social media accounts, but as I'm running just a freelancing business and regularly post in my own links to my blog, I don't see the value in having a Buffer account, even if it is just the free account. The benefit to this is that I've got one less account to worry about.