Overall Satisfaction with IFTTT
I use IFTTT and manage its use by my clients, mostly as a secondary level of Social Media publication automation. It is used by clients' marketing/media/content departments, but as a whole by myself. The business problems it addresses are how to connect Social Media and other off-site platforms to mainly trigger as a result of content published otherwise by Buffer app. Not all of Buffer, especially its free version, provides the reach a brand can achieve by simply using a single platform (I usually use Twitter) to trigger other relevant platforms with automated, scheduled publishing.
- It connects/triggers non-Buffer platforms such as Diigo, Blogger, Medium, Digg and Tumblr.
- From a Social Media standpoint, this is a strength as it mitigates the time and energy otherwise spent manually publishing to each.
- The biggest hurdle is how the "recipes" occasionally fail. Sometimes they don't trigger for days or weeks, so you have to monitor all recipes, checking them to make sure they're active still. Otherwise, you have to check the platforms themselves, which is a good idea, regardless, but for the purpose of automation, when a recipe stops or even pauses, your content is not published, nor are you notified.
- I believe a lot of this issue stems from the fact that users create so many recipes. I would recommend IFTTT vet all recipes, like Google Play vets apps, to assure any solutions users might employ will always work as advertised.
- The ROI, for my uses and those of my clients, is obvious. The less time you spend on content publishing across multiple platforms results in direct ROI from the time you saved.
- Buffer
Compared to Buffer, IFTTT has a far greater reach and scope, across numerous Social and off-site platforms. If you work in SEO, Content, or marketing in general, marrying IFTTT with Buffer will provide functionality you otherwise pay for.