I can spend a whole day debugging a data issue without losing focus. Ask me to go post about it afterward, and I’ll suddenly find a reason to do it tomorrow.
Writing code, solving problems, talking to customers, shipping features – those are things I genuinely enjoy. Marketing has always felt like a completely different skill set, one that sits outside the headspace where I do my best work.
Like many founders, I spent most of my time focused on the product. I had actually quit my job to work on Chartsy full-time, which meant I couldn’t avoid marketing anymore. There wasn’t a marketing team waiting in the background. If I wanted people to discover the product, that responsibility fell on me.
At the time, I was completely focused on making Chartsy better every week. Every time I spoke with a customer or noticed a gap in the product, I’d come up with another feature I wanted to build. Most of them revolved around helping founders better understand their MRR, churn, retention, and overall business growth.
The problem was that after shipping those features, I’d tell myself I needed to write about them, and then somehow never got around to it.
The funny thing is that writing the content was never the issue. I actually enjoy sharing updates, lessons learned, and the occasional behind-the-scenes look at building a SaaS. What I didn’t enjoy was everything that came afterward. I’d post on LinkedIn, then think about Twitter, then Facebook, then somewhere else. By the time I was done, I’d spent more time distributing the update than writing it, and whatever momentum I had for building was gone.
There were weeks when I had multiple Chartsy updates worth sharing, but I didn’t post any because I didn’t want to repeat the routine.
That’s where Publer entered the picture.
Turning Marketing Into a Weekly Habit
These days, I usually spend a couple of hours every Monday morning preparing content for the week. Product updates, customer stories, lessons learned, random observations from building Chartsy, schedule everything at once, and move on.
After that, I can go back to working on the product without constantly wondering whether I should be posting something.
The schedule takes care of itself, but I still spend plenty of time on LinkedIn and Twitter. I reply to comments, talk with founders, answer questions, and occasionally disappear into a discussion about SaaS metrics that lasts far longer than it should.
Some of those conversations have turned into customers. Others have turned into product ideas. A few have been genuinely interesting conversations with people building similar businesses.
Publer handles the repetitive part. I still get to do the human part.
Being Everywhere Without Feeling Like It
Every time I released a feature in Chartsy, I felt like I needed to share it everywhere. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and whatever other platform I had convinced myself I should be active on.
None of those tasks was difficult. The problem was doing the same thing over and over again.
I’d write the update, publish it somewhere, switch tabs, publish it somewhere else, tweak the formatting, upload the image again, and repeat the process a few more times. It wasn’t enough work to complain about, but it was enough work to procrastinate.
With Publer, I write the update once and publish it across all my platforms.
Looking back, a lot of the updates I never shared weren’t because I didn’t want to market Chartsy. I just didn’t want to repeat the same task five times.
Analytics That Actually Changed What I Post
Given that I build analytics software for a living, it’s not exactly shocking that Publer’s analytics ended up being my favorite part.
A big part of building Chartsy involves helping SaaS founders understand where growth is coming from, where revenue is leaking, and how metrics like MRR, ARR, churn, retention, and customer lifetime value relate to each other. Once you can clearly see what’s happening behind the numbers, decisions become much easier.
I ended up approaching social media the same way.
One thing I noticed fairly quickly was that posts with images consistently performed better than text-only posts. I had already suspected that, but seeing it repeatedly in the analytics changed how I create content.
The audience insights were useful too. Being able to see the age groups and gender breakdown of the people engaging with my content gave me a better understanding of who was actually paying attention to my posts. It’s easy to assume you know your audience, but seeing the data laid out in front of you is different.
I’ve also found myself relying on the suggested posting times more than I expected. It’s one less decision to make, which is always welcome.
Final Thoughts
Since adding Publer to my workflow, I’ve been a lot more consistent with social media while still building Chartsy full-time.
The posts go out. Product updates get shared. People know what I’m working on.
More importantly, social media doesn’t sit in the back of my mind all day anymore.
I still spend time talking with founders online, but now it’s because I want to join the conversation, not because I’m worried I haven’t posted anything recently.
That’s probably the biggest thing Publer changed for me.
Get Started With Publer For Free!
Or upgrade your plan for as low as $5/month!
Free trial included!
Ervin Kalemi
