Social media software should be evaluated as an operating system, not a scheduler. The biggest costs often occur outside the calendar: collecting ideas, adapting formats, obtaining approval, managing comments, and proving what happened.
Score six workflows
- Planning: Can the team see themes, campaigns, gaps, and ownership?
- Creation: Can one source idea become network-appropriate drafts without losing brand context?
- Approval: Are comments, revisions, status, and accountability visible?
- Publishing: Are supported formats and account limits sufficient for the real calendar?
- Engagement: Can the team respond without constantly switching products?
- Learning: Does reporting change the next content decision?
Use a five-point score for each workflow and add the actual monthly cost at your account, user, and reporting requirements.
Include the cost of workarounds
A lower subscription can be more expensive if approvals still happen in chat, reports require spreadsheets, or the team maintains a separate content database. Record every external workaround during the test.
Treat AI as workflow compression
Count AI as useful only when it reduces a real handoff or decision. Producing more generic captions is not automatically valuable. Useful systems should preserve brand rules, reuse approved context, and connect performance back to planning.
Our Social Media Agent lab is testing whether teams want this broader operating loop rather than another isolated generator.