Have you ever invested heavily in a digital tool only to have it become obsolete overnight?

Zlappo, the tool I used for managing all my Twitter interactions, has announced that recent changes to Twitter's API have effectively killed its business.

This announcement hits hard, especially for those of us who bought lifetime deals with the company, expecting to use it to build our online brands indefinitely.

Zlappo was a godsend, offering auto-retweets, auto-DMs, and the ability to engage with tweets without getting sucked into the Twitter home feed.

But now, it's all been stripped away, leaving us with a platform that's even less useful than Twitter itself.

Now I don't want this post to sound like it's just me complaining. I'm not.

I'm writing about it because the consequence of the API change is a stark reminder of the risk we all undertake when investing in digital tools and platforms.

Our Twitter accounts could be taken away tomorrow.

Our YouTube channels demonetised.

Our TikToks hacked.

We expect these platforms to provide value over time, but sometimes, factors beyond our control can render them useless.

SO WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

We move on and find a new tool! For those of us who spent nearly $300 on a lifetime purchase, hopefully we can get a refund.

I actually used ChatGPT to write an email for that. It will hopefully do a better job than I could.

Now, it's a waiting game to see if the refund request will be granted.

I've spent the past week researching other scheduling tools (there are a lot), and eventually settled on Typefully.

I'll miss some features such as evergreen content and recurrent posts... but I also realised I'm on a legacy pricing plan so it's only $96 for the whole year!

Hypefury was the other tool I was looking at. It has a lot more features but would cost $280 for the year! Quite a big difference.

Instead, I'm going to put my focus and time into this newsletter and writing to you awesome people!

SUMMARY

While the Twitter API changes have impacted a lot of companies and people negatively, it's not the end of the road.

It's a learning opportunity, a reminder to always consider the risks associated with digital investments. And now the bad platforms have been weeded out, hopefully only the good guys are left.

I hope this experience provides some food for thought.

Stay safe and keep productive!