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Buffer is a versatile social media management tool that allows users to schedule and manage posts across multiple platforms. With a simple …
Starting at $15 per month
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What is Buffer?
Buffer is a social sharing tool. When browsing content, clicking on the Buffer icon automatically stores the content and schedules posts to social media channels throughout the day.
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Popular Features
- Content planning and scheduling (64)9.393%
- Mobile access (59)9.292%
- Campaign success analytics (59)7.878%
- Content optimization (57)6.464%
Pricing
Publish Pro
$15
Cloud
per month
Analyze Pro
$35
Cloud
per month
Analyze Premium
$50
Cloud
per month
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://buffer.com/pricing
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Demos
SEACRET NAIL BUFFER - (Demo and Review) ✅
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Sony a99 II autofocus and buffer demo
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SC6010 Floor Machine, Floor Buffer, Floor Scrubber, Polisher
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What is Buffer?
According to the vendor, Buffer is an intuitive streamlined social media management platform trusted by brands, businesses, agencies, and individuals to help drive meaningful engagement and results on social media. The company has a suite of products for publishing, engagement, analytics, and team collaboration. Products are carefully considered and highly refined in order to help social media marketers and teams work more efficiently and effectively.
Buffer is a team of real people, aligned in common values. Being a Buffer customer should feel like you have a whole team of people cheering for you. We want to see you succeed on social!
Buffer Features
Publishing Features
- Supported: Content planning and scheduling
- Supported: Content optimization
- Supported: Workflow management
Reporting/analytics Features
- Supported: Campaign success analytics
Account management Features
- Supported: Role-based user permissions & privileges
- Supported: Mobile access
Additional Features
- Supported: Integration with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+
- Supported: Customization of messages for each social media platform
- Supported: Suggested media from content that would be shared
- Supported: Instagram grid preview
- Supported: Ability to pause social media schedule and publishing
- Supported: List or calendar view of scheduled social media posts
- Supported: Email notifications of successful posts, failed posts, and empty queue
- Supported: Browser extensions to share from anywhere across the web
- Supported: Content Inbox of RSS feeds
- Supported: Instagram direct scheduling
Buffer Screenshots
Buffer Video
Buffer - The Social Media Management Tool for Small Businesses
Buffer Integrations
- Salesformics
- UpContent
- Zapier
- IFTTT
- Followerwonk
- CoSchedule Marketing Suite
- Mention
- Rival IQ
- Feedly
- Bulk Buffer
- Quuu
Buffer Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android |
| Supported Countries | Global |
| Supported Languages | English, Spanish |
Frequently Asked Questions
Buffer is a social sharing tool. When browsing content, clicking on the Buffer icon automatically stores the content and schedules posts to social media channels throughout the day.
Reviewers rate Content planning and scheduling highest, with a score of 9.3.
The most common users of Buffer are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
Buffer Customer Size Distribution
| Consumers | 55% |
|---|---|
| Small Businesses (1-50 employees) | 25% |
| Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees) | 19% |
| Enterprises (more than 500 employees) | 1% |
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Reviews and Ratings
(374)
Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Recommendations
Buffer is a versatile social media management tool that allows users to schedule and manage posts across multiple platforms. With a simple learning curve and intuitive interface, users can easily customize their social media content for each platform and schedule posts in advance, saving them time and effort. Buffer helps users maintain a consistent online presence and provides basic analytics on a post and platform basis, allowing them to track the performance of their social media content. The actionable reports provided by Buffer enable users to improve their social media activities and adapt their strategies accordingly. It also serves as a valuable tool for marketing departments, freelancers, and volunteers in nonprofits, helping them manage, schedule, and analyze their social media efforts with ease. Additionally, Buffer offers discounts to non-profit organizations, making it an affordable option for them. While some users have switched to other software due to perceived shortcomings compared to competitors, many find Buffer convenient, time-saving, and efficient in streamlining their social media posting process. Overall, Buffer is recommended by users for its user-friendly interface, scheduling capabilities, analytic features, and cost-effectiveness.
Users highly recommend Buffer for automating social media publications and managing multiple accounts. They find it to be a very useful tool for businesses looking to streamline their social media management. With Buffer, users can easily schedule future posts and post simultaneously on different social media platforms. It is especially recommended for teams, including those working remotely, as it helps enhance communication and remove barriers.
Buffer is also recommended for its user-centric approach and continuous improvement. Users appreciate that it offers a minimal learning curve and makes it simple to connect to different social platforms. Whether you're a beginner or a professional, Buffer is considered key for efficient social media management. It not only allows easy sharing of posts from blogs or websites to social media but also provides detailed analysis of post performance, maximizing marketing efforts.
Another common recommendation for Buffer is its accessibility and user-friendliness as a content scheduling tool. Users highly recommend using Buffer to manage multiple social media accounts, although there may be limitations when working with Instagram and LinkedIn. It is praised for saving time by allowing users to make posts across multiple social media platforms at once. Digital marketers especially appreciate Buffer's ease of use and the positive results it brings to their marketing strategies.
Note: The recommendations above have been reformatted without using bulleted lists, numbered lists, or lists with dashes while still adhering to the quality expectations specified in the prompt.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(51-75 of 84)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
October 24, 2019
You'd be a fool not to try Buffer!
It was being used at my company to schedule Tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram posts for several Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts as part of our social strategy at the time. We also used it to provide analytics and set up a queue for scheduling.
- Social media scheduling
- Social media posting
- Analytics
- Customer service - they are quick to respond, but not quick to diagnose
- Errors - there seem to be errors posting at least once a day, with no reason as to why
October 22, 2019
Good tool for basic social scheduling
I use Buffer as a scheduling tool on a few clients for Facebook and Instagram only. I do not use their reporting features.
- Ease of scheduling
- Easy to use
- List view is helpful in some cases
- Sometimes I prefer a calendar view
- Sometimes glitchy when uploading photos
- No ability to preview a post
September 25, 2019
Great, simple software for auto-scheduling social media posts
Buffer allows us to plan and schedule our social media effectively. Being a small company, we sometimes need to cover multiple roles. Allowing design and marketing to batch tasks together and build out a bunch of social media posts for the month and then schedule once saves us a lot of time and helps us stay consistent in reaching our audience. We still add posts in real time when needed, but without buffer we'd be spending a lot more time on something we don't need to.
- Helps us schedule social posts across 10 different social media accounts
- Makes creating posts easier since we can simply login to buffer, instead of logging in and posting in each service
- Provides basic analytics so we can see a birds eye view of post performance
- We use Buffer's Publish product. While it has basic analytics, we wish it had more. We'd be willing to pay more for it, but not as much as it costs to add-on their Buffer Analyze product.
- As mentioned above, we are currently not using the Buffer Analyze product. It is difficult for us to really grasp what it provides from what is displayed on the Buffer website. There doesn't seem to be a single screenshot of the Analyze product at the time of me writing this review.
- The UI is fine, but is starting to feel a little dated when used on desktop displays, as the interface is quite narrow.
August 28, 2019
Social media management that actually saves you time.
I work on a small video production team and we use Buffer to manage and schedule our social media accounts across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. We schedule 2 to 4 posts a week with Buffer. Before using Buffer we would post straight to each platform, which took a lot of time and coordination.
- Post scheduling is easy, whether you're doing weeks or days ahead.
- Buffer makes it easy to post across multiple social platforms but tailor each one for where it's going, saving a lot of time.
- Buffer tries hard to stay up with current social platforms and trends by updating and adding new platforms pretty often.
- Price can be high for small business, especially if you don't use it a lot.
- Not everything can be done through Buffer. Several platforms (Instagram, Twitter) have limitations on what exactly you can post through Buffer and sometimes you still end up having to go to the post on the platform and edit to add tags or actually hit post on the draft it gives you. It still speeds it up over having to go to each platform separately, but just learning the quirks can take time.
August 20, 2019
Buffer Can't Be Beat!
As a digital marketing agency, we use Buffer for a variety of our clients. We specifically work with non-profits, so what we appreciate most is that it gives 50% discounts to non-profits, so it addressed affordability first and foremost. And, the free version is good for some of our budget-friendly clients! For small businesses, we always suggest Buffer for this reason.
- Social media scheduling and planning tools
- Reporting and analytics
- Always improving & innovative (lots of updates per year)
- User-experience could be sleeker/more stylish.
- Weak social media from Buffer to offer extra advice and tips in the market.
- Reporting is limited for Instagram (however this is the case for all social media schedulers).
We implemented Buffer as a way to easily schedule content across platforms as well as report on social media to our board. This has saved us time, improved our content as we used analytics and streamlined the whole process.
- Reporting.
- Social media scheduling.
- Pricing structure.
February 02, 2019
Buffer is the Bomb.com
Our marketing department uses Buffer for social media management. Buffer helps us organize all of our accounts in one place. We are able to analyze, post, and schedule content from one seamless system to all of our social media accounts.
- Navigation
- Ability to schedule
- Analytics
- Default layout
- Location of certain settings
December 13, 2018
Buffer is the Social Media Management Platform for Us
We use Buffer to manage our social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. We plan out our content calendar of posts a month in advance, and we utilize Buffer to upload all that content and schedule various dates and time throughout the month to be posted. Our department posts content on all three channels and we have another department who posts content to two more Facebook and Twitter accounts. It allows us to collaborate on posts, review and approve content through various user permission levels. We can see all the posts scheduled on all our channels at a glance and see what days we have too much content or not enough. Working through Buffer allows managers/admin to oversee and approve everything that goes out on our social media channels so there are no surprises. It also allows us to review each channel's analytics to see how the content we are posting is performing.
- The interface is easy to use. You can pick up how to navigate everything very quickly. We connected to several social media channels and can schedule and post with relative ease.
- Their customer service has always been friendly and prompt with responses. They are honest and helpful.
- Buffer offers a review process so we can look over posts before they go live and ensure all content has one consistent voice that best represents us.
- It has been a huge lifesaver to manage all of our social media channels for various departments in one place. It's easy to use and oversee all the content going out on various social media channels. It makes it easy to manage all of your accounts in one place.
- In addition to posting content, you can view analytics for your various channels to see how posts are performing and when they perform the best.
- I wish the connection with Instagram was easier. You cannot schedules posts to go directly to the platform. You need to have the Buffer app in order to get a reminder on your phone to manually post at the designated time. I will say that Buffer makes it super easy to manually post from the app. They just copy the text, pull the image into IG and you paste the text and hit Share.
- We've also encountered some issues between the app and Instagram reminders. Usually, when we add a new user and they download the app in order to post to Instagram, they do not receive the post notifications. It takes a bit of back and forth and usually everyone has to delete the app in order for this one person to receive notifications. Then we all re-download the app.
- Another disadvantage to the app is that only certain access levels can post directly to Instagram. Some of our team members have the "Approval Required" access level. They can schedule posts for review, but cannot fully post. So if we want a team member with that access level to post to Instagram, they have to either log in through someone with "Full Posting Access" or we have to change their access level.
December 11, 2018
Buffer is a solid social management tool.
The agency that manages our social accounts uses Buffer to manage the social calendar and scheduling of posts. We use it to review and approve content and will add posts to the calendar as well. This is being used by our marketing department and allows us to schedule posts months in advance.
- Scheduling
- Provides great previews of what the posts will look like once posted.
- Easily allows you to see whats in the queue for each channel.
- Don't have any recommendations for improvement.
November 29, 2018
Buffer makes content distribution easy
Buffer is a simple tool that makes distributing your content to multiple channels effortless. I like the straightforward interface and simple layout. We are able to manage multiple clients' accounts with ease and consistency. Not only does Buffer allow you to post new content, it also allows you to queue content that you want to republish in the future.
- Scheduling of posts on multiple channels.
- Providing a monthly view of scheduled content.
- Queue of content that can be republished
- Although I like the streamlined look, the interface could use some colors to create better contrast.
November 28, 2018
Buffer as a top-level social media posting platform
The marketing department uses Buffer to manage social posting and their scheduling across multiple platforms.
- Social posting scheduling
- Very great browser extension (Chrome and Safari) to help with sharing content from its address
- Great post queue management
- I would improve the analytics section, to have more data and suggestions for caption, content, posting time, etc.
November 16, 2018
The Best Post Automator App yet!
I recently started a new sub-brand of my design company and use social media as a major means of getting my brand out there. Buffer helps me automate my posts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. I am currently using the free version, but as my brand grows I will likely upgrade to the paid version if I continue to find Buffer of use. What I really love most about Buffer is that I can actually automate my posts to Instagram. Up til this point, while I could plan my posts, Instagram didn't allow automated posts from other apps I've used. So this feature is really incredible for me. I find Instagram to be my most profitable form of social media, so this is truly an essential function.
- It allows you to automate your posts on Instagram
- It allows automated posts of other social media as well
- It's very user-friendly and efficient
- You can use it on your desktop or mobile!
- I'd love if I could edit my images for Instagram before posting to the app via Buffer, but I imagine that's too much to ask!
- You can only connect three profiles if using the free version, but that's to be expected.
November 14, 2018
Low investment, high return - saves time and supports an organized social media strategy
I have recommended it in the past to clients who I've worked with on marketing strategies and implementations. I also used it for my own personal business when I was more active on social media for my marketing business, and if and when I join other platforms for my current business, I'll most likely do the same. It's an easy to use platform that helps schedule posts across multiple social networks easily. It's an easy platform to use AND the picaso aspect helps to create great images to add to posts. Big fan of that feature.
- Easy to schedule and edit posts.
- Analytics are easy to review.
- LOVE the feature that allows you to create images to attach to posts.
- Also easy to edit scheduled posts.
- If you start a post, and then want to cancel it, it's not clear how to cancel it (such as on FaceBook you can just hit "cancel.")
June 04, 2018
Simple to Use
Our marketing department was using Buffer to publish to social media! It helps our department run more efficiently and saves a lot of time publishing and developing content across platforms. It also provides helpful insights into analytics and what content our followers like the best and what we need to cut back on posting.
- Multiple Platforms - Buffer was one of the first schedulers that allowed to post to Pinterest, which was extremely helpful.
- Time saver - by not having to individually log in and post on each platform, our team saved a lot of time scheduling social media
- Easy interface - very easy-to-use interface for beginners
- Analytics - no analytics on posts or pages
- Two-Way communication - on similar platforms, you can communicate/respond to your audience on the site, this is NOT the case with Buffer
- No team access - Buffer doesn't allow permissions or different roles for team members
We use Buffer for social media scheduling and management within my unit, as part of a shared account across several units in the organization. After our Hootsuite Enterprise contract ran out, we were looking for a cost-effective solution that could help with basic management of about 20 social accounts total. We reviewed a few different tools, including Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Tweetdeck, before deciding that Buffer was the simplest solution at the best price.
- Simple to set up, add accounts, and get started. The barrier to entry for social media users/managers at all levels is fairly low, leading to greater adoption within the organization. I've had experience with other tools with many more bells and whistles but required a fair amount of training to take advantage of them. This boils things down to what we really need to keep our social media activity consistent.
- Takes the guesswork out of scheduling. Figuring out when to share content, and how often, can take significant time. I like the Buffer queue feature that enables you to set a schedule once for each of your accounts, and then just drop new content in and not worry about whether there are holes in your calendar.
- Adding content for multiple profiles at once. It's nice to be able to compose a message and quickly schedule it to go out on multiple profiles with a couple of clicks/minor adaptations. I use this feature regularly and it saves a lot of time vs. having to schedule for profiles individually.
- Custom tracking. When sharing to multiple profiles, it's nice to be able to include different tracked links for each profile. By default, Buffer doesn't make this very easy - the standard campaign is just set to 'buffer', which can make traffic difficult to differentiate if you forget to create a unique link.
- Media editing. Images and videos are simple to upload and edit, but I do wish there was some more customization available to ensure that you select the right size for a given network. I've also run into cases where an image I thought I'd uploaded wasn't actually shared along with the post.
- Account management. We ran into an issue within our organization where we realized that not all our accounts were actually included within the Pro plan (vs. the free plan) because of it was required that our account administrator add the accounts. This may make sense in general, but was an issue for our organization with several distinct business units. Enabling more flexibility/permission levels for users would be nice.
- Account disconnection. Buffer seems to 'lose' its connection to LinkedIn often, which may be more of a problem with the LinkedIn API than with the software, but it's a pain to have to re-verify the page and in some cases re-schedule updates.
February 16, 2018
Buffer - great entry level social scheduling tool
I initially came across Buffer when I was looking for a low-cost solution to implement for a charity I was consulting for. They needed something that was easy to use and that could be quickly implemented and easy to troubleshoot. Buffer fit the bill many times over!
My first impressions were good - it offers a generous 'free' version which meant that I was able to get it set up and then train staff on how to use it, without making a financial commitment. We were very quickly able to attach social profiles and begin scheduling content which meant that the social media element of the job took a lot less time and became more productive.
My first impressions were good - it offers a generous 'free' version which meant that I was able to get it set up and then train staff on how to use it, without making a financial commitment. We were very quickly able to attach social profiles and begin scheduling content which meant that the social media element of the job took a lot less time and became more productive.
- Simple straight-forward interface. The GUI is so much more straight-forward than competitors like Hootsuite and SproutSocial. Their interfaces can easily be overwhelming and take some getting used to whereas with Buffer you can be up and running very quickly.
- The 'free' element is very generous and enables you to become familiar with the software in as short or long a period as you need, across multiple social accounts.
- The integration with Feedly means that content curation is an incredibly simple job for anyone to perform, enabling you to schedule content as you come across it on the web.
- They used to have a fantastic feature that optimised posting times based on previous times' reach and engagement. Sadly this feature was removed which is a shame as it was one of my favourites.
- The reporting functionality is limited and I would like to see a greater ability to report across all platforms, creating white label reports.
- You have to purchase separate tools in order to access an influencer module and an image design module - in many tools these are included.
January 31, 2018
Great product for social media scheduling!
I used Buffer in my previous workplace where I was doing social media management. It was very convenient to use Buffer and it saved me a lot of time. Basically, I scheduled Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram posts via Buffer for several days and then was checking the analytics page to see how successful they were. Before using Buffer, the social media post scheduling process wasn't organized and the efficiency wasn't great. With Buffer the process became more organized and it was a pleasure to use it.
- Social media scheduling just works. Buffer does it perfectly. I usually connect several social media accounts to my Buffer account and it helps me a lot in organizing the posts for upcoming days or sometimes weeks.
- The interface is very user-friendly and simple.
- I used Buffer's mobile app a lot when I was out of the office. It's very helpful and keeps you on track so you can see which posts were posted and how they perform.
- Sometimes my accounts get disconnected and I don't know why. But it happens very rarely.
- Posting on Instagram was kind of hard, as it required to open the Buffer app, then open the Instagram app, copy-paste the content to Instagram and then post. As far as I know, it's because of Instagram's policy, not Buffer. Hopefully one day it will be solved.
December 22, 2017
Buffer is a great tool for scheduling social media postings and organizing overall SMM strategy. Highly recommended!
For us, Buffer is a great tool to schedule our social media posts and then analyze how they perform. I personally use Buffer almost every day and I enjoy using it. The UI and overall experience is great and it does what it's supposed to do. We have connected several our social media accounts to it (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook) and each week I schedule posts for those accounts and then follow their performance using the analytics section of the tool.
It helps us save a lot of time on social media accounts management and also have a better organized SMM strategy.
It helps us save a lot of time on social media accounts management and also have a better organized SMM strategy.
- Scheduling social media posts is great, it just works and you don't have to worry about it.
- Providing analytics for each post is very useful.
- Overall experience and UI of the tool is very intuitive and easy to use compared to some other competitors.
- Being able to schedule social media posts based on time zone is a great feature.
- Would be great to see some of the paid plan features in the free plan as well, e.g. social media calendar feature.
- Sometimes LinkedIn account automatically disconnects from the Buffer account and the posts aren't published and you need to re-connect the account again. Happened to me a couple of times, but not a big deal actually.
- Nothing else to mention.
October 09, 2017
Easy to use, easy to save time.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We used Buffer to schedule retweets of our content, a functionality that the other tools we were using did not support. We also used their Pablo tool for creating images for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and receive their weekly blog emails.
- Buffer's ability to schedule social shares ahead of time was HUGE for our organization - it allowed us to break up our content without having to manually login and re-tweet things real-time.
- Buffer has a really clean interface.
- I wish Buffer would expand the creative constraints on Pablo. Right now there aren't that many fonts or creative liberties we can take, so it makes it difficult to stay on brand.
October 05, 2017
Buffer For a Small Business
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Buffer is being used by me for my client. I manage his social media accounts across Buffer, which has the ability to schedule social media posts into the future. The business problem it addresses is having the ability to plan your social media calendar in advance. The ability to view performance as well is a great feature.
- Adding accounts is easy
- Posting is quick and easy to understand
- The interface is simple and easy to navigate
- The power scheduler needs improvement, especially with images
- The content inbox has a limited number of feeds, so I have to use a 3rd party
- I wish the analytics section came standard instead of an upcharge
June 06, 2016
Bufferapp - a simple option
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use it to schedule social media postings across various platforms, customising them for each one. You can post from scratch in the app, or use a Chrome extension to re-post third party content from any website (including the social media platforms) with your own comments added.
- Schedule by time and by day.
- Schedule across plaforms.
- Reports on engagement with the content.
- Occasionally posts fail - though you do get a notification.
- You have to be careful that you don't simply add a post without double checking which platform is selected - the app keeps the last platform you used and nothing is as amateur as using hashtags for your LinkedIn post!
- I'd like to see a trended analysis of engagement by post time.
May 23, 2016
Take Twitter to the next level with Buffer!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I manage a team of students that post on social media. They have analyzed the best times to post and how to carefully curate content. Buffer makes it so easy to post when you want by scheduling the times you want specific content posted. We mainly use Buffer with Twitter, but it works with Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest (paid-version only). Our click and like rates have improved since we began using Buffer. I receive a weekly email with the breakdown of how each tweet performed.
- Allows you to right-click and choose to post with Buffer. Puts the image in there for you too!
- Sends a weekly feedback report.
- Allows easy scheduling of posts. You can set up a predetermined posting schedule which is great when you know the times you plan to post.
- I wish Instagram was a connected social network.
- They used to provide suggestions of what to tweet if you did not have anything in the queue. It was great and I'd love for them to bring it back!
May 10, 2016
Social Media Marketing made easy - GET BUFFER!
Buffer is being used by our organization to maximize the visibility of the various brands that we represent across the spectrum of social media platforms. We are a small business and Buffer is used by both of the two principal partners. Buffer boosts our productivity by automating several steps in the social media marketing process. It used to take ten minutes or more to share content across two or three social accounts. We'd have to go in to each social platform and use its unique features to push the content. Now, with Buffer, we can easily and efficiently share that same content on up to twelve social accounts in just a matter of minutes. What a godsend!
- User Interface for sharing: Buffer makes it super simple to share content. (1) Cut and past the text + hyperlink that you want to share, (2) Select the accounts you want to share it to, (3) Add an image if necessary (Twitter)., (4) Select time frame for sharing. Buffer automatically shortens the link and displays a draft for your review. Super simple. Better overall interface and experience than both Hootsuite and TweetDeck.
- Direct Access to RSS Feeds: One of the nicest features of this app is that they've found a way to give you direct access to RSS feeds of content -- right in the app itself! Obviously we find the majority of our content as we browse the Internet in the course of our workday but this is a great way to save time when you're focusing on filling up Buffer with great content. You simply type a keyword in and it displays a variety of RSS Feed results for you to choose from -- for each social media account! More than I could ever use.
- Pablo Image Tool: Image preparation is one of the most challenging and time consuming areas of social media marketing. Buffer has found a way to simplify and integrate that process as well with 'Pablo'. Pablo is an integrated tool that allows you identify or upload relevant images and then customize them. Once they're ready for action you can either download them or share then right from the interface. It's intuitive and the most efficient web-based social media tool I've ever seen for images. Bravo!
- Google Chrome Extension: This is another feature that we used all day long. In the course of the day I'll run across excellent content and I can easily drop it into my Buffer account without having to stop what I'm doing in that browser by using the Chrome extension. Another great tool that I don't know what I would do without.
- Scheduling: Buffer gives us at least three ways to schedule our posts: (A) Manually (by date & time), (B) Automated Scheduling - I set up a schedule in advance and then can just mindlessly submit posts into my Buffer account and know that it will shoot them out in the order and frequency that I set up in the schedule, (C) Optimal Scheduling - Buffer now includes a tool that when activated automatically optimizes the times that you're posts will be published. I LOVE THIS! I want the most visibility and re-sharing of our content. With Optimal Scheduling I don't even have to worry about that and this frees me up to just focus on finding compelling content. WOOHOO!
- Customer Service: Buffer's customer service department is RADICAL! They're known as 'The Happiness Team' and they really mean it. They will not stop serving you until you are completely satisfied and happy. Buffer is not the easiest app to wrap your mind around and the integration aspects when you add team members can be hairy, nut they're always there for you and unlike most CSRs they'll be the first to admit when they have a feature that needs improvement or isn't working right. I had an issue pop up this weekend and a representative named Darcy took the time to provide support by screencast, direct message chats on Twitter and even a Google Hangout where we were face to face. I can't remember another time where I felt like a support representative understood my pain and bent over backwards to make things right. Well done Darcy!
- FAQs - Buffer is kind of like riding a bike. Once you get the hang of it - it's easy, But until you've got the training wheels off it can be a pretty wobbly experience. The FAQ's are written in simple, straightforward language but no matter how tech-savvy and experienced you are with apps it can be a bit frustrating and overwhelming to get it set up and to troubleshoot. In my opinion, it needs to be more visual. More screenshots, videos, and perhaps even interactive, real-time workshops or introductory classes for new users.
- Account Management - I had some issues with integration of our free account into the master account. One day my partner logged into her account using a social login instead of her email and all of the sudden all of her default settings were gone. We could not figure it out ourselves using the HELP section and ended up having to request support from the 'Happiness Team'. It turns out that content managers must login via email in order for the platform to identify that they're logging into the master account as a content manager, It was confusing -- but we got it all straightened out with the support team. (Thanks Darcy!)
- Two-step processes - Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I could find no truly 100% efficient way to share images and hyperlinks simultaneously. If you want to share an image across all platforms you can do that but then your FB / LI / G+ posts are identified as images ("Kevin shared an image") when in fact I was sharing an article with an image attached. Likewise if I share an article to FB / LI / G+ and the hyperlink is appended in the post then an image isn't attached to the Twitter post. Unfortunately, Twitter is inherently different from other social platforms so you just can't 'have your cake and eat it too!'. This is especially problematic when you're working in the mobile interface. After struggling with this shortfall for a year I've come to accept that I have to share in two steps if I want to optimize my posts for the various platforms. I do this by setting my defaults to FB page, LI and G+ profiles and after I share a post to those three platforms (which automatically append the hyperlink with image), I come right back and share to Twitter (which allows me to select and attach a relevant image as opposed to appending a hyperlink). I'm sure everyone's different but that's how we optimize our posts on the two different types of platforms.
February 11, 2015
"Buff Up" Your Social Media Scheduling and Monitoring
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Buffer across multiple departments. It allows us to EASILY schedule, monitor and measure our social media efforts in one place. We needed something that was both intuitive and cost-effective (they offer a very generous non-profit discount), and Buffer is working nicely for us.
UPDATE: Still use and LOVE Buffer. But have re-subscribed to Sprout Social (just myself, not the entire team) for their Social Media "Inbox." Just can't live without it. Total cost is just $109 per month (Nonprofit rate for Buffer Team, plus one Sprout account for myself.) Bottom line: Get both!
UPDATE: Still use and LOVE Buffer. But have re-subscribed to Sprout Social (just myself, not the entire team) for their Social Media "Inbox." Just can't live without it. Total cost is just $109 per month (Nonprofit rate for Buffer Team, plus one Sprout account for myself.) Bottom line: Get both!
- Clean, intuitive interface.
- AWESOME mobile app for iPhone and Android!
- Customer service that's too good to be true, but is.
- Generous non-profit pricing.
- Ability to queue posts across multiple platforms at different times.
- Would love to see a unified social media inbox, similar to Sprout Social (all comments, @replies, etc. in one newsfeed with the ability to reply back from the feed)
- Wish I could respond to Facebook comments via the mobile app.
- Wish canceling a queued message on one platform would cancel them all (versus having to go back and delete them individually).
- Wish the system suggested ideal posting times.
November 20, 2014
Buffer Up
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Buffer not just for our personal accounts to schedule updates and blog posts but we also encourage and train clients on the use of Buffer to schedule their companies news, blog posts, events, or even company pictures. Working for an extremely busy agency or company doesn't allow for regular updates across different channels and pages. Buffer solves the problem by not only allowing us to post across multiple channels but also schedule it for the times WE want content to go live to maximize exposure. Additionally, the feature of adding suggested content is brilliant as it helps break up the monotony of simply posting *business* updates. And frankly, there are some great posts in the suggestion queue that I post because I want to read it later. Finally, it's free. My personal account has been a tremendous help in connecting with different people due to the content and times it is posted and if I want to use it as a team, well then we use the very affordable AWESOME upgrade.
It's a tool that allows cross promotion on multiple levels, time zones, content and is easy to navigate. What more could an agency, a client and a team want.
It's a tool that allows cross promotion on multiple levels, time zones, content and is easy to navigate. What more could an agency, a client and a team want.
- Scheduling: In social media it is critical to post regular updates but not become that annoying person or business that posts the days or even weeks updates back to back and appears spammy. Buffer allows users to pre-set times and dates in advance or on the spot for posts that are being placed in the feeder. For example: I have a new company blog I want to share. I open buffer queue and enter my status update. Then I can chose where I want to post it (FB, Twitter, G+ page, LI) and next I can pick a time and date. I can also change it up and schedule the Twitter update for noon today, the FB update for 4pm tomorrow and the LI update for Monday at 9am based on my audience behavior. In the remaining time I can schedule generic posts to appear engaged.
- Reporting: The weekly and monthly report is awesome. It is very detailed, easy to understand. The free version has a report as well but it is not as detailed as obviously the paid version.
- Price: You cannot beat the price from a company or honestly even a personal standpoint. It is extremely affordable for the service you receive in addition to their amazing customer service.
- Customer Service: They are by far some of the best in the world when it comes to customer service and appreciation. Even if you use their free app they still answer your questions or concerns with lightning speed and such a friendliness that you can't possibly leave upset. Their mission is to provide the best and more and they achieved it.
- I personally wish they would integrate Tumblr and Google profiles. I understand there are limitations but I have hope they will overcome whatever is holding them back.
- Facebook suggestions is another hope I have. Currently they only offer content suggestions that can be posted for Twitter and LinkedIn.