Buffer is great for a small Social Media team
February 21, 2020
Buffer is great for a small Social Media team
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Buffer
Buffer is utilized by our Marketing team at a small, private university. We use Buffer to schedule posts in advance to keep our social media platforms thriving and we also use it to measure our success via the analytics features it offers. It addresses our need to be active and stand out on social media, especially in a very competitive market for higher education. It is a great tool that allows us to have social media planned out while other things are going on so we never have to worry if we have missed a post or not.
- Distinguishing platforms: By far one of my favorite features on Buffer is the ability to customize posts for different social media accounts. This makes it easy to start with the same base post and then optimize it for each platform. Captions usually need to be shortened for Twitter, and we generally add more hashtags to our Instagram posts. Buffer makes it easy to accomplish this while still only having to make the post once.
- Optimized timing: Buffer helps pick optimal times for your posts to go through, which is a great feature if you don't already have a specific time in mind.
- Expensive Analytics: The upgrade you need to access your analytics is quite expensive, and I have come across other tools that provide the same or even more for a lesser priced plan.
- No Media Library: The one feature I have found on another social media planning tool that I wish Buffer had is a media library. This allows you to upload photos you aren't using right away to have them readily available when you do decide to use them. This is not a feature in Buffer.
2 - We have a small Marketing team of two individuals, myself and my co-worker. I am a copywriter who, among other job duties in other areas, sees writing captions for social media and finding stories that are worth sharing on our social accounts. My co-worker is on the visual side of things and does our photography, videography, and graphic design for our social media as well as for other areas.
- We have seen our social media grow in all areas since we began using Buffer to schedule posts, including in likes, followers, reach, and impressions.
- While we cannot directly determine if we have gained new enrollments ('customers' for us) by the use of organic social media, it has certainly increased our brand awareness.
Airtable is more of a planning tool and does not link to social media directly, so we more use it to brainstorm and maintain a calendar of ideas that are later translated into Buffer.
Later is a good product that offers many of the same and even additional features (such as a media library) but it is really centered on Instagram and does not feel as optimized for other platforms. Also, Later's mobile app only allows you to post to one platform at a time, so if you are scheduling posts from your phone you have to do the same post for each platform separately.
Hootsuite was overpriced for archaic technology. It was the first platform we used but we had many issues with it and do not recommend it at all.
Later is a good product that offers many of the same and even additional features (such as a media library) but it is really centered on Instagram and does not feel as optimized for other platforms. Also, Later's mobile app only allows you to post to one platform at a time, so if you are scheduling posts from your phone you have to do the same post for each platform separately.
Hootsuite was overpriced for archaic technology. It was the first platform we used but we had many issues with it and do not recommend it at all.