Buffer is the Social Media Management Platform for Us
December 13, 2018
Buffer is the Social Media Management Platform for Us
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Buffer
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.
10 - Our team members who use Buffer are split up between three different departments: overall college marketing, graduate college and alumni relations. The overall college marketing has the largest number of team members and they post the majority of the content that we use Buffer for. That audience includes prospective students, current students, the entire campus, alumni and the city. The graduate college audience includes prospective graduate students and current students. The alumni relations team audience includes graduates from the college as well as members of the community and supporters of the college.
- We had a goal of 1,000 Instagram followers by the end of the calendar year. With the help of Buffer, we were able to meet that goal three months early.
- Through our social media channels, we hope to engage with our students more and make them aware of events happening within the college, university, and city as a whole. We receive comments from students and even non-students and other groups within the university about how informative our channels have become.
- With the use of Buffer, we have been able to increase our followers as well as the number of posts we put out per month and how frequently we do.
In the beginning, we were torn between Hootsuite or Buffer. We tried the free version of both, but quickly realized we need to invest in a plan in order to get the most out of either one. For us, Hootsuite interface wasn't as user-friendly. It felt messy and a little confusing and took a bit more time to understand where things were. Buffer was easier to navigate from the start. When we decided we needed to upgrade to a better plan, Buffer was just more affordable than Hootsuite. Being a non-profit with a limited budget, that was of main importance for us.