Item: Buffer
Rating: 7
Author: Frankie Heath

Overall Satisfaction with Buffer

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Currently, Buffer is being used alongside AirTable (Content Calendar) to schedule and publish 80-90% of the social media that our university puts out. As of right now, it is only being used by our marketing department as we are the only department that has control of the main university social media accounts. The business problem that it addresses for us is the fact that we are a small department that wears multiple hats at any given moment and it allows us to be able to schedule our social media out ahead of time.

Pros and Cons

Pros

It allows multiple social platforms to be used at once. For our university specifically, we have Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram that we use as our main accounts and it allows us to be able to post and custom tailor to each one of these social media platforms.
Buffer also has a pretty robust analytics section of the site (paid) that allows users to see details about the posts we have going up and the interactions we are having with them. This allows us to make educated decisions in regard to our social media planning and strategy.
With the exception of the paid analytics portion of Buffer, it is honestly cost-effective for us. It offers more for the dollar amount than any other social media scheduling platform that we have used in the past.

Cons

One of the biggest areas for us that buffer has some room for improvement is with Instagram. It does not always automatically push to Instagram and we have to manually do it once the post attempts to go up automatically.
I would also like to see an area built into Buffer that is similar to AirTable. We use AirTable to plan out our calendar of social posts and content. It would be nice to have it as an all-in-one platform.
Another small area that I would have different about buffer would be to have different tiers of pricing for the analytics portion of the platform. As a small university, it is hard for us to justify paying the $50 per month price tag for our analytics.

Users and Roles

2 - The department that solely uses Buffer is the marketing and communications department at our university. This is the department that I am in alongside my co-worker. I function as the main content creator (video, photo, graphics) and my colleague is our writer. We both use buffer to plan ahead on social media so that we are able to create a tailor the story that we are trying to portray to our audience.

Return on Investment

We have seen our social media following grow by at least 33% since we have started to use Buffer as our main social media scheduling platform. Those numbers are amazing since we are such a small organization and our following is super-specific.
The one negative impact on the ROI that we have had is paying the $50 per month for the Analytic section.
It has saved us a ton of money because it is cheaper than the other platforms that we were using.

Alternatives Considered

Hootsuite

The biggest selling point for us for Buffer over Hootsuite is the price point. We are paying less per month for buffer and we feel that we are getting more for our dollar amount. We were also having a ton of trouble getting posts to actually go through on Hootsuite.

Other Software Used

Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro, cPanel

Likelihood to Recommend

Buffer is perfect if you are a company looking to be able to have regularly scheduled social posts go up. It allows the company to be able to create a cadence of posts for any given campaign. It works mainly for us when it comes to having things scheduled out because it is our goal to have at least one post per day. Buffer helps us achieve that since we are a small department of only two.

It would be less appropriate for a company that does not have the need to plan out a cadence of posts and they are more organically driven social. It is also not suited for social media stories.

Buffer Feature Ratings

Using Buffer

Support Headcount Required

2 - Buffer takes someone who is knowledgeable of social media posting platform and understands how it works exactly. We do our own in house support because the two social media specialists we have in our marketing department are constantly learning and improving on their social media skillsets. The actual support of buffer isn't a lot because buffer is a pretty solid platform.

Business Processes Supported

Posting Social Media
Creating and Scheduling content over the course of the breaks.

Innovative Uses

We use it pretty normally.
Buffer is a platform that has the capability for analytics but it costs.

Future Planned Uses

If analytics were free we would use it more in the future.
If it had the option to schedule out stories we could use it more as well.

Likelihood to Renew

I am giving buffer this rating because of a couple issues that it has compared to other platforms. It does not always post to instagram and you will need to go in an manually post. Also, one of the biggest qualms that we have with buffer is the price it costs to have robust analytics.

Evaluating Buffer and Competitors

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Features
Third-party Reviews

At the time when we purchased buffer it offered our university the best posting platform for the price point. We were on Later and it was not performing up to the standards that we would have hoped. We had switched to Later from hootsuite for the same issues we were experiencing with later.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

During the time that we chose to move to buffer it was the best option for us. Since then other companies have progressed a long way as well with their platforms. We would do more research into the company itself and see how it is trying to be innovative in the world of social media looking forward to the future.

Buffer Implementation

Implementation Rating

We were very satisfied with the implementation of Buffer. We had no issues switching from the platform that we were using over to buffer. Our staff did not even miss a beat when it came to posting content. It was an easy transition and I feel that is something that buffer has really done well. They have an "out of the box" usability platform.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

Implementation Phases

Implementation Issues

We did not experience any issues.

Buffer Training

Training Types Used

no training

In-Person Training

Online Training

Ease of Buffer Training

Yes, the product was very easy to learn without training. I feel that buffer has created a platform that can be used right out of the gate. All you need to do is simply sign into all the social media mediums that you or your organization uses and then simply put your foot on the gas and go.

Configuring Buffer

Product Configurability

Buffer is very easy to configure for any organization. All you simply need to do is sign in to all of your social platforms and start posting. I don't think as far as posting and being able to do the normal functions that it is to complex or anything of that nature.

Configuration Lessons

Take into consideration how many platforms you will be using and which platforms you want to use the most. Also keep in mind how many accounts per platform you will be using. This all becomes factors when using buffer to push content, because sometimes it wont automatically be on the same account that you want and you push to another.

UI Customization

No - we have not done any customization to the interface

Extensibility and Customization

No - we have not done any custom code

Additional Customization Considerations

We did not do any additional configuration to our Buffer platform.

Buffer Support

Support Rating

I gave it a 7 because we didn't have to use it much, but when we did we were able to receive the help that we needed in a timely manner. One thing I do like about buffer support is that you are able to access through facebook messenger. It is a nice feature for quick responses to simple questions.

Buffer Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved No escalation required Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None

Bug Resolution

Exceptional Examples of Buffer Support

The biggest thing that buffer did for our university is our account had somehow been switched to a different tier level. This caused us to start being charged more for their services. I contacted their support and described what was going on and they resolved the issue that day and issued a refund on the money we unknowingly spent.

Using Buffer

Usability

I gave buffer a 6 because it really is a great platform, but they still have some areas they can approve. Being able to post to Instagram automatically without having to manually push them through and having analytics that are available with the subscription are two of the biggest reasons that I didn't give buffer at least an 8.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

Being able to create a post quickly from the main dashboard
Being able to adjust the captions for each platform all on the same prompt.

Difficult Tasks

Being able to consistently post to Instagram.
Having to pay for analytics.

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Yes - The mobile interface works very well to post images quickly across all social platforms. We use it a lot of times to push through the Instagram posts that do not automatically post. The mobile app is well designed and it functions properly for any user to be able to streamline their on-the-go social posting.

Buffer Reliability

Scalability

Buffer is a great program for any company of any size to use for their social media planning.

Reliability and Availability

Buffer is available whenever I need it. Except for when it does not want to push to instagram.

Performance

Buffer performs well on both desktop and mobile platforms. The one area as I have stated before is that it does not always want to automatically push to Instagram and the user will have to go do it manually. Buffer works very well pushing to other platforms. The instagram issue is the only reason buffer does not get a 10 on this section.

Pros

Cons

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