There are some highly useful tools we use. However, few are as effective at saving time as Buffer. Anyone that has more than one social media account they post to regularly should take a look at this tool. If you have not already signed up, then you can get a free account at buffer.com and join us as we walk through the menu options.
Buffer Manages Multiple Accounts
The first thing you need to do (if you have not done so already) is to add an account. There are several social sites supported, and new ones are added periodically. Due to Google plus there are also some that occasionally are removed. The free version of Buffer allows you to add one account per platform to manage. If you want to manage multiple accounts per platform, then you will need to bump up to the paid version.
To set the table for this article, we use LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter for nearly all of our posts. Thus, we had to add each to our account. Although each platform handles authentication a little differently, Buffer makes it easy to connect to them. You can add an account by selecting a platform, authenticating to your account, and then it will be available in the application. There will occasionally be a need to re-authenticate an account, but you will be notified as these needs arise.
Before moving on, let’s make sure we have our settings correct. The settings menu at the top right has several options that we don’t need to review. They are self-explanatory or “Buffer for Business” options. We do want to select “Link Shortening” and make sure it is turned on. The exact service used is not relevant to most people, just make sure it is turned on. You can use the default service.
At the bottom of the “Link Shortening” page is a section on Google Analytics. Go ahead and hook that up if you use GA. The analytics will help you get better tracking information about your site visitors and what is driving them.
Buffer Needs a Schedule
The first place to go for a platform is the schedule page. Thus, let’s click on that tab on the Settings dropdown menu. The first item is a drop down for your time zone. Select that to your desired option. You then can add posting times. These allow you to create time slots for posting items from your buffer.
More on posting from your buffer later. For now, create a couple of time slots you want to use to post content. Pick some days of the week and time slots that match your desired schedule. Remember to pick times that are most likely to put your content in front of your desired audience. Also, note that you can create multiple time slots per day. Note that you can create a schedule for each social account activated
Content Drives It All
We now have a schedule configured it is time to start queuing up content. We need to move to the Content tab for this exercise. There are three options on this page, but we will skip the “For Review” tab as that is a team-based feature. Click on the Queue tab to start adding in some content.
The Queue page is where we add posts or manage the past or future ones. There are two views available (list and calendar). The calendar view is self-explanatory. There is a weekly and a monthly view available. Both of them allow you to click on a section to pop-up a form to enter a post. Initially, the cells are empty. However, as you add content, they fill up with posts that have been sent in the past and those scheduled. The “What do you want to share” field allows you to queue up content. This opens a pop-up with a list of your social accounts across the top, a section for content, and a button to attach an image or video. You can click on items in the social accounts list to enable or disable queuing this to other social networks.
The Add To Queue button has options to share now or next or schedule. The “next” option finds the next scheduled slot and posts there. When you do so, then everything else in the queue moves back to the next slot. The “now” option posts immediately. That brings us to “schedule” which finds the next available open scheduled slot and fills it. Thus, next posts to the front of the queue while “schedule” appends it to the end or fills the first available gap.
The Content Inbox
I must be honest. The content inbox is my favorite tool in Buffer. Click on the “Add & Remove Feeds” button to add an RSS feed for this tab. The feed will load articles into this window. You can then click on dismiss to ignore the item or “Add” to load it onto your schedule at the next available opening.
The list provides an excellent way to scan through a bunch of articles, link, and comment on them. Then queue them up. I use this on a regular basis to pull my latest posts and scan through other news that might be useful. This tool is perfect for filling a queue at a rate of days, or weeks, at a time. It also can be an easy way to quickly review a large number of news sources.
Analytics
The analytics page is only available to paid subscribers, but still worth covering. This page provides an excellent summary of how every post you enter has done. The data included is also customized to the platform. For example, twitter data includes retweets. LinkedIn just has likes, comments, and clicks.
The listing for each post provides a “rebuffer” button. Use this to quickly repost favorite content. Even better, several platforms include a “reach” attribute that helps you determine how many people have “seen” the post on their stream. Thus, you can see how retweets, likes, and other activity impacts the visibility of your posts. This data is a significant first step in finding ways to expand your reach. Of course, we all want to increase our audience wherever possible.
The Analysis and Insights options are available for business subscribers. These pages add more details to the grading of your posts. Although you can get by with just the post analytics, these other tools are highly recommended if you want to improve your business.
Free Trial
The free tier of Buffer provides an excellent tool in itself. Additionally, you can try out the paid features for a limited time. This offering is a perfect way to try it out for yourself. There are other tools out there of this sort (check out our podcast episode for more options). You can use several, but it is best to settle on one or two at most for your needs. Just do not pass by a chance to evaluate Buffer as part of making your decision.
