How can you use Buffer to help manage your online social media presence?
If there is one thing I take great pleasure in doing, it’s sharing some of my social media secrets.
Be A Superhero:
About one year ago, I discovered Buffer and got my life back. Thousands and thousands of followers online, 500-1000 interactions per day, it is very easy to feel overwhelmed and lost. As a teacher who uses social media widely and frequently, I want to seek and continue to share best practice. I want to be able to get on with my day job, have a life, and also ensure I respond and read every, single message I receive from social media.
It can be very easy to be consumed with blogs, tweets, surveys, publications and requests to read this, read that and so forth. It can also be daunting if you don’t know how to take control.
It can also be additional workload if you don’t know how to share your own content; whilst also getting on with your life. It may even be the case, that you feel you are continuously online, posting content at certain times of the day, and wonder how on earth others keep posting so regularly. Thanks to Buffer, I have been able to do both. Live and work better.
Image: Shutterstock
So take my advice and start now. I’ve been using social media for almost 10 years, and there will be many people who are still starting out, unaware that applications can actually help you reach a wider audience; analyse what do you do and most of all, allow you to continue with your day-to-day life. My advice, start now and become a social media superhero.
What Does Buffer Do?
Buffer is a tool that can hopefully help out in a few ways. First, you can write a bunch of posts at one time, choose which social profiles to send them to, and then Buffer will spread them out throughout the day or week so that you don’t have to be at a computer all the time in order to have a social media presence.
It is satisfying to know, my social media profiles can be sharing content whilst I am in the meeting, sleeping or eating and relaxing with my family. It’s incredibly powerful to know that you can still be communicating with others and make social media start to work for you; then use what time you do have, to read and respond to the people who interact with you online. To be able to do this, Buffer helps me manage my workload.
Here is a screenshot of my current queue of content, ready to be shared. You can see there are 36 pieces of content in a queue, programmed to tweet at a particular time and day. Hyperlinks are included, as well as engaging images. I can also adapt each piece of content for the various social media platforms I use.
How Can I Connect Accounts?
Currently, Buffer can connect to the following types of accounts:
- Google+
Simply, go to settings and connect to the various platforms you use.
How Do I Post / Schedule?
First, connect your social profiles to Buffer. Then, for each profile, hop into the “Schedule” tab to choose the days and times that your posts will go out. Click the little arrow next to the “Add to Queue” button in the bottom right of the share box. Three more options will appear, click “Schedule Post.” A calendar will pop up where you can choose a date and time for your post to be published.
How Do I Repost?
If you’re looking to have your posts repeat, one option is once a post has gone out and is in the ‘analytics’ tab you can hover over it and the option to ‘re-buffer’ will appear. Another option, if you know you want the post to repeat while scheduling, is using the Buffer extension.
Analytics:
Buffer offers a great deal of analysis. This enables you to see what works and what doesn’t with your audience. If you have 100 followers on Twitter, when you tweet out the update, your reach potential is 100. If someone retweeted your update, and they have 150 followers on their Twitter account, your potential becomes 250. If one tweet in particular has a higher number of shares, retweets or favourites, Buffer will note that for you so you can see what types of content your followers enjoy.
Starting to feel like a social media superhero?
Image: Shutterstock
Analytics Gallery:
Take a look at some of my analysis taken from September to November 2015; here are a range of images showing statistics for mentions, clicks, likes and retweets. For me, the information is fascinating and allows you to understand why people view your content. Evidence-based research indeed …
Click to enlarge.
You can read more Buffer FAQs here.
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