Blog - Page 32
A collection of 2,475 blog posts
When we first started out building Buffer, time off seemed pretty simple. We offered unlimited vacation time to use as teammates saw fit. And since we were distributed across the world, teammates could simply decide which holidays they cared about and take them off. Easy, right? Turns out humans are a bit more complex than that. Over time, we learned that unlimited vacation policies statistically see employees take less [http://nymag.
Header Photo byAlexander Andrews onUnsplash When it comes to building android applications, there’s no doubt that we’ll need to include some form of navigation to move between the different parts of our app. With modularisation becoming more and more popular when it comes to andr
With any team, there’s usually the need to sync up. This usually takes the form of a meeting – or a video call, for those of us on remote team. On the mobile team at Buffer, this is what it looked like for us for a long time. We had a video meeting of about 45 minutes every week where we got face-time as a team, got on the same page about work, talked though blockers and challenges, made decisions, and updated one another. While the format of the meetings changed and adapted over time, we
You can audit your marketing in many ways—be it a quick-and-simple social media audit or a full-scale blog review. You can take the time to run the numbers yourself (a useful exercise!), or you can plug a URL into a new tool and have it tell you what it thinks. The more feedback, the better. That’s why we’re such big fans of quick and efficient marketing graders. You get actionable data, and you get it in seconds. I’ve bookmarked several of my favorites and dug up a handful of other useful gr
What if the most valuable data person on your team is your social media manager? It certainly might not seem that way at first blush. When you think of all the many data roles on a team, social media rarely bubbles to the top. Instead, you think of: Data scientists. Growth marketers. Analysts and quants. Or maybe there’s no data team and it’s just you and your closest confidantes, poring over the numbers together. Regardless, teams with social media managers are sitting on a goldmine of da
They say bigger is better … but in the case of influencer strategy , we think the opposite could be true. The latest data shows that micro-influencers, influencers with 10,000 or fewer followers, are getting the best results for brands and businesses. More engagement, more clicks, and lower ROI. Keep reading as we dive into the world of micro-influencer
Our annual in-person working retreats are a highlight of the year for many on our team. It’s the one time of year our fully remote team gets to be all together in one spot. Well, most of us. We usually have anywhere from 3-6 teammates who can’t make it to retreat due to pre-existing plans, family obligations, health issues, or other reasons. For those folks, the retreat can be a disheartening time full of FOMO (fear of missing out). Personally, I missed one of our largest team retreats — a
Editor’s note: We’ve just launched Buffer Analyze, Buffer’s Facebook and Instagram analytics tool for online consumer brands that want to make better decisions about their social media strategy and measure their results without feeling overwhelmed. Here’s the inside story of its creation: It took seven months of development and hundreds of emails and calls to make our first $25. But today, two years afte
Data is the fuel that powers a social media strategy. And understanding the data behind your social media performance can help you to make better decisions about your content, ensure you’re connecting with the right audiences and help you to boost engagement and grow your following. The problem is, there’s a lot of metrics to measure. Here are just a few you might need to keep an eye on: * Likes * Comments * Shares * Clicks * Reach And when you think about multi-platform performance (ac
By itself, the Instagram app is awesome and powerful. But do you know all the best apps to take your Instagram marketing to even greater heights? There are certainly a lot to choose from. There’s no shortage of great Instagram apps for marketers. To help you find the best of the best, we’ve tried out dozens and researched scores more. All the apps we’ll recommend below are ones you can download to your iOS or Android device for Instagramming on-the-go (the Buffer mobile app is a favorite of o
How to subscribe: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud | Stitcher | RSS One of the most powerful and effective social media channels you can be on today is Pinterest. It also happens to be the channel that drives some of the most curiosity. We’re often asked: How are brands and businesses succeeding on Pinterest today? And how can you follow their playbooks to make waves yourself? We were eager to get to the bottom of the Pinterest strategies that are working today, so we’ve done the res
Communication is the most important tool we have when it comes to team work – especially in remote work . But as an engineer, in the past I’ve focused more on code than communication. Although I talked to people, my output was writing code and solving problems. So when I became a manager , I realized that I needed to listen a lot more. Learning to Listen Listening sounds so simple, right? Well, for me it
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If you spotted a little green tree making its way around Instagram back in April, you certainly weren’t alone. For Earth Week 2019, Canadian clothing brand tentree created one of the most-liked posts in Instagram history, generating over 15 million likes and helping the brand to spread its mission to plant more trees. But how did it come together? What made this campaign strike a chord with so many people? And what did the strategy behind its virality look like?
When Buffer succeeds, we believe everyone on the team should benefit. One of the ways we make this happen is by sharing some of our profits based on our annual financial results. We haven’t always been profitable – here’s a look at our net profit numbers from the last four years: * 2015: $17K * 2016: Loss * 2017: $2.41M * 2018: $3.29M Over these last two years of profitability, we’ve put in place a profit-sharing plan for the whole team, as well as set aside a chunk of money for charitab
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It’s hard to believe that the Buffer team has been on 10 team retreats already, in locations all around the world. I was lucky enough to start at Buffer in 2012, back before our first retreat, so I’ve attended all 10! These gatherings have taken many different shapes since our first back in 2013 , where a handful of us went to Lake Tahoe. Up until 2016, we had retreats twice a year. But our team grew so large over time that it made a lot more sense to
How to subscribe: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud | Stitcher | RSS We wish for you to have the very best, most fulfilling career possible, doing work that you love. And one of the best routes to that dream job is having a dreamy LinkedIn profile! We’ll show you how. Today we’re giving you a checklist for a LinkedIn makeover. We’ll provide many different ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile and boost your presence – and the presence of your brand – so that you can shine. Whether you’re
Social networks change and evolve, rapidly. We’re seeing this happen on Instagram today: less polish, more authenticity. In particular, we’re noticing an embrace of memes — that historically unpolished, yet highly relatable category of social media content. Recently, we’ve picked up on the proliferation of memes across many major Instagram profiles, and we’d love to share how brands are making the most of this form of visual marketing and what it could look like for you to give it a try with
Learning about the experiences and history of LGBTQ+ people shouldn’t stop after June, which is why we wanted to share an updated list of resources to help us all learn how to be the best allies we can be! First, a brief history of Pride Although Pride might seem like a month of parades and glitter these days, its origins are far from celebratory. The first Pride rally occurred a month after the Stonewall riots in 1969. A well-known gay bar, Stonewall was a safe space for drag queens
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At Buffer we regularly hold what we call ‘Snackchats’. These are short & informal presentations of something that we want to share with our team which help to build on our engineering culture and help each other to grow as engineers. Anyone on the team has the opportunity to give these talks Once a discussion has been proposed, a day / time can be picked ready for people to grab a drink (and snack!) to take some time out of their day to learn something new. These have been happening at Buffer
Anxious to make a good impression on my first day at Buffer, I asked my role buddy: “What’s the best way to start the day? Should I ping someone when I’m online?” “Feel free to start the day at your leisure,” Nicole said. Mind. Blown. I already knew Buffer was an amazing company. I wasn’t shocked that I could make my own schedule. But for the first time, I wasn’t just reading about and admiring the culture from afar. I was actually experiencing it for myself. It’s a level of trust I’ve never
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