Blog - Page 33

A collection of 2,459 blog posts

OpenFeb 25, 2019
Continuing to Improve on Pay: Our Latest Changes to the Salary Formula and How Much it Costs

Hi there! This is an out of date post that we’ve kept around for transparency purposes. Go here to view the latest version of this post or view our salaries page . We live in a world where things are constantly changing, and Buffer is no exception, especially when it comes to how we pay our team! It’s been over five years since we first introduced transparent salaries and a salary formula [https://buffer.com/resou

AdvertisingFeb 19, 2019
Does Vertical Video Make a Difference? We Spent $6,000 on Tests to Find Out

There has been much discussion recently on industry-leading publications about the effectiveness of video on social media. For example, did you know that video posts on Facebook receive at least 59 percent more engagement than other post types? Since our 2017 research with Animoto comparing square vs. landscape video, little has been published around the impact of video format on overall video engagement. Specifically, vertical video vs. square video. While we know that square video (1:1

The 10 Top Social Media Tools Brands are Using to Succeed in 2019

How to subscribe: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud | Stitcher | RSS Marketers are faced with an ever-growing list of responsibilities. From social media marketing to customer experience and advertising, it can be a challenge to stay on top of everything. Luckily for us, there are a plethora of great social media tools on the market to help you succeed in your role and stay productive. Tools for content curation, discovery, scheduling, publishing, analytics, and more can be us

OverflowFeb 8, 2019
Creating a custom video SeekBar on Android

Header Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash A new feature we’ve been building out required the use of a thumbnail picker for video files. After looking around for open-source implementations, it was clear that there wasn’t something that already existed which would fit in with our app – for this reason we needed to build our own video thumbnail picker component. This component, Thumby, can be found over on GitHub [ht

Case StudiesFeb 5, 2019
Nike’s Secret to Success on Instagram: Building an Engaged Community

This post is part of our Instagram Marketing Strategy series. The series provides you with actionable insights and lessons on how businesses are using Instagram. Next up, Wes Warfield from Nike shares how it handles engagement on Instagram.  Chances are you’ve come across Nike on Instagram at one point or another. With more than 83 million followers around the world, Nike is easily in the top 20 most followed Instagram accounts globally (out of nearly one billion). As you might imagine, t

Case StudiesFeb 5, 2019
Building an Ecommerce Business: From Zero to $100,000 in Revenue from Instagram Ads

In February 2017, when Remi and his girlfriend Alondra were visiting Tokyo, the last thing they were thinking about was starting a business together. But a chance discovery in a Tokyo stationery store changed everything for the couple. “We stumbled upon a shelf full of stickers made by B-Side Label,” Remi explained. “The stickers were extremely high-quality and unlike anything we had ever seen.” The pair purchased a few stickers and didn’t think any more of it until the following day when they

Case StudiesFeb 5, 2019
How Blenders Eyewear Creates Profitable Instagram Ad Campaigns

This post is part of our Instagram Marketing Strategy series. The series provides you with actionable insights and lessons on how businesses are using Instagram. Next up, Grace McLaughlin shares how how Blenders Eyewear uses Instagram ads to grow its business.  “We are a visual brand with a visual product so the image sharing platform makes for the perfect ad channel,” Grace McLaughlin explained to me over email. “We have a loyal community of content creators and brand ambassad

Case StudiesFeb 5, 2019
How Bustle Ignited Engagement and Created New Revenue Streams Using Instagram Stories

This post is part of our Instagram Marketing Strategy series . The series provides you with actionable insights and lessons on how businesses are using Instagram. Next up, Hannah Caldwell shares how Bustle uses Instagram Stories. Stories were introduced to Instagram in August 2016, and as soon as the new featured dropped, the social media team at Bustle — a premium publisher reaching millennial women — we

Case StudiesFeb 5, 2019
The Secret to Instagram Success: Square’s Community Curation Strategy

This post is part of our Instagram Marketing Strategy series . The series provides you with actionable insights and lessons on how businesses are using Instagram. Next up, Nick Dimichino shares exactly how Square’s been able to grow an engaged following on Instagram. When your product powers millions of businesses and sellers around the world , you’re bound to find some incredibly inspiring stories to share on social media. Yet

Case StudiesFeb 5, 2019
How Turn Studio Transitioned a Side Project into a Thriving Ecommerce Business with Instagram

This post is part of our Instagram Marketing Strategy series . The series provides you with actionable insights and lessons on how businesses are using Instagram. Next up, Kenny Sing, founder or Turn Studio, discusses how to grow an audience on Instagram. “I never jumped into Instagram as a way to make money. For me, it was much more awareness and follower focused. Instagram was – and still is – a real-time feedback loop for my work. It’s a way to find

AdvertisingFeb 4, 2019
How to Create Facebook and Instagram Stories Ads That Get You Results

This post is part of our Instagram Marketing Strategy series. The series provides you with actionable insights and lessons on how businesses are using Instagram. Next up, Alfred Lua discusses the power of stories ads, and how we use them at Buffer.  Businesses have been shifting their advertising budget from Facebook and Instagram feed ads to Facebook and Instagram Stories ads due to the lower costs and better results they see with Stories ads. Simon Lejeune, head of user acquisition a

Case StudiesFeb 4, 2019
How to Sell on Instagram: A Stories Strategy That’s Generated ‘Hundreds of Thousands’ in Sales

Prefer audio? Press play to listen to this post. This post is part of our Instagram Marketing Strategy series. The series provides you with actionable insights and lessons on how businesses are using Instagram. Next up, Jay Perkins shares how Kettlebell Kings has used Instagram to generate ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars’ in revenue.  “We all had what I guess you call ‘real jobs’,” Jay Perkins told me. Back in 2013, Jay worked at Bigcommerce, an e-commerce software provid

InstagramFeb 4, 2019
How Instagram Helps Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit to Serve Over 250,000 Customers Per Year

This post is part of our Instagram Marketing Strategy series . The series provides you with actionable insights and lessons on how businesses are using Instagram. Next up, Tarah Boyleston shows us how Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit uses Instagram to drive in-store sales. Snap, filter, post, then eat. If you’re a millennial, Instagramming your meals is probably a guilty pleasure, and an occasional part of your mealtime routine. An incredible 69 percent of

OpenJan 27, 2019
How Individuals Advance at Buffer, Without Becoming Managers

The concept of a career path at Buffer has changed a lot over the past seven years. We’ve gone through various phases as an organization: beginning as an early-stage startup where everyone did a bit of everything, then to a period when we decided against having managers and leaned into a flat structure , and now to a lean level of management

6 Powerful Psychological Biases and How They Influence Human Behavior Online

How to subscribe: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud | Stitcher | RSS A large majority of marketers wouldn’t consider themselves psychologists. Yet understanding the growing field of marketing psychology can help persuade and influence audiences in powerful ways online. Great campaigns happen at the intersection of marketing and psychology. The sweet spot where your content and messaging connects with your audience on a deep, human level. Which, in a sense, makes all marketers aspiring p

Video: Automate Everything – From Review to Release [Bufferdevs Snackchat]

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 f

ProductivityJan 14, 2019
Effective Communication on Technical Topics

Photo by Nik MacMillan from Unsplash . At Buffer we’ve always been interested in how to communicate in concise and clear ways. In fact, it’s been part of our company values from the beginning. Every organization values communication, and I’d submit to you that it’s doubly important for remote companies such as ourselves. It occurred to me recently how critical, and equally difficult, it can be to talk about technical topics as an engineer. It’s hard enough to s

The Most In-Demand Skills of 2019 (According to LinkedIn), YouTube Advertising, Our Ultimate Facebook Engagement Guide, and More!

How to subscribe: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud | Stitcher | RSS Each week on the Science of Social Media we cover some of the most important trends, news, research, and insights in social media marketing. In episode #129, we discuss the most in-demand skills of 2019 (according to LinkedIn), why we’re bullish on YouTube advertising, a brand new guide on Facebook engagement, Instagram’s latest feature, and much more! Whether you’re just getting started in social media or a seasoned m

FacebookJan 10, 2019
What 777,367,063 Facebook Posts Tell Us About Successful Content in 2019 (New Research)

Facebook marketing in 2019 isn’t dead. On the contrary, it’s far from it. Now removed from the dim outlook that businesses faced at the beginning of 2018, Facebook has and will remain an essential tool for brands’ marketing strategies moving forward. In our big State of Social Media 2019 Report, we found that 93.7 percent of businesses use and are currently active on Facebook — the most among any other social media network. And although we continue to see a dramatic rise in the usage

OverflowJan 8, 2019
Digging into failed redirects within Android Webviews

Header Photo byThe Nigmatic onUnsplash Discovering the issue It was the 14th December and we were winding down ready for the Christmas break. Our code freeze had kicked in several days previously and we had shipped an update at that time to get a couple of priority bug fixes before

Remote Team Meetups: Here’s What Works For Us

Experimentation and iteration lie at the heart of a lot of things we do at Buffer. If you’ve been following the Open Blog for some time, or even if you’ve just popped by (hey there!), you might notice that we reflect on remote work–a lot . Our remote setup enables our distributed team to work wherever they’re happiest and that freedom is a much-valued perk that Buffer teammates enjoy. Our employees feel trusted to be in control of their job, and for us, we

OverflowJan 3, 2019
Using Live Templates to Write Tests

At Buffer we strive to have at least all new code tested, and to add tests for legacy code when we can. This helps us catch bugs before they’re released, and watch out for regressions. This also leads to a notable amount of time spent writing tests. And let’s face it, that can get repetitive.There are some things that can help, like helper functions, factories, and test robots. Still, there’s a number of things you find yourself repeating. Is there a way to improve this? I’ve saved some time by

News and TrendsJan 2, 2019
5 Data-Backed Social Media Trends You Need to Know for 2019

How to subscribe: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud | Stitcher | RSS 2019 is here and gone are the days where generating audience engagement on social media was primarily a passive process. The always-online audiences of today want to be involved, interact, and co-create. The brands that are successful in delivering personalized experiences to their audiences are the brands that are likely to thrive with their social media strategies in the coming year. But in order to be able to capita