Blog - Page 51

A collection of 2,459 blog posts

3 Breakthroughs and 2 Failures that Have Shaped Buffer

In Buffer’s past six years, we’ve experimented with product and culture and had some successes and some flops. And yet there have been some breakthroughs that evolved naturally, some intentionally. On the flip side, we’ve had some failures that have been outside our control and also fully within our control. Each up and down has shaped us as a company, as a product and me as an individual. Here are a few of those breakthroughs and failures. Breakthrough #1 – Living and working transparency

OpenNov 22, 2016
Remote Work Must-Haves: Our Team’s Gear, Gadget and Bag Recommendations

The remote work movement is a growing global phenomenon. 79 percent of knowledge workers worldwide said they work from home, and 80-90% of the U.S. workforce would like to work remotely at least part time. And while no two remote work situations are identical, there are some common themes when it comes to the tools and accessories for success. Of course, the most crucial element is wifi. But after that, there’s still plenty to consider: the desk setup, the commuter bag, the headphones, the tr

News and TrendsNov 21, 2016
Instagram Launches Live Video on Instagram Stories: Here’s All You Need to Know

Instagram has today released two major updates to their product: Instagram live video and disappearing photos and videos for groups and friends in Instagram Direct. Instagram Live lets you broadcast video to your followers in real-time as part of Instagram Stories — a feature that launched in August and is now used by 100 million people every day [http://blog.instagram.com/post/15347442

ReportsNov 21, 2016
Buffer in October: Instagram upgrades, Unsick Days and planning our 8th retreat

Editor’s Note: Every month we share an update with all of Buffer’s investors. We also publish that note in full for our Buffer Open audience in keeping with our value of transparency . Buffer Investor Report October 2016 * Last month’s report * All Investor reports * All Buffer reports MRR $1.03m ARR $12.36m MoM 4.4% from Sept

Where Social Media Is Headed in 2017: The Biggest Trends to Watch For

What does the future look like for social media? That’s a question we regularly discuss here at Buffer and one we’re not quite sure anyone has a concrete answer to. However, there are some clues out there as to what the future in 2017, and beyond, may look like. As part of our State of Social Media week, it feels like a great time to sit back and reflect on the social media landscape and what may be ahead. So let’s take a look at some of social media’s biggest platforms (Facebook, Instagram, S

PodcastsNov 21, 2016
Social Media ROI: How to Connect Social to Real Business Results – Neil Patel [SSM018]

We’ve found that one of the biggest challenges for social media marketers today is connecting social media to real business objectives and goals. From brand awareness right on down to customer conversions, social media has the potential to fit into many parts of the marketing and sales funnel . But where does social media fit best? That is the important question we set out to answer! We had th

OverflowNov 16, 2016
How We’re Implementing Service-Oriented Architecture at Buffer After 6 years of Technical Buildup

As Buffer is well into its sixth year of existence, we’ve evolved a lot as an engineering team. When I joined the team in early 2014, we were six engineers, four of whom worked on our main web application and API specifically. We’re now a larger team of 27 engineers, many of us still pushing more code into a single large repo every day. Over time our workflows have evolved to try to keep the development and deployment

ToolsNov 16, 2016
The 20 Best New Social Media Tools to Try in 2017 (And How to Use Them)

Update (January 2018): We have an updated list of the 20 best new social media tools to try in 2018. Feel free to check it out! The social media world is a fascinating one. Every so often, a new social media platform emerges to capture our attention (Peach) or become part of our daily lives (Snapchat). The social media tools landscape can be just as fascinating — and robust! Every week, people build and launch new social media tools, empowering us marketers in our day-to-day work. To give yo

OpenNov 16, 2016
The Key to Meaningful Productivity: Being Receptive (and 5 Tips to Make It Happen)

We all want to be more productive and fulfilled in our day-to-day. Even the words that we use to describe productive people and actions are filled with aspiration: ship, create, code, get things done, make things happen. A quick search of Google for the phrase “increasing productivity” returns nearly half a million results. There are countless books, blog posts, tips, and tools designed to help us maximize our ability to get things done. There’s also a real danger of becoming unbalanced. I’

PodcastsNov 15, 2016
Actionable Social Media Trends and Stats to Help Guide Your Marketing in 2017 – Bonus Episode [SSM017]

We are excited to share our third, very special bonus podcast episode with you on important social media trends and stats going into 2017! Our bonus episodes offer a fun change of pace from our traditional “interview-style” episodes on The Science of Social Media . Get to know the hosts Hailley, Kevan, & Brian a bit better as they share thoughts on the future of social media – complete with actionable takeaways and useful insights. This week we’re chatting all about

Creating a ‘Toeless’ Company: How We’re Working to Keep Customers at the Heart of All We Do

A business is nothing without its customers. And yet as businesses grow and team members become more specialized, it’s easy to get further and further from the customer. Buffer is no exception – in the course of our journey, there have been multiple times when we’ve felt a much larger distance than we’d like between us and our customers. What’s interesting is that every time that distance starts to make itself felt, something amazing happens to close the gap. Sometimes it’s a deliberate chang

ResearchNov 14, 2016
The Future of Social Media (And How to Prepare For It): The State of Social Media 2016 Report

Imagine being able to predict the next big thing on social media, knowing what social media will look like in 2017 and beyond and how will brands use social platforms to connect with their audience. As someone who works with social media every day, this information would be invaluable. At Buffer, we’re always eager to dig up new research into social media marketing — things like how marketers are using social media and what they’re excited about heading into 2017. To better understand how soc

PodcastsNov 14, 2016
Is Your Social Media Strategy Working? Try These Tips to Maximize Your Impact – Hiten Shah [SSM016]

One of the biggest challenges marketers often face with social media is understanding the impact is has on a business or brand. Is social media for lead-gen? For brand awareness? For something else? Measuring social media success and overall impact is a task that may not have one simple solution. So how do you know if your social media is working? We had the pleasure of speaking with Hiten Shah , entrep

Tips / How ToNov 10, 2016
5 Surprising Reasons To Reconsider Google+ (That You Can Act On Today)

Editor’s note: Google announced on October 8, 2018, that they will be shutting down Google+ for consumers in 2019. Farewell, friend! Here are some ideas on where you could share your content instead . I’ve personally always been a huge fan of Google+, but it’s been several years since I’ve been consistently active: It simply became too difficult to keep u

ReportsNov 8, 2016
Lisbon, Madrid or San Diego: Which City For Retreat #8?

Buffer People Ops Report October 2016 * All People Ops reports * All Buffer reports Team members 79 Revenue in cash receipts $1.02m +2.7% MRR $1.02m +3.3% ARR $12.2m +3.4% Debits $822k +3.8% Profit $192k +57% Organizing our next retreat: Location, location, location As we continue organizing our next retreat, we’re excited to bring the team together in one of the three following locations: Lisbon, Madrid or San Diego! We find that taking a “best out of 3 approach”

ReportsNov 8, 2016
Our Latest Content Marketing Experiment to Grow a Growing Blog: Native Un-Advertising

Buffer Marketing Report October 2016 * Last month’s report * All marketing reports * All Buffer reports Key Stats Buffer signups 17,106 +37% Buffer for Business trials 1,394 +34% Social blog sessions 1,225,754 -.1% Email subscribers 96,613 -.6% NPS for Buffer for Business 43 -1.7% As we’ve thought of ways to grow our Buffer Social blog traffic, we’ve enjoyed thinking outside the box with growth. It’s fun to go big with ideas, and to a certain extent, content marketi

ReportsNov 8, 2016
Perfect Images on Any Social Network, Accessibility Focus and Our Journey With Kubernetes

Buffer Engineering Report October 2016 * Last month’s report * All Engineering reports * All Buffer reports Requests for buffer.com 206 m +4% Avg. response for buffer.com 280 ms +4.8% Requests for api.bufferapp.com 1.06 b +1.9% Avg. response for api.bufferapp.com 98 ms +12.7% Code reviews given 66% of pull requests -2% Bugs & Quality * 13 S1 (severity 1) bugs: 2 opened, 11 closed (84% smashed) * 16 S2 (severity 2) bugs: 5 opened, 11 closed (68% smashed) Buffer

ReportsNov 8, 2016
Coming Soon: Instagram Grid Preview, Facebook Page Tagging and More

Buffer Product Report October 2016 * Last month’s report * All Product reports * All Buffer reports Weekly active Awesome + Individual plan users 167,987+1.7% Weekly active Buffer for Business users 4,945+1.8% Buffer for Business Monthly Recurring Revenue $500,161+5.6% Social updates sent by Buffer for Business users 3,273,927 +9.2% Users starting Buffer for B

ReportsNov 8, 2016
Introducing Respond 2! Plus Our Transparent Roadmap

Respond Report October 2016 * Last month’s report * All Respond reports * All Buffer reports Businesses using Respond have helped: nearly 500,000 customers Improvements shipped in October ? 400 Average Respond business sends reply to customer under 3 hours In October, we started rolling out Respond 2 to customers, shipped lots of product improvements and kicked off our trans

ReportsNov 8, 2016
What We Learned About Customer Support From a Massive Industry-Wide Cyberattack

Buffer Happiness Report October 2016 * Last month’s report * All Happiness reports * All Buffer reports Responses within 1 hour 45% +25% Customer satisfaction score 94+3.3% Email conversations 11,476-1.9% Twitter conversations 5140-13.7% Hour avg. Twitter response time 4.4+4.7% Onboarding Webinars hosted 8 October was an eventful month as we got geared up

ReportsNov 8, 2016
Introducing the Unsick Day

Buffer People Report October 2016 * Last month’s report * All People reports * All Buffer reports Applicants 473 -6% Open blog posts published 19+2 Open blog visitors 130,210-2.3% Bimonthly team NPS score 60% If every American received their recommended cli

News and TrendsNov 7, 2016
Shopping on Instagram: Get the Complete Details and What it Means for Businesses Like Yours

This year alone, Instagram has released business profiles and features like Stories and Zoom. Lucky for us, Instagram has something new to share again: Shopping is coming to Instagram! Starting this week, Instagram is testing a new way for users to learn more about products they discover in the app and to purchase those products if they wish to. The entire e-commerce flow from discovery to purchase is contained within Instagram, which may potentially help solve one of the biggest Instagram que

Tips / How ToNov 7, 2016
How to Use Hashtags: How Many, Best Ones, and Where to Use Them

This post originally published on April 8, 2014. We’ve updated it here with new info, screenshots, and a special episode of the Buffer podcast – The Science of Social Media. Have you ever found yourself explaining how to use hashtags to someone whose only connection with the word is as a telephone button? Internet language has evolved considerably over the past few years as social media has taken off. Hashtags are a huge part of this evolution. What once was a telephone button is now a social

PodcastsNov 7, 2016
Are You Monitoring Social Mentions? Here’s How They Can Influence Your Marketing Strategy – Brittany Berger [SSM015]

In a world where customer service is becoming the new marketing – understanding how to find, monitor and respond to social mentions is a great skill for marketers to develop. It can help to shape your marketing strategy, too! Knowing where to listen for important conversations online will allow you to react in real-time to trends in your industry and deliver the content or answer that your audience is looking for. We had the privilege of spea