New!Check out Board viewCheck out the new Board viewOrganize and track your social content ideas with the new Board view.Learn more

Blog - Page 51

A collection of 2,465 blog posts

Guides & CoursesOct 4, 2016
Instagram for Business: 30 Tips to Grow Your Audience and Stand Out on Instagram

Instagram is the go-to place for over 300 million people to share their photos, videos, and stories every single day. And as Instagram has grown over recent years, that’s left many business owners and marketers with one very clear and important question: How can we use Instagram for business? Well today, we’d love to dive head first into that topic and share: * How to set up a killer Instagram profile * The importance of goal setting and how to creat

PodcastsOct 3, 2016
Millennial Marketing: Actionable Social Media Advice from a Top Marketer [SSM008]

Understanding the consumer behavior of younger generations is one of the most talked about subjects in marketing today. Particularly when it comes to Millennial marketing. But what if you could look inside the mind of a successful Millennial marketer? At 27 years young, Everette Taylor is a 4-time entrepreneur and is currently serving as Vice President of Marketing for a fast-growing and revolutionary mobility company called Skurt [

What Happened When We Cut Back on Refunds: A Customer Service Experiment

In Buffer’s history we’ve tried many different experiments that have soared – or flopped. Some with our culture . Some with our management structure (or lack thereof!) . Some with launching products . If a belief or philosophy hasn’t been examined recently, we like to take a closer look and perhaps try something new. We feel that one of our biggest

BufferchatSep 29, 2016
Essentialism: A #Bufferchat Recap

Greg McKeown , author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less , stopped by #bufferchat this week to share his expertise and insights all about the concept of essentialism! We discussed what it means to be an essentialist, strategies for working toward this mindset, how to decide which things are essential in your life, and much more. Read on to discover all of the amazi

News and TrendsSep 29, 2016
Everyone Can Now Create Twitter Moments: Here’s All You Need to Know

The ability to create Twitter Moments is being rolled out to all users. Twitter Moments enable users to stitch together multiple tweets into slideshow-like stories. When they originally launched, Moments were intended to help Twitter users keep up with what the world is talking about at any given time without having to follow loads of new people or watch trending topics closely. The below video from Twitter explains a little more about how Moments work: pic.twitter.com/boP59z64dH [https://t

OpenSep 28, 2016
Why We Give Our Team Paid Time Off to Volunteer

Every employee at Buffer can take a full day or two half-days off each quarter to show gratitude by volunteering or otherwise contributing to their community, wherever they may be. Here’s more detail about the program!

ToolsSep 28, 2016
15 Social Media Podcasts to Take Your Marketing Skills to the Next Level Today

What should you do if you want to become the best at what you do? There’s probably a long list, with lots of options. One thing we’re particularly fond of at Buffer when it comes to improving ourselves is listening to podcasts relevant to our niche and industry. In our case, that means social media podcasts! What we love about podcasts is that they make it easy to hear from industry leaders and talented folks about their experiences and advice (which we might not be able to read about anywher

PodcastsSep 28, 2016
Inside Social Media at one of the Biggest Universities in America (and What You Can Learn) [SSM007]

What is it like to be the Director or Social Media for one America’s largest and most engaged universities? With more than 1,000 social media accounts to oversee and an audience base of over 6 million, Nikki Sunstrum, Director of Social Media at the University of Michigan, knows what it takes to reach and engage with a large demographic of people from prospective students to parents to proud alumni. We had the pleasure of speaking to Nikki about what it’s like to be the Director of Social Medi

PodcastsSep 27, 2016
A Playbook for Becoming a Thought Leader on Social Media [SSM006]

The path to becoming a thought leader on social media is one that is not always clearly defined. Thought leaders and influencers come from a wide variety of backgrounds, specialties, industries and expertise. And in many cases, social media thought leaders don’t consciously seek to become an “influencer,” it happens naturally over time with lots of hard work and dedication. But what if there was a way to position yourself to become a thought leader in your industry? We’d love to share some ti

OpenSep 27, 2016
My First 30 Days as a Manager: The 3 Biggest Questions I’ve Asked Myself So Far

It feels ridiculous for me to write about being an engineering manager. It’s a job I’ve done for not even 30 days yet. But that’s what I want to know from others —how did you start? How did you make it through your first month? No two first rodeos are ever alike. But they’re all rodeos, and falling off is falling off. There’s some kind of pattern. So here I am, writing the post that I want to read. What is this job, anyway? I had a rough idea what I was getting into from the internal job des

OverflowSep 26, 2016
How We Rethought our Complete Package Structure for Buffer on Android and the Awesome Effect It’s Had on Our Workflows

For the past five years, our Android project has maintained a similar package structure from when it was first created in 2012. There have been a few changes here and there, but the general structure has remained the same. When most applications are created, the class count is small. However, as the app grows and features get added, it can be easy for packages to become bloated, potentially to the point where it makes a workspace feel unorganized and difficult to navigate. This was starting to

When Unlimited is Limiting: Why We Changed to Minimum Vacation Recommendations

It’s one of those mythical and vaunted startup perks, and one of the Buffer perks that tends to entice folks the most: unlimited vacation time. When someone new joins the team, they’re immediately granted as much time away from work as they’d like, no questions asked. Under this non-policy policy, teammates have had some great vacations, including cruises around the world and even a month of sailing the Atlantic. But is it really that simple? Well, yes and no. Buffer’s unlimited vacation po

BufferchatSep 22, 2016
Marketing with IFTTT: A Bufferchat Recap

Anne Mercogliano , the VP of Marketing at IFTTT , stopped by #bufferchat this week to share her insights about using automation to support marketing. During the chat, our community discussed ways to incorporate automation into a social media strategy , awesome IFTTT life hacks , their favorite market

PodcastsSep 21, 2016
Why Personal Branding is the Most Important Thing You Can Do for Yourself [SSM005]

Building a personal brand on social media is one of the best ways to become a thought leader in your industry. Whether you’re looking to change roles or simply advance your career, developing a personal brand is a great place to start. And we’d love to share some tips on how. Duke University professor Dorie Clark — a bestselling aut

I Failed Buffer’s Bootcamp…Successfully

Heads up! This is an older post that references some outdated processes at Buffer, specifically the “Buffer bootcamp.” Feel free to see the latest information here , including all the reasons why we retired this concept! We’re Retiring The ‘Buffer Bootcamp’ Period For New Teammates – Here’s Why Every new person who joins the Buffer team starts with a 45-day bootcamp trial period [https://buffer.com/resources/starting-

OpenSep 20, 2016
I Didn’t Mean to Lean Back: The Unexpected Story of Being a Working Mom at a Startup

I’ve “leaned back.” And I’m okay with it. Sort of. As the first teammate to have a baby while working at Buffer, I was able to create our initial family leave policy before I used it. Even that wasn’t enough to prepare me for the reality of being a working mom. Going into motherhood , I had a lot of grandiose ideas, preconceived notions and expectations. The biggest of which was that I’d be able to jump back into m

Tips / How ToSep 20, 2016
We Didn’t Know How to Promote a Podcast. So Here’s All We Learned

Before we launched our Buffer podcast , so much of our time and energy (99.9% of it, I’d wager!) was spent getting the sounds and feel just right. We did all the podcast things we were supposed to do in order to make a really great podcast — the interviews, the mixing, the uploading — and now that the time had come to press publish … … we needed a plan to promote

OpenSep 19, 2016
From Maker to Manager: The Most Challenging and Rewarding Transition of My 5-Year Startup Journey

January 3, 2011, was my first day at Buffer as sort of the social media intern. The introductory task that Joel and I came up with was fairly simple: Spend 30 minutes a day on Buffer’s Twitter account and help it grow . We had about 78 followers at the time, and the 100 follower mark was in sight. I had just turned 20 years old, was halfway through my second year in college and I was ready—for anything really. It di

News and TrendsSep 19, 2016
Longer Tweets Are Here: All You Need to Know About Twitter’s 140 Character Update

Twitter has just made a big change to the way tweets work. From today, Twitter is cutting back on what types of content will use up its 140-character limit. Now, @names in replies, media attachments (like photos, GIFs, videos, and polls) and quoted Tweets will no longer be counted against the valuable 140 characters that make up a tweet. This allows for richer public conversations that are easier to follow on Twitter and ensures people can attach media to tweets without sacrificing the charact

PodcastsSep 18, 2016
What Is User Generated Content and Why Are Top Brands Doubling Down Now? [SSM004]

Sharing your brand’s story through user-generated content (UGC) is one of the best ways to build an authentic and engaging community on social media. It takes the old-school marketing approach of “brand to consumer” and turns it into a way for your audience to connect one-on-one with each other through shared content. Dom Garrett – market

BufferchatSep 15, 2016
The Future of Video Storytelling: A Bufferchat Recap

Jeremy Goldman stopped by #bufferchat this week to share his insights about the future of video storytelling. During the chat, our community discussed creative ways to tell stories through videos , the best tools to use for creating high-quality videos, their thoughts for what marketing videos will look like in 10 years, and much more! Read on to discover all of the amazing

PodcastsSep 15, 2016
Introducing Buffer’s new social media podcast: The Science of Social Media

The Science of Social Media is a podcast for marketers and brands interested in learning about new and exciting ways to implement social media marketing across a variety of platforms and industries. Join Buffer hosts Hailley, Brian, and Kevan each week as they interview some of the best marketers from brands and businesses that are leading the way in social media innovation and experimentation around the world. We promise to keep it fun, insightful, interesting, and most of all, actionable. The

PodcastsSep 15, 2016
How to Get Hired as a Social Media Manager (and Then Rock the Job Once You Have It) [SSM03]

What does it take to get hired as a social media manager? Perhaps you’re looking for a job in social (or perhaps you’re hiring for one). There are a ton of different factors that could go into a successful stint on ever-changing social media. Rather than get stuck, we’d love to help you move forward! We had the privilege of speaking with HubSpot VP of Marketing Meghan Keaney Anderson about the specific attributes she looks for when hiring social media managers, as well as how a highly successf

PodcastsSep 15, 2016
How the Very Best Content Curation Is Done on Social Media [SSM002]

What are some of the accounts you love to follow on social media? For us, Moz’s Rand Fishkin and his enjoyable, educational Twitter feed is right near the top. Rand shares all sorts of content on marketing, SEO, technology, and startups, and he does so with a fine eye toward curation. Content curation on social media is a great way to provide value to your audience and build your own brand. Rand has one of the strongest brands anywhere on social — 334,000 Twitter