Blog - Page 53
A collection of 2,507 blog posts
How do you go from having no conference — from almost having no marketing team, just you being the 9th employee and one of the very first marketers — to a marketing conference of 1,000 attendees, acclaimed in your industry, a must-attend destination on the annual events calendar? How do you do all of that in just four years? We had the pleasure of speaking with Stefanie Grieser, International Marketing Manager at Unbounce, about the multifaceted strategies that go into marketing and growing on
Editor’s note: This is a multi-part series chronicling the journey of Buffer’s data analyst, Matt, as he and his wife and two dogs journey across America in an RV while remote working. Check out part one here! Hello from the road! I shared a bit in Part One about how a random “what if” question over a bottle of wine on the porch of our home in Boulder, Colorado spawned a total uprooting of our suburban life. Now myself, my wife, Jenna, and our two dogs are out on the road, traveling the Unite
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 transparenc
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
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
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 September Paying customers 63,273 +2.9% MAU 276,314 +2.8% WAU 172,468 +2.6% * Cash in bank: $1.75M (+12.2%) * 79 team
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
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 the privilege of speaking with entreprenuer and social media expert, Neil Patel, about specific ways ma
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
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
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’
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 our brand new State of Socia
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
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
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, entrepreneur and co-founder of KISSmetrics, Crazy Egg and Quick Sprout, about the most important m
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 up with posting. Has the same been true for you? I’ve always known that Google+ is good for SEO reasons, personal branding, and content
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 takin
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
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 (
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 Business trials in September 6,234 +1.32% Converted Buffer for Business trial
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 transparent product roadmap. Rolling out Respond 2 with lots of improvements In O
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
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 clinical preventive care, it would save more than 100,000 lives per year, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet 3 out of 5 of American workers feel uncomfortable leaving
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