Blog - Page 66
A collection of 2,507 blog posts
Hi there! Buffer has evolved a lot since we wrote this blog post back in 2015. Some of the content and screenshots are now out-of-date. Check out the new-and-improved Buffer at buffer.com. We do not often write articles focused on Buffer here on the social blog, but we wanted to try something different this time around and hope you will find it useful! If you are already using Buffer to share on Social Media (THANK YOU!!) and are looking for some tiny tweaks that could make the experience bett
Whether you’re a startup, a small business, an agency, or a brand, there’s always such value to be had in going to the drawing board with social media marketing. Setting a mission. Defining goals. Choosing the tools and workflows that’ll get you there. Campaign Monitor, a simple email marketing solution for businesses and professionals, has taken this bottom-up approach to building a social strategy. And we’re honored to share how they’ve done it. Campaign Monitor is a fast-growing, industr
At this exact moment, I have 16 tabs open in my browser. How about you? With the full power of the internet at our disposal, it can be pretty easy to waste precious moments navigating to the…let’s say, less-than-productive corners of the web. I’m as guilty of this as anyone—I’ve even shared extensively how often I get sucked into Facebook! So it’s great that there are quite a few folks out there focused on helping us keep track of what really matters as we surf the web. There’s a particularl
It’s easy to feel like you can grow a loyal audience in no time using the latest growth hacks or Twitter and Facebook tricks. But the truth is, it’s not that simple. Growing an audience is hard. You have to have talent. You have to put in a lot of work. And there’s no 1–2–3 solution. In this post, I’m happy to share some of our experiences from building an audience at Buffer alongside six key ingredients to successfully building an audience. Let’s get started! Why it’s difficult to build
Hi there! This is an out of date post that we’ve kept around for transparency purposes. Learn more about the latest formula and see all the team’s current salaries here. It’s been over 2 years since we first shared our transparent salary formula; we’ve been truly blown away by the response we’ve seen. It’s been incredible to see how many companies have adopted our formula or a similar open formula, and it’s a privilege to be a small part of the larger conversation around pay transp
If you search for information on how Facebook’s Newsfeed algorithm treats posts from 3rd party publishing apps, you’ll find plenty of content suggesting that reach and engagement will be lower through 3rd party posting. As a subject very close to our hearts here at Buffer, we wanted to dive in and share our own thoughts and experiences in this area. The TL;DR version, is that posts from 3rd tools are not penalized and will perform just as well as posts shared natively to Facebook. If you’d li
I’ll be the first to admit it: When I first got hooked on the idea of startups, the goal in my mind was monetary. I wanted to be “financially free” so that I could do all the things I wanted to do but was unable to do due to money. So my first startup was a “big idea.” It could change the world (or at least I thought so), and I would be rewarded enormously for what I would do — given time. After trying a few different ways in order to reach the success I had in mind, I realized that I was unh
October was an unusual month for us, numbers-wise, as a result of us moving from 7-day to 30- day trials of Buffer for Business. Here’s more about that and everything else going on at Buffer in our October 2015 investors’ report. Key metrics * 2,841,519 total registered users (+3.0%) * 226,445 monthly active users (+3.0%) * 55,460 average daily active users (+2.0%) * $650,478 monthly recurring revenue (+1.0%) * $7.81M annual recurring revenue (+1.0%) * $2,546,589 cash in bank * 56 team
Nowadays, in order to grow an audience on social media, it’s not as simple as just posting when you feel like it. Audiences have become more sophisticated over time and as a result it is important to have some sort of social media strategy. In order to start implementing that strategy, a schedule is a must for a lot of businesses. A sharing schedule can help you double your traffic and provide your audience with consistent and valuable information that will make them more likely to follow and
I was talking with Leo the other day about plans to launch a new Buffer feature when he said something that totally rearranged my mind. He diplomatically opened the conversation with an “If we can…” type statement and I immediately keyed in on the uncertainty I heard in that “if”, asking about alternative dates and plans, the likelihood of this or that. Leo quickly corrected what I had heard: “It’s going to happen. There is no backup plan.” And immediately, my brain calmed. Shifted. Crystalli
This is how most companies tackle Twitter: start an account, follow a bunch of people, send a few Tweets about their business and hope for the best. And in some ways there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. These steps are necessary to get up and running and learn the ropes on Twitter. But, the biggest mistake we’re all making is not using two extremely simple Twitter features to their full potential. Replies and mentions. Replies and mentions are two of Twitter’s most powerful features. T
For the first time in October, we saw Buffer’s total team members (bootcampers and full time) rise above 60. The Buffer team has more than doubled since our last retreat in Iceland, and we’re always giving thought to how to better cultivate the Buffer culture. As a result, October’s hiring report focuses on some pretty big changes, including asking the whole team to give us a grade each month so we can keep improving. Read on for all the numbers, experiments and changes in hiring this month!
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. When I first started working on Buffer and learning on sites like TechCrunch about the kinds of amazing perks and benefits some startups provide, I thought unlimited vacation time sounded like such a great idea. Giving everyone the opportunity to unplug whenever they needed felt so right that suddenly the “old world,” where you had a specific number of
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. What job perk could possibly be better than unlimited paid vacation days? Just picture the perfect work/life balance , the quality time you’d spend with family and friends
The good news: your boss or client is totally on board with your running content marketing. (SCORE!) The challenge: she wants to see a content marketing plan . . . and you have NO IDEA what that’s supposed to look like. I’ve been there. It’s a tough situation, because you’ve been doing content marketing with your gut this whole time, and now you’re being asked to put all that into a document. (And the gut-to-document process can be pretty painful.) Plus, you know that awesome content marketin
Editor’s Note: This is an older post, check out our new social media calendar here. Imagine you could plan and manage your social media updates the same way you do your Google or Outlook calendars. We wanted to bring the ease of scheduling events on your calendar right into your Buffer account. Sharing with Buffer will never be the same! Introducing the Social Media Calendar for fully managing all your social accounts, at-a-glance! With the social media calendar, you can plan ahead,
I’ve been a college basketball fan for as long as I can remember. Sports teams are like any other organization: They strive to organize individuals to accomplish shared challenges and goals. As a Michigan Wolverines fan, I’m continually inspired by how Michigan’s coach, John Beilein, accomplishes these goals. Beilein is the only active collegiate coach to have achieved 20-win seasons at four different levels, as well as one of only 6 active Division I coaches with 700 or more career wins. Wha
Whenever I get asked what my favorite book is, I always reply The Pirates Dilemma. The book tells the story of punk, disco, hip-hop, graffiti, and how modern technology has made the ideas and innovations of youth culture increasingly intimate and increasingly global at the same time. It’s truly fascinating. And when you look back, you can see the origins of the current social media revolution can be traced as far back as the 70’s (if not even further). Back in the 70’s punk was the start of
In the world of weight training, it’s well known that having a partner can lead to seeing gains more quickly. And research has shown that those who switch from training alone to using a personal trainer see many improvements. Similarly, pair programming has been shown to improve quality of code, as well as keep both developers in “flow” state for a more sustained period of time. The people around you can have a significant impact on your behavior. If I tell a friend about my goals, I’m much mo
Working on making Buffer an inclusive place where all kinds of people feel they belong and thrive is one of my favorite things. It’s a unique time to be working on diversity goals at a tech startup. On the one hand, there is quite a bit of work to do to make the strides we’d all like to make. On the other hand, there is so much hope and so many cool innovations, programs, and even tools that can help move us toward where we want to be. We’ve shared a lot of our thoughts, strategies and mistake
Of all the things that have been known to keep me awake at night, one of the repeat offenders is thinking of times when I’ve said the totally wrong thing to a person. That embarrassment of putting my foot in my mouth or just rubbing someone the wrong way tends to linger long past the initial moment. Luckily, technology is working on making these sleepless nights a thing of the past! I’m always on the lookout for writing tools that can help me communicate more clearly and empathetically online,
Infographics are such a fun and effective visual way to display information . We at Buffer have certainly used them quite a few times to share information . I always enjoy looking at them, but always feel like there is no way I c
Twitter favorites are changing to Twitter likes. The star is switching to a heart. What might it mean for marketers? We’re thrilled to see the all the latest changes and improvements to Twitter (Twitter hearts come hot on the heels of the announcement for Twitter Polls), and we’re eager to learn what effect it might have on our sharing, engaging, and marketing. As we start experimenting and testing, we’d love to pass along some early thoughts on what we think could happen with the shift from
A while back Danielle Morill asked this question on Twitter: How many startups provide a spreadsheet explaining exactly what would happen to your options given several possible outcomes for the company — Danielle Morrill (@DanielleMorrill) May 13, 2015 Explaining equity is something we try to do as best as we can at Buffer, which Joel shared in his reply. A big learning we’ve had as we’ve added team members is that understanding stock options and putting them into context is not very easy.