Blog - Page 80

A collection of 2,459 blog posts

ResearchAug 6, 2014
What Really Happens When Someone Clicks Your Facebook Like Button

Funny, we’ve had the Facebook Like button along the side of every Buffer blog post for the past several years. And I don’t think I’ve ever clicked it. I’ve hoped that others would, of course. I hope they click all the share buttons. But until now, I’ve never known what that experience was like for the end-user. What’s it like to actually share a story to Facebook? And how can I make it a better experience? We talk a lot about reversing the decline in organic Facebook reach and succeeding wit

OpenAug 5, 2014
The Science of Single-Tasking: How Focus Unlocks Extreme Productivity

How many browser tabs do you have open right now? While writing this post, I had 18 tabs open. I’d like to say they were all for research, although I’m pretty sure one or two slipped down a YouTube wormhole. Does this sound familiar? It seems like my multi-tab madness is right in line with the status quo. We all love to have multiple tabs open at once, adding more and more as we find new articles to click and sites to visit. Pretty soon, it’s likely we’ve forgotten what we were online for in

Online MarketingAug 5, 2014
The Ultimate Guide to Creating Effective Landing Pages

💡Start Page by Buffer is a free, fast, and simple way to build beautiful landing pages. Build your page (in 60 seconds) here. OK, let’s be honest. While this may be a pretty darn good guide (if I do say so myself), it’s not going to be the last thing anyone ever writes about landing pages. So what’s with the “ultimate guide” stuff? Well, it’s part of what brought you here—which makes it one component of an effective landing page. You are, right this very minute, looking at a landing page. Te

What is a Community Champion? Inside the World of Buffer’s Community Builder

A question I hear from time to time when I introduce myself and my title here at Buffer is, “What is a community champion?” Well, that’s a great question! My immediate response is, “I send out love to our customers all day.” But it’s so much more than that. The typical community manager role (though this role truly varies from company to company) often includes social media management and engagement, content marketing and networking and connecting with customers. At smaller companies, the com

ResourcesAug 4, 2014
The 10 Best Social Media SlideShare Presentations

One of my favorite visual social networks —and one that probably flies under the radar compared to other visual spots—is SlideShare . Browse through the featured slidedecks, and you can find big ideas and helpful strategies condensed into a couple dozen simple, succinct slides. There are few better ways to consume killer content so quickly. In writin

Social Media Strategy: How Much Time Does a Good Strategy Really Take?

I have a blog post to write. This blog post, to be exact. And in the course of researching, outlining, writing, editing, and writing some more, I also have other hats to wear. Email marketing. Social media strategy. Blog promotion, blog design, and anything else that should happen across my plate. I’m sure you wear a lot of hats, too. How do you find time to put them all on? One of my tasks that I’m currently optimizing is implementing a social media strategy at Buffer. In the midst of writi

OpenJul 30, 2014
What I Learned From Sailing Across the Atlantic

Last year I decided to sail across the Atlantic. I previously had spent 3 months learning how to sail in South Africa and figured that learning should be put to good use–otherwise there’s no point, is there? After some quick research, I decided to join the 270 boats crossing the Atlantic with the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) in November 2013: “Every November since 1986 the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) has set sail from Las Palmas, bound 2,700 nautical miles westward across the Atlan

Self-ImprovementJul 29, 2014
Enjoy All the Moments: How to Find Gratitude in Any Task

When I look back on the times I’ve done the most productive work on my startup, it has always been when I’ve had a great balance of work and rest . It has also been at times when I have genuinely been enjoying the moment . Steve Jobs suggests that in order to do great work, we should love doing t

Content MarketingJul 29, 2014
How and Why To Write Persuasive, Research-Backed Content

A few weeks ago, we tried a little experiment. We tested two different headlines for one of our blog posts. The first used a headline that teased the post’s content: The second used a similar headline, but we made it clear that the post was backed by data: The results were more than a bit surprising: Now, I admit, we expected the variant that mentioned research to win. But we didn’t expect the delta to be more than 40%! For us, that small test shaped a new way of thinking about what makes

ResourcesJul 28, 2014
Always Have an Amazing Link to Share: 25 Newsletters and Tools to Discover Shareable Content

We tend to read a lot of content at Buffer. And I mean a lot. Inside the Buffer product, we aim to solve the problem of “what should I share next?” by providing the content suggestions for you—25 of them, each and every day, hand-picked by Courtney and our suggestions team. We share 25 stories per day. We read even more that don’t make the cut. Where do we turn to find so much shareable content? I’ll be happy to let you in on our not-so-secret sources—some of our favorite newsletters, tools,

ResearchJul 25, 2014
Why Your Social Media Posts Are More Popular Than You Think: Inside the Invisible Audience

Awesome news: 490 people saw a tweet I sent out this week! Awesomer still, 16 people either clicked the link, left a reply, or favorited the tweet. And as for the other 474 people? I couldn’t tell you. Did they enjoy the tweet? Did they notice it? Did it delight them? Did it—eep!—offend them? And perhaps most importantly, what can I learn from these quiet observers so that, when I send my next tweet, those 474 followers find a reason to click, reply, retweet, or favorite? Meet social media’s

Self-ImprovementJul 24, 2014
Why Sleep Matters So Much and 15 Things We’re Improving This Week

We’ve talked in the past about how often exercise and reading pop up on our self-improvement lists at Buffer. Another element you’ll almost always spot on our goals list is sleep—getting more sleep, getting to sleep earlier or getting into a better sleep routine are a few popular variations on the theme. Curious why sleep matters so m

BufferchatJul 24, 2014
38 Tools for Getting More Ideas: An Idea Generation #Bufferchat Recap

What are the best ways to generate fresh content to keep feeding the blog or social media stream? This week’s #Bufferchat discussed just that with Courtney Seiter, Buffer’s head of content marketing. We were so excited to have our largest attendance yet—197 contributors and 1800 tweets—and to see so many new, bright and shiny faces! Check out the full Storify curation here. Here’s a look at some of the tips and tools highlighted in the chat! What is the best way to find out what content yo

How We Stay in Sync as a Distributed Team: The Buffer Pair Call

Most companies have meetings of some sort. Many startups have daily standups . As a fully remote and distributed team with members in a variety of countries, continents and time zones , Buffer meetings have to be a bit diff

Self-ImprovementJul 23, 2014
How and Why to Create a Sleep Ritual

My first post on my personal blog was one where I pondered whether exercise is a requirement for sleep . The post was actually triggered by my inability to sleep, and I wrote it in the middle of the night. Since then, I have made a number of adjustments and I now sleep much better, so I’d like to share what I’ve changed. Why create a

Content MarketingJul 23, 2014
9 Informative Infographics To Guide Your Visual Content Marketing

Since visual content arrived on the scene back in 2012, it has showed no signs of stopping. Best practices on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter always reference images and videos as key elements for driving engagement. Graphics and visuals on blog posts are one of the best ways to get the most value and deliver the best experience for your content. Visuals are a big deal. If you need any more convincing, or if you’d simply like to hear the argument in a beautiful visual form, I roun

ReportsJul 22, 2014
Buffer’s June Investor Update: 7% MRR, Introducing Daily and More

June was a great month, here’s the latest: Traction update * New users: 60,530 (Total: 1,598,049, from 1,537,519: +3.9%) * Daily active users: 39,752 (up from 39,559: +0.5%) * Monthly active users: 158,894 (down from 160,241: -0.8%) * Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): $303,000 (Annual: $3,636,000 up from $3,396,000: +7.0%) * Cash in bank: $715,000 (last month: $653,000) * Team size: 25 people across 5 continents We’ve been super happy to keep up consistent MRR growth, with 7% growth ag

Self-ImprovementJul 22, 2014
My Month of Minimalism: How I Decluttered My Life

I have a lot of stuff. That’s not really meant to be a brag—far from it. More just a statement of fact. Amazon deliveries arrive all the time. Knickknacks and little gifts and random tchotzkes take over spaces. I can’t stop buying art. And plants. And why do I have so many nail polishes? It’s one of life’s mysteries. You probably have a lot of stuff, too. When did life start to feel so overstuffed? When I discovered The Minimalists recently via an interview

Guides & CoursesJul 22, 2014
The Ultimate Guide to Outreach on Social Media: 4 Ways to Get Responses From the Popular and Famous

Selling is tough. It can be scary. It can be intimidating. But if you wanna succeed in this life, you’ve gotta learn how to do it. As the founder of Hustle Con, the startup conference for non-technical founders, I’ve been throwing conferences for a while now—and that means the team and I have done a TON of selling. Whether it’s a $10,000 sponsorship or 350 tickets to a conference, we’ve learned the tactics to convince people to act. In this post, I’ll show you 4 step-by-step methods that use s

ResearchJul 21, 2014
Improve Your Social Media Marketing With These 5 Quizzes: Understanding the Social Media Personality of You and Your Audience

Whenever I find myself doing research for new social media tips, the studies and resources I find are always fascinating. Not only is the intense depth of academia inspiring, the methods that researchers use for collecting information are so intriguing. I often wish I could be involved in studies like these, just so I can take the tests, try the quizzes, and see how I’d be evaluated. Some of the most fun ones to consider are those that involve different types of social sharing. They seek to pr

Self-ImprovementJul 21, 2014
How Successful People Start Their Day: The Best Morning Routines for Feeling Great and Getting Work Done

Whether you’re a morning person or a night owl, we all start our day at some point. And we all seem to start it differently. Some of us hop online to check social media, others dive in to email, still others eat breakfast, exercise, or pack lunches for the kids. There’re a million different ways a morning could go. Which morning routine might be best? While there’s probably not an ideal morning routine that fits everyone, we can learn a lot from the morning routines of successful people as we

BufferchatJul 17, 2014
Lee Odden on The Future of Digital Marketing: A #Bufferchat Recap

In this week’s #Bufferchat, Lee Odden , CEO of Top Rank Marketing and expert on all things marketing, joined us to share his thoughts and lead a discussion on “What’s next in digital marketing?” Inspired by the voices of experts in Lee’s post on Top Rank Online Marketing Blog, “21 Digital Marketing Trends and Predictions for 2015 ,” the #Bufferchat reflected many of these predictions and spurred

Self-ImprovementJul 17, 2014
The Power of Reading (And 16 Things We’re Improving This Week)

Escaping into a good book is one of my favorite activities, so I could hardly believe it when I learned that working at Buffer meant a free Kindle and the license to grab any book I wanted, anytime! (In fact, I snagged two today.) You’ll notice that reading shows up again and again in our improvements—fiction and non-fiction, business books and pleasure reading. Why? Because we know that reading makes us better writers [http://blog.bufferap

Online MarketingJul 17, 2014
How “I Don’t Know” Can Make You An Authority in Your Industry

One thing I’ve learned at Buffer is that being open to not knowing things seems to be the best way to learn quickly and teach others at the same time. So many of our biggest hits on the blog have come from saying, “We don’t know the answer. Let’s find out!” On many matters, we haven’t any authority. Is this an OK way to get by? We’ve found great success in not knowing, and there’s no reason why you can’t, too. While we can certainly see the value in establishing yourself as an authority in yo