As a marketer, I've always wanted to be data-informed but not data-driven. I know that data on its own won't make my content stand out (originality and creativity are more important than ever!), but it can help my creative juices flow in the right direction.

Which is why I'm so glad to be writing this: we rebuilt Buffer's analytics from the ground up, and today we're launching Insights — analytics that help you figure out your next move.

Analytics is something we've wanted to re-imagine for a long time, so this one is close to my heart. I believe what we've built is powerful and unlike anything else out there. Here's how they are different.

Insights for everyone, for free

Insights is designed for everyone on social, from the solo creator checking one channel to the agency juggling a dozen client brands.

For a long time, the choice in social analytics has been a frustrating one. You either use a simple tool and accept basic data, or you pay for an enterprise platform that gives you everything except a clear answer to the one question that matters: what should I do next? Insights gives you powerful, actionable insights on the free plan, with deeper reporting on paid plans when you need it.

We felt strongly about building this because it's what our own teammates need: analytics we can act on.

Your data wherever you want it

Insights works with the rest of your stack, including AI agents. We recently launched our public API and an MCP server, so you can query your data and build with it however you like.

Your numbers aren't trapped behind our dashboard. Pull them into your own reports and tools, or hand them straight to an agent to do the heavy lifting.

Everything you need to make your next move

Here's what you'll be able to do right from Insights:

• Generate weekly takeaways: get growth tactics based on real, personalized data.
• Compare performance: See data across 10 platforms in a single view, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Threads, YouTube, X, Pinterest, Bluesky, and Mastodon. Insights supports both personal and business profiles.
• Change the time period with natural language: type what you want to see, "last 90 days" or "this quarter" simply works.
• Export to PDF, CSV, or markdown: whether you're handing results to a client or feeding them to an agent.
• See top posts at a glance: your best performers are easy to spot and replicate.
• Share your wins with share cards: for a well-earned humblebrag straight to social.

AI that works in the background

We've added AI to Insights, and it works like magic in the background, reading what's already working in your channels and helping you act on it. It points your own creativity in the right direction without trying to replace it. Our hope is that insights can help elevate what you're already doing.

A partner you can trust

We're an official partner to Meta, LinkedIn, X, and more. In practice, that means two things you never have to think about: your account stays safe, and you get the latest features on each platform as they roll out.

Built for where you're headed

Insights opens up a lot of new ground. Deeper reporting for agencies, cross-channel comparisons for brands, plain-language takeaways for creators who'd rather make things than read charts. Wherever you want to take your work next, the numbers to get you there are built in.

Take a look for yourself. Insights is live today at buffer.com/insights.

When I first started posting on LinkedIn consistently, I couldn’t understand why some posts were a huge hit, while others flopped. That is, until I started monitoring my social media analytics.

Suddenly, it all became much clearer: I had data that pointed to which hooks grabbed the most attention, what posting times got the most engagement, plus the ideal length for a post. Everything clicked.

The clues are out there for you, too, right in your analytics. But if you're running multiple platforms, manually piecing together insights from each one's native dashboard is a real time sink — and native analytics have some frustrating blind spots too (LinkedIn, for instance, doesn't show timestamps on past posts, which makes it really tricky to figure out your best posting times).

That's where third-party social media analytics tools come in. I've tested 11 of them for this list and organized everything by use case, so you can skip straight to what fits your needs. Creator, marketer, small business, enterprise — there's something here for everyone.

Key takeaways

• Analytics tools vs. management tools: Dedicated analytics tools focus purely on measurement. Social media management tools (like Buffer) bundle analytics with scheduling, engagement, and more. For most creators and small teams, the all-in-one option is often the best choice.
• Native platform analytics have real gaps: Most social media networks offer built-in insights, but they don't always show what you need — and if you're running multiple platforms, you'll spend a lot of time manually piecing data together. Third-party tools solve both problems.
• Prices range from free to $239+/month: Buffer, Social Status, and Tailwind offer free tiers. Rival IQ starts at $239/month. Most mid-market tools fall in the $49–$100/month range — creators and small teams rarely need the enterprise-tier options.

What is social media analytics?

Social media analytics are the metrics that show how your content performs across social platforms — data like reach, impressions, engagement rate, click-through rate, and follower growth. Tracking them tells you not just how many likes a post earned, but why it worked and what to publish next.

It answers questions like:

• Which are my best content types?
• When is my audience the most engaged?
• What kind of content gets followers talking?
• What kind of content is best for reaching new followers?

Social media analytics help you measure your performance and benchmark it against your social media goals.

You'll sometimes see this called social media data analysis, and the two are close cousins. Social media analytics are the numbers themselves — reach, engagement, follower growth. Social media data analysis is the act of digging into those numbers to spot patterns and decide what to do next.

Do all social media platforms offer native analytics?

Yes, they do. All major social media networks provide native insights within their platform. But there are a few issues when you rely solely on them:

Social media networks don't always provide the insights you need. For instance, LinkedIn doesn't show timestamps on past posts, making it tricky to understand what days and times are best to reach your audience.

Relying on native insights alone won't give you the full picture. Let's say you're running a large-scale social media campaign and using multiple social media networks. You'll have to manually cobble insights from all of them if you rely only on each channel's native insights. In contrast, on many social media analytics tools, you can gather all posts under one tab and monitor collective insights on how your campaign performed across channels.

Social media analytics software collects and helps you make sense of your performance data — so you can spend less time tracking and more time improving your social media strategy.

Analytics vs. reporting: what's the difference?

These terms get used interchangeably, but they're actually two parts of the same process. Analytics is the act of collecting and measuring data — it answers the "what happened?" and "why did it happen?" questions. Reporting takes that analysis and presents it in a clear, shareable format for stakeholders, clients, or your own team.

In practice, the best social media reporting tools handle both. They pull your raw data (analytics) and organize it into dashboards, PDFs, or branded presentations (reporting). Some tools lean more heavily into one or the other — Buffer, for instance, does both.

Knowing which you need matters: if you're a solo creator, you probably just want the analytics dashboard. If you're an agency managing client accounts, automated, white-label reporting is a game-changer.

The 4 types of social media analytics

Understanding the different types of analytics helps you know what to look for in a tool:

1. Descriptive analytics — What happened? Raw metrics like impressions, clicks, and engagement counts. Every analytics tool starts here.
2. Diagnostic analytics — Why did it happen? Why did this post outperform that one? Tools that dig into content type, posting time, and audience behavior sit here.
3. Predictive analytics — What will happen? Based on past performance, which content types will your audience engage with next? More advanced tools offer this.
4. Prescriptive analytics — What should you do? Not just predicting what will happen, but recommending the exact action to take. Some advanced tools venture here.

Most social media analytics tools focus on descriptive and diagnostic analytics, which will be exactly what most creators and marketers need. Premium tools like Socialinsider and Talkwalker push into predictive territory, but come at a (you guessed it) premium cost.

Social media analytics tools vs. management tools

There are dedicated social media analytics tools that only show insights from social media posts. And then there is social media management software that encompasses social media analytics along with scheduling posts, engaging with your audience, storing ideas, etc. This list contains options for both. But which one should you choose?

Choose social media management software if you're a creator, a one-person team, or a small marketing team managing your entire social media strategy.

Choose a dedicated social media analytics tool if you've already covered other aspects of your social media strategy (either manually or with another tool) and/or if you need specific insights about your social media efforts that a management tool can't provide.

In most cases, social media managers and creators will likely prefer one-stop social media management tools. Having everything in one place just makes life easier.

That said, there are times when standalone social media analytics tools might make more sense:

• When you need very specific insights — like competitive analysis — standalone tools often work better. Many social management tools offer competitor analysis, but a standalone tool often digs deeper and can provide more useful insights.
• When you're on a shoestring budget and managing your content calendar and social media engagement manually. Maybe you can't afford comprehensive social management software for multiple social media channels. But you might be able to swing a social media analytics tool that's a bit more budget-friendly.

What makes the best social media analytics tool?

After testing these 11 tools, here's what I looked for — and what I'd suggest you weigh when picking one:

• Platform coverage: Does it support the social networks you actually use? Some tools cover 12+ platforms; others only handle 3–4. Check before you commit.
• Ease of use: Can you find the metrics you need without a tutorial? The best tools surface key insights immediately — not behind five clicks and a custom report builder.
• Reporting capabilities: If you need to share results with a team, client, or stakeholder, look for tools with automated, customizable reports. Manual copy-pasting from dashboards is a time sink.
• Competitor benchmarking: Can you see how your metrics stack up against competitors, or are you flying blind? A nice-to-have, but something most free tools don't offer.
• Pricing transparency: Some tools don't publish pricing. I've noted this where applicable — it's worth factoring into your decision if you don't have the time for lengthy sales calls and negotiations.
• Integrations: Does it play nicely with your existing stack? Tools that connect to Google Analytics, your CRM, or your project management software save you time.
• Audience analytics: Can you see who's actually engaging (demographics, interests, and how your audience is growing) or just surface-level counts? Audience-level data can help you understand whether you're reaching the right people, rather than just more.

Quick summary of the 11 best social media analytics tools

1. Buffer

Best social media analytics tool for creators, growing teams, and agencies

I practically live in Buffer, and Insights, its social media analytics dashboard, is one of my favorite tabs. Instead of throwing a wall of numbers at you (a pet peeve of mine), it surfaces the metrics that matter and helps you work out what to do with them. Exactly what you need when you're a strapped-for-time creator, social media manager, or agency owner.

The part I lean on most is Takeaways: AI-powered observations that read your recent performance, flag what's working, point out older posts worth resharing, and even open the composer with a prompt based on what's been landing. It's the difference between staring at a chart and knowing your next move.

You also get the raw data when you want it, for a single channel or all of them at once:

• Follower growth over time
• Impressions and reach
• Engagement and engagement rate
• A Performance per Post table that ranks your posts by engagement rate, so your best content rises to the top
• Comparisons against the previous period, last month, or last year

You can filter any of it by tag to see how a content pillar or campaign performed, then export polished PDF or CSV reports (or copy your data as markdown straight into an AI tool, like Claude or ChatGPT) in a few clicks — no manual copy-pasting.

Pricing: Free plan for up to three channels, with the last 30 days of data. Historical data, custom date ranges, and exports are on paid plans, from $6 per month.

Supported social media platforms: Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Pinterest, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube

2. Rival IQ

Best social media analytics tool for large agencies

Rival IQ stands out for its in-depth competitive benchmarking, making it the go-to choice for large social media agencies. It offers deep social media analytics and other related tools — like competitor analysis and social listening — built right into its analytics platform. Instead of paying for three separate tools, you can go with one.

Their pricing is designed for social media agencies:

• You can add at least 10 companies (your clients) to your account
• If you want to add more, you can add five companies for $50 per month
• You can swap the companies whose performance you're tracking

Compared to other social media analytics tools, I was impressed with its competitive benchmarking. Rival IQ shows when your competitor's posts are likely boosted, compares brand positioning (such as social media bios and other profile attributes), and benchmarks your performance within your social media niche and your chosen competitors.

As an agency, competitive analysis plays an important part in informing the social media strategy and social media reporting of your clients. Rival IQ makes that a breeze.

Pricing: Plans start at $239 per month. Free 14-day trial available.

Supported platforms: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, YouTube

3. Keyhole

Best social media analytics tool for market research

Keyhole excels at historical insights paired with market research — particularly if you need to understand how conversations on a topic have evolved over time. Like Rival IQ, it also has competitive analysis features (and even influencer marketing features), but its real strength is in long-range data.

In historical insights, you can unlock data as old as a decade (the nerd in me loves this feature). What was your audience saying about an important topic five years ago? How has their opinion shifted today? What were the most engaging posts on this topic in this timeframe?

In market research, thanks to Keyhole's machine learning system, you can identify emerging trends on any topic. You can see a real-time evolution of how your audience's sentiments are evolving on a subject.

These social media analytics can give you powerful insights into developing your products and services: you can see what has stood the test of time and how the conversation on a topic has changed.

One catch is that the historical insights are only available for X (formerly Twitter). Sure, it has been the go-to place for conversation in the past, but I would've loved it if other social media platforms were included in the historical insights, too. And these reports cost extra — starting at $50 and increasing depending on the volume of X posts you're analyzing.

Pricing: Not publicly available.

Supported platforms: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, YouTube

4. Social Status

Best social media analytics tool for small businesses running ads and influencer partnerships

Social Status is one of the top social media analytics tools for small businesses running ads and managing influencer partnerships as part of their social media strategy.

If you're a small business that just wants to measure its performance across organic and paid social strategies, Social Status is a pretty solid fit. It provides the key performance indicators (likes, impressions, comments, shares, etc.) and also:

• Ad analytics (only for Meta, LinkedIn, and X)
• Competitor analytics (only in the paid plan)
• Influencer analytics (only in the higher tier plans)
• Customized social media performance reports on higher-tier plans

Social media managers who practice advertising, collect user-generated content, and dabble in organic social media marketing have a lot on their plate (to say the least). Social Status makes it easy to collate all your insights in a single dashboard.

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $9 per month for small businesses, and $99 for other users.

Supported platforms: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, YouTube

5. Siftsy

Best social media analytics tool for analyzing your comments

Comments often reveal the "why" behind the numbers. Ever wish an analytics tool could surface those insights for you? Siftsy does exactly that.

Designed to pull sentiment from comments across multiple channels, Siftsy works like this: upload a CSV of post URLs, tag your campaign, and let the AI do the heavy lifting.

Analyzing your comments can be beneficial in various scenarios:

• When you want to do a qualitative analysis of an influencer partnership
• When you want to get feedback about a product or an experimental social media post
• When you want automated reports about the overall sentiment of a social media campaign

The numeric data in post analytics are great, but combining them with the qualitative comments' sentiment makes them even more powerful. Siftsy's AI even summarizes the key takeaways and highlights valuable insights from specific conversations for you.

Pricing: Not publicly available.

Supported platforms: Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, YouTube

6. Vista Social

Best social media analytics tool for tracking reviews and social metrics

Vista Social takes what Siftsy does a step further. It's not only a social media analytics tool; it can also help you schedule posts, manage your comments and social inbox, and practice social listening.

Where Vista Social really shines is review management. It pulls feedback from multiple sites into one dashboard so you can:

• See every new review from Facebook, Google Business, Yelp, and more side-by-side
• Reply to reviews and social comments without switching tabs
• Create filtered, branded reports that combine social metrics and review sentiment

Pricing: Plans start at $79 per month. Free 14-day trial available with each plan.

Supported platforms: Bluesky, Facebook, Google Business, Google Play Store, Instagram, LinkedIn, OpenTable, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, TripAdvisor, Trustpilot, Tumblr, X, Yelp, YouTube, and more

7. Typefully

Best social media analytics tool if you’re only focused on X (formerly Twitter)

Typefully is one of the best social media analytics tools for X (formerly Twitter). While it supports multiple social media channels, it aces X like no other. I especially love writing X threads on it — the user experience is great. The "viral thread hooks" examples it contains are also top-notch for inspiration.

Typefully also provides social media metrics that are unique to X. For example, your dashboard would refer to comments as "replies" because that's the unique terminology for X.

A unique metric I love in Typefully is "profile conversion rate," which tells you how many people in your target audience who visited your X profile hit the follow button. This is such a helpful data point because it helps gain insights on:

• How effective is your profile image, bio, and pinned tweet in converting a visitor to a follower
• How your target audience discovers your social media profile through other sources (like web traffic, podcast mentions, etc.)

Apart from this, Typefully provides all the essential social media metrics such as number of posts, follower growth, impressions, profile visits, etc.

Pricing: Free plan available for 15 posts per month. Paid plans start at $16 per month and have compulsory yearly billing.

Supported platforms: Bluesky, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Threads, X

8. Tailwind

Best social media analytics tool for businesses relying on Pinterest traffic

Tailwind is one of the best social media tools for small businesses focused on using Pinterest marketing to drive traffic. Since Pinterest functions differently (it's a social media channel and a search engine), Tailwind has designed its tool to complement both.

What stands out is the Google Analytics integration, which can help determine which pins drive the most traffic to your website. Using this data, you can double down on the most successful pins and recreate them.

For a Pinterest-specific social media analytics platform, you need many more key performance indicators because of how pins, boards, and trends function on the platform. Tailwind delivers. You can access Pinterest analytics from the high level to the individual pin:

• Track engagement metrics for your boards and pins, including trends for repins
• A "Pin Inspector" helps you monitor the insights for individual pins and understand which pins you should reschedule
• Interest heatmaps help gain actionable insights into whether your social posts are resonating with your target audience
• Board insights help you understand which boards of yours are performing the best — and you can filter them for boards garnering the most outbound links, too

When it comes to Pinterest, few social media tools do a better job than Tailwind — and that includes its social media analytics capabilities.

Pricing: Free plan available for five posts per month. Paid plans begin at $29.99 per month.

Supported platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest

9. DashThis

Best social media analytics tool for an all-in-one marketing dashboard

DashThis isn't a social media tool, exactly — it's a marketing dashboard that happens to be really good at pulling social data into the bigger picture.

If you're the person on your team who has to show how social media fits into the overall marketing strategy (and prove it's worth the investment), DashThis makes that a lot easier. You can combine social metrics with Google Analytics, ad performance, and other marketing data into one report — which is handy when your stakeholders don't want to look at six different dashboards.

DashThis has over 30 integrations to help you connect Google Analytics, Ahrefs, HubSpot, and many more platforms. You can also keep an eye on paid marketing efforts — like TikTok Ads, Meta Business Suite, Pinterest ads, and even Google ads — to provide a combined report of your organic and paid strategy.

I wouldn't recommend using DashThis if you need in-depth social media performance insights — it provides the basic audience insights report, likes, comments, shares, impressions, etc. It's the ability to integrate with other marketing tools in your tech stack (over 30 of them) that makes it stand out.

I also love that each plan has unlimited users, making DashThis perfect for a large marketing team. There's also no cap on how many data sources you can add, so don't worry if your marketing strategy has a ton of moving parts. You can combine them all in this one analytics tool.

Pricing: Plans begin at $54 per month. There's a 15-day free trial with every plan.

Supported platforms: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube

10. Socialinsider

Best social media analytics tool for AI-driven content pillar insights

Socialinsider is an advanced social media analytics tool that offers AI-driven insights about your content pillars. In the higher tier plans, you can also run an AI-driven competitor analysis that lets you check if a certain pillar works well for a competitor. You can then consider tailoring and using it in your own strategy.

I also love the post tagging feature — here, you can tag and group social media posts and monitor how they're performing collectively. It's just the feature you'd need when you want to monitor how your different social media campaigns or content pillars have performed.

The only catch is the price of Socialinsider is prohibitive for most creators and small teams, since the best features of Socialinsider are restricted to the higher-tier plans.

Pricing: Plans start at $99 per month. All plans have a 14-day free trial.

Supported platforms: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, YouTube

11. Talkwalker

Best social media analytics tool for in-depth audience insights

Where Talkwalker stands out is in audience analytics. You can pull insights from customer calls, support tickets, and online communities, then slice your audience by demographics to see what each segment actually cares about — a real shortcut when you're hunting for content ideas.

I also love the audience segmentation features. You can slice and dice your data based on audience demographics. This can help garner actionable insights about the various segments of your social media audience, which is especially useful if you're a global brand.

You can also chat with Talkwalker's AI assistant, Yeti, to ask questions about various audience demographics and access relevant insights at your fingertips.

If you wish Talkwalker could also help you manage your social media marketing efforts, you're in luck: Hootsuite acquired Talkwalker in 2024. With Hootsuite, you can schedule your posts, manage your inbox, and measure your social media performance, all in one place.

The snag is that most of Talkwalker's features are only available in the higher-tier Hootsuite plans — which isn't easy on the pocket even with its lowest-tier subscription ($199 per month).

Pricing: Not publicly available.

Supported platforms: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, X, and more

How to track your social media metrics

Knowing which tool to use is half the job. The other half is actually using that data to adjust your social media strategy (and shape your next post).

Here's the process I follow.

1. Start with your goal, not the metric

It's tempting to track everything, but that's the fastest way to end up blinking at a page of numbers and graphs. Pick your social media goal first, then match the metric to it:

• Awareness: reach, impressions, follower growth
• Engagement: engagement rate, saves, shares, comments
• Traffic: click-through rate and link clicks
• Conversions: conversion rate and cost per lead

If a number doesn't tie back to a goal, you have my full permission to ignore it!

2. Get everything into one view

I'm a big believer in reducing the friction. Logging into Instagram Insights, then TikTok, then LinkedIn, then copying it all into a spreadsheet will take hours — and that's before you've actually analyzed anything.

Pulling every channel into one place is exactly what a tool like Buffer's Insights is built for.

You can compare performance across 10+ networks — Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Threads, X, Pinterest, Bluesky, and Mastodon — in a single social media analytics dashboard.

Helps that it's beautiful to look at, too.

3. Look for the 'why,' rather than just the 'what'

Raw numbers tell you what happened. The useful part is why. Which post type pulled in new followers? What topics got folks talking?

This is where Insights does a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Its Takeaways feature analyzes your performance and spotlights patterns in an easy-to-understand way. It also makes helpful recommendations on what needs your attention next.

4. Set a cadence you'll stick to

Analytics only pay off when you check them consistently. A quick weekly review is enough to spot which posts are landing and when your audience engages with you. Save the deeper dive — month-over-month trends, what to shift in your strategy — for once a month. If you're running a campaign, check in daily until it wraps.

5. Turn it into a repeatable report

Once you know what you're tracking, build a report you can regenerate in a few clicks instead of rebuilding from scratch each time. If you're reporting to a client or a manager, exportable PDF and CSV reports save you the hassle of copy-pasting.

Bonus: You can use Buffer's MCP to connect Insights directly to your AI tool of choice.

Let your analytics tools deal with the data

Instead of spending hours crunching numbers, you can focus your time on analyzing what the data tells you: Which are my best types of posts? How can I replicate my previous success? What should I shift in my strategy to improve my return on investment?

And if the tool offers ready-made report templates, even better — you can spin up a polished, share-worthy deck in minutes and get back to the creative work.

Having tested all of these tools, I find Buffer to be one of the easiest to get up and running — especially if you're looking for something that covers both scheduling and analytics without the learning curve. The free plan lets you test whether the interface matches how you think before committing to anything. No credit card needed.

FAQ about social media analytics tools

What is a social media analytics tool?

A social media analytics tool collects data from your social media accounts and presents it in ways that help you understand what's working. This includes metrics like reach, impressions, engagement rate, click-through rate, and audience demographics. Some tools also add competitor comparison, social listening, and predictive insights. The goal is to turn raw numbers into actionable intelligence — knowing not just that a post got 500 likes, but why it did and what to do next.

What is a social media analytics dashboard?

A social media analytics dashboard is a single screen that pulls your metrics from every platform into one place — so instead of checking Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn separately, you see reach, engagement, and follower growth side by side. The best ones go a step further and crunch the numbers for you, to show you what is working and why. (Check out how we approach this in our guide to building a social media dashboard.)

Why are social media analytics important?

Social media analytics help you prove ROI, identify which content drives traffic and conversions, and optimize your posting strategy based on real data instead of guesswork. Over time, this data helps you create more effective content, grow your audience faster, and make smarter marketing decisions. Teams that track social media metrics and adjust strategy based on data consistently outperform those that post and hope.

What metrics should you track on social media?

The most helpful metrics depend on your goals:

• For awareness: Reach, impressions, and follower growth
• For engagement: Engagement rate, saves, shares, and comments
• For traffic: Click-through rate and link clicks
• For conversions: Conversion rate, cost per lead, and attribution

Most teams should track at minimum: reach, impressions, engagement rate, click-through rate, audience growth, and conversion rate. Use these as your baseline, then drill deeper into the metrics tied to your specific business outcome.

What are the 4 types of social media analytics?

The four types are descriptive (what happened — raw metrics like impressions and clicks), diagnostic (why it happened — content type and timing analysis), predictive (what will happen — trend forecasting based on past data), and prescriptive (what you should do — AI-powered action recommendations). Most analytics tools focus on descriptive and diagnostic. Only premium tools venture into predictive and prescriptive territory.

How do you choose a social media analytics tool?

Start with these questions: How many accounts do you manage? Do you need competitor benchmarking or just your own data? Do you need automated reporting for clients or stakeholders? What's your budget? Then test the free tier or trial of 2–3 tools that fit your criteria. Look at ease of use, data accuracy, reporting capabilities, and integrations with your existing stack. Don't get sold on features you don't need — choose the simplest tool that solves your core problem.

What is the difference between social media analytics and insights?

"Insights" is the term social platforms use for their native analytics (Instagram Insights, TikTok Analytics, etc.). "Analytics" usually refers to third-party tools that aggregate data from multiple platforms and add features like competitor comparison, cross-platform reporting, and trend analysis. Native insights are free but limited to your own data on a single platform. Third-party analytics tools cost money but give you more flexibility and cross-platform visibility.

Do you need a social media analytics tool if platforms already provide data?

Native analytics are useful for basic performance tracking, but they have real limits. They only show your own data, don't compare you to competitors, are hard to customize, and don't integrate with the rest of your marketing stack. If you're managing multiple accounts, need competitor benchmarking, or build reports for stakeholders, a third-party tool is worth the investment. If you're a solo creator tracking basic performance on one platform, native analytics might be enough to start.

How often should you check your social media analytics?

Most creators and social media managers benefit from checking analytics at least once a week. A quick weekly review helps you spot patterns — which posts performed best, when your audience was most active, and what topics resonated. A deeper monthly review is useful for evaluating long-term trends and refining your overall social media strategy. If you're running a campaign, daily check-ins make sense until it wraps up.

What's the difference between analytics tools and social media management tools?

Dedicated analytics tools focus purely on measuring performance and generating reports. Social media management tools combine analytics with other features like scheduling posts, managing comments, and storing content ideas. For many creators and small teams, a management tool with built-in analytics is the best option — having everything in one place just makes life easier. But if you need very deep analytics (like competitive benchmarking or sentiment analysis), a standalone analytics tool is worth adding to your stack.

More social media analytics resources

• 2026 Social Media Benchmarks You Can Use to Guide Your Strategy
• TikTok Analytics for Creators and Brands: The Metrics That Actually Matter
• New in Buffer: LinkedIn Profile Analytics
• 12 Social Media Metrics You Should Be Tracking (And Why)

Dustin Kuhns started using Buffer back in 2023. Today, he runs social media for a roster of arts and culture organizations, managing more than 10 social media channels. Buffer just fits the way he prefers to work, so he’s stuck with it as his business expanded. 

At a glance

• Customer: Dustin Kuhns, founder of Kuhns, Inc.
• Based in: Pennsylvania, US
• What he does: Consulting for arts and culture organizations, connecting their strategy to social, email, and the rest of their communications
• Channels in Buffer: 10+
• How he uses Insights: Tags campaigns by theme and subject, then reads performance back across a full year to shape what his clients post and program next

The work: 'Arts and culture supply chain management'

Dustin doesn't think of himself as a social media manager. He runs a consultancy from Quakertown, Pennsylvania, and describes his role as something closer to logistics than content creation. 

"I specialize in arts and culture supply chain management," he says. "How does content go from leadership vision to a creative team and get put out into social media, email, the website, or advertising?" 

His clients range from teams of two or three people to institutions, including religious nonprofits, film festivals, historic theaters, and arts organizations.

Early in his career, he came to see that the thing holding most of these organizations back was rarely their creative work. "It wasn't a stellar brand or better creative content that most of these organizations were missing," he says. "It was consistency. And the thing they needed to be consistent was a tool that would grow with them, not dictate their workflows for them."

Dustin’s own background runs through music and the arts. He grew up playing music in church, went on to produce shows for other bands, spent several years in design and construction, and eventually moved into communications. He regularly curates fine art exhibitions, and he credits that sense of taste for much of his business. 

"Clients come to me to feel confident about what they produce," he says. "They trust my taste."

Why he chose a focused tool

Sticking with Buffer as his business scaled was a no-brainer for Dustin.

He would rather use a tool that excels at a focused set of tasks rather than one that tries to do everything — and complicates his workflows in the process.

"I'll choose a tool that has 75% of what I need and find workarounds for the other 25% before I'll use one that has 200% of what I need," he says, "and then let all that extra capacity get in the way." 

Dustin manages a wide range of clients, each with their own priorities, so what he values is a tool that does its core job excellently and then adapts to him, rather than one that pushes a single way of working.

Buffer works the way he works, which leaves his attention free for the specific priorities and needs of each client.

How he uses Insights

One of the workarounds Dustin previously looked for was deeper social media analytics — until Insights landed in Buffer. Insights is Buffer’s brand-new answer to analytics, tracking, and reporting, and Dustin was an early adopter. 

Two features have changed the game for him. The first is the ability to see performance data from every channel in a single view — this is huge when you’re reporting across a dozen accounts.

The second (and the feature he relies on most) is tagging. Tags — the ability to sort your posts into different color-coded categories — feed directly into Insights. Dustin can group his posts by campaign, theme, or subject and review how each one performs over time.

He describes one example involving a nonprofit client that built much of its content around influential ideas and quotes from experts. Dustin created a series of quote graphics featuring various writers and subjects, organizing them into different tags in Buffer to quickly compare their performance.

"In a matter of minutes, across a bunch of campaigns over a year, I can see how content from specific thinkers, on specific subjects, resonates with an audience and how that engagement changes," he says.

What makes this valuable is what he does with the finding, because he brings it back to the client as a recommendation. "These insights don’t just inform the social media," he says. "I can go back and say, people really resonate with this, and that can shape the client’s programming. Maybe the client runs a webinar on a particular subject, or writes a newsletter or blog focused on a particular thinker driving engagement on social media." 

A tag becomes a read on the audience, and that read shapes the client's broader strategy and their next posts.

Letting taste lead the data

Dustin is careful to point out that analytics on its own is not enough. “We need to see which things work best so we know what to focus on," he says 

But the element he believes most people overlook is taste.

"Everyone's critique of social media these days boils down to a central problem: taste never entered the conversation when we started using data to drive engagement at any cost," he says. 

For example, he says, a religious nonprofit can generate a great deal of engagement on social media if they chase controversy. Of course, much of that engagement is hostile.

"It's engagement. It's getting me the views. But does it further my client’s mission? Probably not." The data shows him what is performing, and his judgment determines which of those results are actually worth pursuing. 

For Dustin, Insights is a way to understand how an audience is responding to the work, so that he can decide what to do next, rather than chase whatever happens to perform.

This is also why he values the way Buffer approaches AI. "The one thing I love about Buffer right now is that it's the only platform I work with that isn't shoving generative AI in my face," he says. "The communities my clients work with wouldn't respond well to that anyway." 

Insights follows the same principle, with its intelligence running in the background to surface patterns worth a closer look, and without writing anyone's posts or standing in for their voice.

If this sounds like how you work 

If you're a creator, social media manager, or agency owner like Dustin — who trusts their gut as much as they trust the metrics — Insights was built for you. 

It allows you to zoom out and look at the whole picture of all your channels’ performance, side-by-side, or wade in to inspect every chart at the channel (or tag!) level. 

Some more handy features worth noting:

• Takeaways that guide your next move. Instead of leaving you to squint at a chart, Insights reads your performance and tells you (in plain English) what's working and what you could try next.
• Reports your clients understand. Export polished PDF or CSV reports for any channel, date range, or campaign, without hand-building a single spreadsheet.
• Your data, wherever you want it. Download it as CSV or PDF, or copy the whole lot as markdown and paste it straight into your favorite AI tool, like Claude or ChatGPT.

Bonus: Most of Insights’ features are available on the free plan. Create your free account and try Insights on your own channels.

The best times to post on Instagram in 2026 are Thursday at 9 a.m., Wednesday at 12 p.m., and Wednesday at 6 p.m., based on Buffer's analysis of 9.6 million Instagram posts.

But the best time to post on Instagram isn't a single slot every day. It shifts by day, and the gap between these high engagement times and lulls is more of a chasm than a crevice.

There are a lot of factors that decide how a post performs, but the one that often feels make-or-break is when you hit publish.

Totally fair. With more brands and creators investing in Instagram than ever — and audiences spending more time on the app — the competition for feed space is fierce. You don't want to pour hours into a post, only to share it into an Instagram dead zone and hear... crickets.

Sharing Instagram Stories, reels, feed posts, and carousels at the right times is one of the easier wins in your social media strategy. If your content lands on your audience's feed while they're around to engage with it, it's more likely to succeed.

Engagement is one of the strongest signals the Instagram algorithm uses to decide what to surface. Likes, comments, shares, and reposts tell the app your content is worth showing to more people.

Posting consistently matters, too. Audiences are generally receptive to regular content from brands and creators, so showing up on a predictable schedule, timed to when your followers are active, gives you the best shot at building momentum. Tools like Buffer can help you plan and schedule posts so you're always showing up at the right time, even on your busiest days.

We analyzed the engagement of 9.6 million Instagram posts as part of Buffer's State of Social Engagement 2026 report (which examined 52 million posts across 10 platforms from more than 200,000 accounts between January 2024 and December 2025) to pin down the best times to post on Instagram, backed by real data.

Let's dig into when to post on Instagram, plus how to figure out your own best time — whether you're a creator, a social media manager, or a small business owner trying to make every post count.

Key takeaways

• Thursday at 9 a.m., Wednesday at 12 p.m., and Wednesday at 6 p.m. are the top three time slots to post on Instagram, based on Buffer's analysis of 9.6 million posts.
• Wednesday is the single best day to post on Instagram, followed by Thursday and Tuesday. Midweek consistently outperforms the rest of the week.
• Evening hours (6 p.m. to 11 p.m.) generate the strongest engagement on every weekday except Thursday.
• Thursday is the exception. Morning posts (7 a.m. to 9 a.m.) outperform evening slots on that day alone.
• Friday and Saturday are the worst days to post on Instagram, with engagement dropping across every time slot.
• Your mileage may vary by industry. Morning posts may work better for some niches (like retail or media), while afternoon slots tend to outperform for others (like finance or hospitality). Use these benchmarks as a starting point, then lean on your own data to fine-tune.
• Reels may follow slightly different peak windows than static feed posts or carousels. If reels are a big part of your strategy, it's worth experimenting with early morning and midday slots on top of the evening windows highlighted above.

📊 About this data

• Sample Size: 9.6 million Instagram posts (part of a 52M+ post study).
• Scope: 200,000+ accounts across 10 platforms.
• Timeline: January 2024 – December 2025.
• Metric: Median engagement rate (Likes + Comments + Shares + Saves / Followers x 100).

Is there a best time to post on Instagram?

Yes. Buffer's analysis of 9.6 million Instagram posts shows that specific time slots consistently outperform others, with Wednesday and Thursday yielding the highest engagement, and evening hours (6 p.m. to 11 p.m.) winning across most days. Content quality still matters most, but timing meaningfully shifts reach.

Here's why: Instagram's algorithm rewards relevance, but recency still dictates your initial reach. When you post while your audience is actively scrolling, you build early momentum — and that momentum signals to the algorithm that your content is worth surfacing to more people.

The patterns we uncovered were the most surprising part. Evening hours consistently outperform mornings across most days of the week, with one Thursday-shaped exception (more on that in a moment).

Timing isn't as critical as it was in the chronological-feed days (R.I.P.), but it still plays a role in your social media marketing strategy.

Phew. Let's look at what the data actually shows.

🌏 No timezone troubles: To make this data easier to understand, our data scientist normalized the times so they apply to any timezone — no manual converting needed. These times already apply to your timezone. Whether you're in EST (Eastern Standard Time), PST (Pacific Standard Time), or IST (Indian Standard Time), the times apply to you.

The best times to post on Instagram

The best times to post on Instagram in 2026 are Thursday at 9 a.m., Wednesday at 12 p.m., and Wednesday at 6 p.m.

These findings align with broader industry research, which consistently points to midweek (particularly Wednesday and Thursday) and afternoon-to-evening windows as the highest-engagement slots on Instagram.

Our latest data shows evening hours (6 p.m. to 11 p.m.) see the strongest engagement across all timezones. Build your schedule around those hours.

This tracks, considering over a third of Instagram users are 25 to 34 years old, according to Statista. This demographic is most likely to check the app in the evenings to unwind after work. Things pick up in the early afternoons on some weekdays. There's also a notable midday spike on Wednesdays around noon. (Who doesn't love a lunch break scroll?)

Morning hours (6 a.m. to 11 a.m.) are the worst times to post, with one notable exception: Thursday mornings at 9 a.m. show surprisingly strong engagement.

💡 The Thursday 9 a.m. anomaly: We don't know exactly why Thursday at 9 a.m. breaks the evening pattern, but our best guess is end-of-week planning energy. People check in on creators and brands while they map out their weekend.

As you'll see from the heatmap graph above, the best Instagram posting times vary depending on the day of the week. The darkest slots represent the time slots with the highest engagement.

The light-colored to white blocks are the time slots with the lowest engagement, showing the posting times that are best avoided if you're after the best possible engagement and reach.

The end of the week and weekends look different from weekdays. Friday and Saturday are the worst days to post content, with significantly lower engagement across all time slots. If weekends are part of your posting strategy, evening hours (8 p.m. to 10 p.m.) on Sunday offer your best bet for catching weekend scrollers.

The best times to post on Instagram at a glance

Source: Buffer's State of Social Engagement 2026 report (9.6M Instagram posts analyzed, Jan 2024 to Dec 2025). Times apply to your local timezone.

If you'd rather see the why behind each day, and not just the top three slots, here's the day-by-day breakdown.

The best time to post on Instagram for every day of the week

Best time to post on Instagram today

The best time to post on Instagram today depends on the day you're reading this. Here's the quick version: find today below, post in that window, and you're working with the data instead of against it.

• Monday: 7 p.m., then 6 p.m. or 8 p.m. Evenings, once everyone's back from the workday.
• Tuesday: 7 p.m., then 3 p.m. or 5 p.m. Mid-afternoon rolling into the evening.
• Wednesday: 12 p.m., then 6 p.m. or 8 a.m. Your single best day. The lunchtime scroll is real.
• Thursday: 9 a.m., then 8 a.m. or 7 a.m. It's the one day mornings beat evenings.
• Friday: 10 p.m., then 9 p.m. A quieter day overall, so keep expectations in check.
• Saturday: 9 p.m., then 10 p.m. or 8 p.m. Another slow one, so save your big posts for midweek.
• Sunday: 9 p.m., then 10 p.m. or 8 p.m. The strongest weekend slot, as people wind down before Monday.

If today happens to be a Friday or Saturday, don't force your best content out just to fill a slot. Those are the two weakest days in our data — it's absolutely fine to hold your strongest post for Wednesday.

Best time to post on Instagram on Monday in 2026

The best time to post on Instagram on Monday is 7 p.m., followed by 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Monday evenings are when audiences settle back into their feeds after the workday, making the 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. window your strongest play to start the week.

Best time to post on Instagram on Tuesday in 2026

The best time to post on Instagram on Tuesday is 7 p.m., followed by 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Tuesday is the third-strongest day of the week overall, and its top slots stretch from mid-afternoon into the early evening. If you only post once on Tuesday, aim for 7 p.m.

Best time to post on Instagram on Wednesday in 2026

The best time to post on Instagram on Wednesday is 12 p.m., followed by 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. Wednesday is the highest-performing day in our data, with three strong slots across the day. The midday spike is unusual (most days don't see a noon peak) and lines up with the lunchtime scroll.

Best time to post on Instagram on Thursday in 2026

The best time to post on Instagram on Thursday is 9 a.m., followed by 8 a.m. and 7 a.m. Thursday is the most counterintuitive day in the dataset: it's the only weekday where mornings outperform evenings. Aim for 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. for your strongest engagement.

Best time to post on Instagram on Friday in 2026

The best time to post on Instagram on Friday is 10 p.m., followed by 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Friday is one of the two weakest days for engagement overall, so treat any Friday slot as a hold-the-line day rather than your peak.

Best time to post on Instagram on Saturday in 2026

The best time to post on Instagram on Saturday is 9 p.m., followed by 10 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday and Friday share the weakest engagement of the week, so save your high-stakes posts for midweek and use Saturday evening for lighter content.

Best time to post on Instagram on Sunday in 2026

The best time to post on Instagram on Sunday is 9 p.m., followed by 10 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday evenings are the strongest weekend window, with audiences scrolling as they wind down before Monday.

The best day of the week to post on Instagram

Wednesday is the best day to post on Instagram, followed closely by Thursday and Tuesday. These midweek days consistently show the highest engagement rates across multiple time slots.

Comparatively, the worst days to post on Instagram are Friday and Saturday. Weekend engagement drops significantly, making weekdays your best bet for maximum reach and engagement.

Worst times and days to post on Instagram

The worst times to post on Instagram are between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. on any day, and on Friday and Saturday in general.

A few patterns from Buffer's 9.6M-post analysis:

• Overnight (1 a.m. to 5 a.m.): Lowest engagement across every day of the week. Don't post on Instagram while your audience is asleep.
• Friday and Saturday: Lowest-performing days overall, all time slots.
• Weekday mornings (6 a.m. to 11 a.m.): Generally weak, with one exception: Thursday, 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.

If you're after maximum reach and engagement, save your best content for midweek.

Best time to post on Instagram by content type: reels, carousels, and stories

People treat different segments of the Instagram app a little differently, which means it's worth thinking about how reels, carousels, and stories fit into your posting schedule.

An update on the algorithm by Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri offers some useful insight on this front. "People tend to look for their closest friends in stories, use explore to discover new content and creators, and be entertained in reels," he said in a reel.

People are looking to be entertained at certain times of day, and catch up with friends, family, and their favorite creators at other times.

In our analysis, we reviewed all post types together rather than segmenting by format. The high-level takeaway is that the same peak windows apply across content types, with small format-specific notes below.

Best time to post Instagram Reels

The best time to post Instagram Reels is in the evening, between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m., with Wednesday and Thursday as your strongest days. These are the same peak windows that hold across the rest of our data.

Quick caveat: we looked at all post types together rather than splitting the numbers out by format, so these aren't reels-only slots. But the evening posting makes particular sense for reels. Per Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, reels are where people go to be entertained, and that mostly happens once the workday's done, and there's time to actually sit and watch.

The signals the algorithm values most are also worth considering here. Instagram's most important signal in 2026 is sends per reach (how often people DM your reel to a friend). To me, these behaviors feel way more likely in a moment of downtime, rather than during the midday rush.

So if you only post one reel this week, aim for a Wednesday or Thursday evening. Then let your own numbers take over — check Buffer Insights or native Instagram analytics after a few weeks to see whether your audience breaks the pattern.

Best time to post Instagram carousels

The best time to post Instagram carousels follows the same midweek pattern: Wednesday at 12 p.m., Wednesday at 6 p.m., and Thursday at 9 a.m. Carousels tend to perform well when readers have the time to swipe through, which lines up with the lunch-break and post-work windows.

Best time to post Instagram Stories

The best time to post Instagram Stories is daily, ideally one to two times per day. Stories disappear after 24 hours, so consistency matters more than picking the perfect slot. Mosseri has recommended sharing one to two stories daily as part of a healthy weekly cadence on the platform.

Set your best times to post on Instagram automatically with Buffer's scheduling tool

If, like me, you fancy working smarter, not harder, you can set these recommended times directly in Buffer, no manual entry required.

You can automatically set these recommended times for Instagram and your other social media platforms. Pretty handy, no? It'll take you less than a minute to set up:

1. Hover over Instagram on your channels list on the left, and click on the three dots at the top right to see more options.
2. Choose Manage Posting Times.

3. Under Posting Slot, click the Generate New Posting Slots button, then Use Recommended Times.

The schedule will automatically update to include the best posting times for the week, based on our latest analysis of millions of Instagram posts.

Here's a video tutorial showing you how to customize your posting schedule:

The next time you schedule a post, you can pick one of these high-engagement slots without a second thought. No more guessing! You can set your Instagram posting times in Buffer for free — it takes under a minute.

How to find your followers' most active times on Instagram

To see when your followers are on Instagram, it's worth checking Instagram Insights. The in-app analytics surface when your specific audience is most active, which often differs from the platform-wide averages.

For example, my personal Instagram audience's activity level is pretty steady on work days and on the weekends. Their most active times are between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.

For Buffer's Instagram following, things look a little different. They're most active on the platform between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Instagram Insights, the native Instagram analytics tool, can help pinpoint some good times to post on Instagram.

Note that these are times your followers are using Instagram, not necessarily when they are most likely to engage with your content — that's an important distinction. It's absolutely worth experimenting with these slots, but don't treat them as the be-all and end-all.

To get stats for your own audience via the analytics baked into the app, head over to Instagram Insights on the mobile app. You'll need a professional Instagram account, a Creator or Business Account, to access these numbers.

1. Go to your Instagram profile and click on Professional dashboard just below your bio.
2. Tap on New followers.
3. Scroll to Follower active times to pinpoint your followers' best time to post moments.

You can also access Instagram Insights via the web version of Instagram. To find yours:

1. Log in to your Instagram account in your browser via instagram.com.
2. Click on Dashboard on the left-hand side of the screen.
3. Under the Insights dropdown, select Account.
4. Scroll down to Followers to see your audience's most active times (i.e., your ideal posting times).

FAQs about the best time to post on Instagram

How did you calculate the best time to post on Instagram?

We analyzed 9.6 million Instagram posts from 200,000+ Buffer accounts (January 2024 to December 2025), measuring median engagement rates across time slots to avoid skew from outlier posts and large accounts. This is part of Buffer's State of Social Engagement 2026 report, which examined 52 million posts across 10 platforms.

Why focus on engagement? Reach is important for growth, but engagement tells us when your audience is most likely to interact with your content. The Instagram algorithm now prioritizes 'sends per reach' (how often people DM your post or reel to a friend) as a critical ranking signal.

💡 Instagram's #1 ranking signal in 2026: Sends per reach, how often people DM your post to a friend. Per Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri, this is now the platform's most important algorithmic factor, especially in reels and discover feeds.

We measured median engagement rates, so results aren't skewed by outlier posts or large accounts, which makes this advice applicable whether you're just starting out or have an established following.

Does the time you post on Instagram matter?

Yes, posting time on Instagram matters. Our analysis of 9.6 million Instagram posts shows that content posted at specific times had significantly higher engagement rates.

Evening hours (6 p.m. to 11 p.m.) consistently outperformed other time slots, with Wednesday and Thursday showing the strongest overall performance.

But timing can't save a weak post. Think of it as the cherry on top of your strategy, not the cake itself.

When is it best not to post on Instagram?

The worst times to post on Instagram are between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. on any day, and across Friday and Saturday in general.

Morning hours (6 a.m. to 11 a.m.) are the weakest weekday windows, with one exception: Thursday mornings show surprisingly strong engagement.

The most obvious answer is overnight: posts shared between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. tended to get the lowest engagement, no matter what day of the week it is. Rule of thumb: don't post on Instagram while your audience is asleep.

What is the worst time to post on Instagram?

The worst time to post on Instagram is between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. across every day of the week, when engagement consistently bottoms out.

Friday and Saturday are the worst days overall, with significantly lower engagement than weekdays. Avoid Friday lunchtime and Saturday morning if engagement is your goal. The pattern tracks with audience behavior: people are asleep overnight and tend to step away from the app during weekend mornings and commutes.

Is it better to post early or late on Instagram?

Late is better. Evening hours (6 p.m. to 11 p.m.) outperform mornings on every day except Thursday, where 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. is the strongest window.

This aligns with when most Instagram users (particularly the 18 to 34 demographic) are winding down from work and actively scrolling.

What is the best time to post on Instagram today?

The best time to post on Instagram today depends on the day of the week. Here's a quick reference:

Weekdays:

• Monday or Tuesday: 7 p.m. or 6 p.m.
• Wednesday: 12 p.m., 6 p.m., or 8 a.m.
• Thursday: 9 a.m., 8 a.m., or 7 a.m.
• Friday: 10 p.m. or 9 p.m. (though engagement is lower overall)

Weekends:

• Sunday: 9 p.m. or 10 p.m.
• Saturday: 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. (also a weaker day)

What is the best day of the week to post on Instagram?

Avoid Friday and Saturday if engagement is your goal. Weekend engagement drops significantly, making weekdays your best bet for reach. The best day of the week to post on Instagram is Wednesday, followed by Thursday and Tuesday. These midweek days consistently outperform the rest of the week across every time slot in our data.

What is the best time to post Instagram Reels?

The best time to post Instagram Reels is during evening hours (6 p.m. to 11 p.m.) on Wednesdays and Thursdays, in line with overall peak engagement windows. Per Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, reels are where people go to be entertained, so the evening wind-down is when your audience has time to actually watch.

When is the best time to post on Instagram in my country or timezone?

The best times to post on Instagram are the same regardless of your timezone. Buffer's data scientist normalized the data, so 12 p.m. Wednesday means 12 p.m. local time wherever you are.

We've heard this question from readers everywhere, from the US to the UK, India, Australia, Canada, and beyond. Whatever your country or timezone, these times apply. If the best time to post on Instagram on Wednesday is 12 p.m., that's 12 p.m. in your timezone, whether you're based in California or Calcutta.

How often should I post on Instagram?

Post on Instagram 3 to 5 times per week (reels, carousels, or photos) plus 1 to 2 stories daily, per Buffer's analysis of 9.6M posts. This is the sweet spot for reach without overposting.

Social media post frequency is important — regularly showing up on any of the major social media platforms is often the best way to grow.

Another 2025 Buffer study showed that the more often you post on Instagram, the higher reach you get per post. We found that 3-5 posts on Instagram per week (reels, carousels, or photo posts) was the sweet spot for better reach for your efforts.

Instagram Stories, which disappear after 24 hours, offer a helpful, lightweight way to stay consistent on the platform. Post an Instagram Story at least daily to stay top-of-mind for your followers.

Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, has made similar recommendations. He suggests posting reels, carousels, photos, and stories every week to grow your social media presence, with one to two Instagram Stories daily and a couple of feed posts weekly. That should be enough for consistent Instagram engagement and reach.

Experiment with your posting schedule to find the cadence (along with the time to post) that works best for your target audience.

Your checklist for high-performing Instagram posts

Figuring out the best time to post on Instagram for maximum reach is one piece of your Instagram marketing strategy, not the whole thing.

As we unpack in our guide to the Instagram algorithm, a huge number of factors decide whether your content performs well when you post on Instagram. Here's our checklist for high-performing Instagram content:

1. Make the most of Instagram's new features: The platform loves showcasing its new features. Using them when you post on Instagram could mean getting your content in front of new audiences.
2. Experiment with content types: Regularly trying out a new type of content when you post on Instagram will help you figure out what resonates the most with your audience. Plus, it's a great way to repurpose your content.
3. Prioritize authentic engagement: Rather than wasting time on Instagram algorithm hacks, focus on meaningful engagement with your followers. Reply to comments and messages (you could boost engagement by 21%!), reshare their mentions of you, and interact with them on their own content. The algorithm now prioritizes 'sends per reach', so encourage your audience to share your posts with friends.
4. Analyze to see what's working: Use Instagram Insights to build your social media presence and see which of your posts have had maximum engagement and reach. Buffer's Insights will also help you uncover your best posts in just a few clicks.

What's actually worked for you when figuring out your best posting times? Tell us @buffer. I read every reply.

Get started with Buffer for free.

More Instagram resources

• 13 Trending Sounds on Instagram (+ How to Use Them)
• 24 Free Instagram Tools to Help Grow Your Account
• How to Make Money on Instagram: 12 Tried + Tested Ways That Work
• I'm Growing on Instagram After 10 Years — Here’s What I'm Doing Differently
• The Complete Guide to Using Instagram Stories to Boost Engagement + Stay Top of Mind
• 13 Ways to Get More Followers on Instagram (Tried & Tested)
• How the Instagram Algorithm Works

A few weeks ago, one of our engineers, Andy Yates, got an email at his personal address. It was from the team at TRMNL, who make beautifully minimal e-ink displays with a thriving plugin ecosystem behind them. Part of their job is scouting the best plugins people build on the platform, and they'd spotted a private one called "Buffer." They wanted to know if he'd be up for releasing it to everyone.

What they didn't know was that Andy actually works at Buffer. And that, by happy accident, our public API was about a week away from going live.

That coincidence turned into one of my favorite examples of what people do when you give them an open API. So with the Buffer API now generally available, I wanted to tell the story of the plugin currently glowing on Andy's desk.

The plugin that started as a personal hack

Andy had just gotten a TRMNL, was having fun building plugins for it, and wondered what his Buffer queue would look like on the screen.

TRMNL screens are built around a lovely idea: your desk should show you the handful of things you care about, calmly, without demanding anything back. People run their calendars, weather, to-do lists, and hundreds of community-built plugins on them. Andy's shows his Buffer queue: queue counts and a recently sent or upcoming post, refreshed automatically. And the plugin that started as his private build is now official — anyone with a TRMNL can install it and connect their Buffer account.

An ambient display changes how often you notice your queue

My first reaction was to want one immediately. My second was to work out why.

Most of us interact with our content schedule by going looking for it. We open Buffer, check the queue, maybe feel a small jolt of "oh no, nothing's lined up for Thursday," and close the tab. It's a deliberate act which means it's easy to skip for a few days.

With an ambient display, the information comes to you. If your queue is running low, it's a gentle reminder for anyone trying to post consistently. There's also something satisfying about seeing the work as a physical object on your desk instead of a row in a dashboard.

It runs entirely on TRMNL's side

TRMNL's platform hosts the plugin entirely on their side, so there's no server for Andy to stand up or babysit. It connects straight to our OAuth flow using PKCE, which is the modern, secure way for an app like this to get access without anyone copying API keys around. And the plugin got better on the way to going public: Ikraam from the TRMNL team worked with Andy directly, adding new features and making the setup flow far simpler than the first version. That kind of hands-on support is a big part of why their plugin ecosystem is as lively as it is.

He also contributed the Buffer connector, with our new API flow, to TRMNL's public providers repo. That means anyone who wants to build their own Buffer plugin on TRMNL gets the hard part done for them. Build once, and the next person reuses it.

Want one on your own desk? We're giving some away

To mark the launch, we're running a giveaway with TRMNL from July 13 to 20. We're giving away four TRMNL devices, plus some Buffer swag bundles.

Entering takes three steps on our LinkedIn post:

1. Like the post
2. Comment with your answer to one of two questions: what Buffer data you'd want to see on your TRMNL at a glance, or what you'd build if you made a TRMNL plugin with the Buffer API
3. Repost it

We announce the winners on July 27. If you enter and don't win, there's a consolation: TRMNL is offering a bufferxtrmnl code for $10 off any device, live from July 27 through September 7. Full terms are linked in the first comment of the giveaway post.

I volunteer as a community lead for a tech non-profit that helps people get their start in tech through free training programs and mentorship. The role has two halves: answering members' questions in our Slack and running the non-profit's social channels, where I share content that helps the wider community.

Our Slack runs across more channels than I can keep an eye on, but four of them carry most of the traffic. Between them, that's roughly 80 questions a week. For a long time, the content side of my job meant I had to scroll through it all by hand, hunt for patterns, and build a calendar around whatever kept coming up.

On a good week, I got two or three posts out, and each one took three to five hours, including the research, writing, scheduling, and replying to comments afterward. All in, that was 15 to 20 hours a week on top of my day job, which is exactly how I ended up burned out.

I needed a better way to keep up. So I built a pipeline that listens to conversations across a community workspace, surfaces overlooked questions, and turns shared concerns into content that helps more people. It scans those four channels, drafts a reply to every real question for me to approve and send. Then it takes the ones worth answering in public, writes them up in my voice, and drops them into Buffer ready to schedule.

The posts have to be public because only a slice of our community lives in Slack. Plenty of members check social media every day but open the workspace once a week, and the people we exist to serve who haven't found us yet are out there searching for answers that sit behind a login no search engine can reach. A question will still be answered in the channel first. But the same answer, published where people already scroll, keeps helping long after the thread goes quiet.

Here's how I built it and how it transformed my workload and the community's experience.

Why keeping up manually stopped working

The volume on its own was manageable. The harder part was that the questions I most needed to catch were the ones most likely to slip past me.

A few things were working against me at once:

• Questions got buried. Across the four channels, with people also chatting, brainstorming, and thinking out loud, the important questions sank under everything else moving faster.
• Time zones stacked up. I'm in Nigeria, while members are spread across Europe, America, and several time zones in between. I'd close my laptop at night and wake up to a stretch of conversations I'd slept through, with questions sitting unanswered the whole time.
• Deadline days turned into pile-ups. We run free training programs with hard application deadlines, and people tend to apply on the last day. The moment they hit a blocker, I'd get hundreds of messages at once. If I missed one reply, registration closed before that person ever heard back.
• The people who needed help most often never asked. They were new and didn't want to look it, or they'd asked once, gotten buried, and given up. So when one of their questions did surface, raised by one person or a few, it usually spoke for a crowd that never said a word. Those were often the questions most worth answering in public.

Behind every one of those was someone who needed help and didn't get it in time.

That's what pushed me to build something, so the answer could already be there, in public, before the next person had to ask.

Every day, my workflow reads what the community asked, works out which of those questions are worth answering in public, and drafts the posts so they're ready to go. I keep the one role only I can do: reviewing and approving what goes out.

The pipeline in five steps

The pipeline runs in five steps: read, filter, archive, cluster, and publish (in Buffer!). I built the workflow in Gumloop, a low-code canvas where I can chain AI steps, API calls, and a few custom nodes together in one place.

The first three steps turn raw Slack traffic into a clean, taggable archive. The last two decide what deserves a public answer and get it into Buffer.

1. Read. Every message in those four channels runs through an AI Extract Data node in Gumloop. In a single pass, it decides whether the message is a question, drafts a response if it is, scores its own confidence in that draft as either "High" or "Needs Verification," and tags it with a theme like onboarding, billing, technical, or feature request. I run this step on GPT-5.4 Mini, which handles that kind of multi-field extraction without burning through credits. The confidence score turned out to be a useful part: it lets me spend my attention where my judgment adds real value, instead of reviewing every row the same way.
2. Filter. A separate custom node keeps only the rows flagged as questions and drops everything else. I made filtering its own step on purpose, rather than folding it into the AI prompt, for one reason: honesty. I want the AI to make one decision per pass and leave that decision visible in the data before anything goes live. If it ever starts misclassifying entries, the archive shows me, and the call stays on the record where I can audit it.
3. Archive. Everything that survives the filter gets written into a Notion database I call the Community Ops Log. It has 10 fields, including who asked, which channel it came from, the theme, the draft response, a link back to the original message, and a status. Two views sit on top of it: a plain table for everything, and a Kanban review board grouped by status (needs review, verified, responded, and dismissed). That status field is what turns the archive from a passive log into something I can actually triage. At a glance, I can see how many drafts are waiting on me, how many I've already handled, and how many I've set aside.
4. Cluster. Claude Opus, my preferred AI model to work with, groups the questions by the underlying problem, then decides which ones deserve a public answer. This is where the pipeline's judgment lives, so I'll walk through it properly in a moment.
5. Publish. The questions that make the cut become content ideas and ready-to-post drafts, pushed straight into Buffer.

💡 A quick note on the screenshots that follow: the Slack workspace, channels, and member data you'll see are a simulation I built for this article to keep my real community's threads private. The pipeline is the same one I run live.

How the pipeline decides which questions should be answered on our social channels

This step is probably the trickiest and the most important. Without it, every question becomes a post, and the queue fills with noise. So the pipeline defaults to not posting.

A Notion reader pulls everything in the Community Ops Log and hands it all to a Gumloop Ask AI node running Claude Opus. In a single pass, the prompt clusters the questions, grouping the ones that are asking about the same thing even when they're worded differently. Then it scores each cluster to decide whether it deserves a public post, removes near-duplicates, and for the themes that make the cut, writes a content idea and drafts the posts.

A second custom node then parses that output with plain rules and no AI, so the same clusters always produce the same structured rows.

The goal is to surface the questions worth answering in public, including the valuable ones that only a few people, or even one person, thought to ask. Those are the easiest to miss, and they are often the ones the silent majority needs answers for.

To get there, each theme gets a quick gut-check against three criteria, and it has to clear at least two of them to be promoted:

1. Can a member already solve this on their own? If the documentation we have would get them there in about 15 minutes, it doesn't earn a post**.**
2. Does it affect a meaningful slice of the community? Roughly 10 to 20% of active members is the bar. But because the rule is two out of three, a rare question can still get through if it clears the others. That's the safety valve for the high-value question that only one or two people thought to ask.
3. Is it a real gap, or just a doc fix? If the answer points to something structural, like a missing feature or a confusing pattern, it counts. If it's really just "we should update the doc," that belongs in the docs, not in a public post.

There's also a promotion cap. If the model promotes more than 70% of the clusters in a run, it has to stop, re-rank them from weakest to strongest, and keep only the ones that still clearly earn a spot. That exists because I've found that LLMs love to promote everything when you let them, and the whole point is to stay selective.

The one thing I deliberately left out is frequency. Most community tools sort by how often something comes up, which makes sense for triage because you answer the frequently asked questions first. But for content, that same sorting buries the questions I most wanted to find. So a single question can earn a post if it reveals a real gap, while eight versions of "where do I start" might not (especially because my answer there is usually "just read the docs.").

The pipeline scores, drafts, and pushes everything on its own. My review happens at the very end, inside Buffer. Ideas land in the Create space for me to develop, and posts wait in the queue for a final pass before anything goes live.

How Buffer fits into the system

Three custom nodes handle the handoff, each one responsible for a single Buffer API call. The first creates an idea in Buffer's Create space for every promoted theme. The other two queue the posts, one for X and one for Threads, and Buffer spaces them across the days so I never have to set times by hand.

One practical note if you're ever calling Buffer's API from a low-code tool or a script: your requests need to look like they're coming from a browser. Buffer's API sits behind Cloudflare, a security service that filters out automated traffic, and a bare script is exactly what it's built to catch. The fix lives in the headers, the small labels attached to every request that tell the receiving server who's asking and what they want back.

Alongside the two standard ones (the content type and my access token), I added four more that a real browser would normally send:

• which browser it is
• what format it expects back,
• and which site the request is coming from.

With those in place, every call goes through cleanly. The screenshot below shows all six.

Once the push is complete, the results get sent into a second Notion database, the Content Pipeline Log.

Each theme gets a status like "Idea Created, X Queued, Threads Queued," stored next to the run date and links back to the original questions. So every post traces back to the question that started it. If a post does unusually well, I can find the question behind it and look for nearby ones worth a follow-up, and if anyone on the non-profit board asks how I'm choosing what to publish on our behalf, I can show them the exact question, channel, and date behind every post.

Buffer is also where I review. Ideas land in the Create space for me to develop, and posts wait in the queue for a final pass before anything goes live. The screenshots here are from my first full run, which pulled 18 questions out of the four channels and turned them into five content ideas and 10 scheduled posts, five each for X and Threads.

How I got the posts to sound like me

This was the part I was most worried about going in. I've seen what community content sounds like when generic AI takes the wheel, and I didn't want anything I publish to read like a content bot. So

before I asked the model to generate anything, I showed it samples of how I actually write, so it could pull out the patterns and match them as best it could..

I used four samples: two were peer replies I'd written in our Slack, one was a longer-form post from elsewhere, and one was a DM (where my voice is most authentic).

On top of the samples, I gave the prompt a few hard rules:

1. Titles have to be short and specific, with no listicle stacking.
2. Posts have to open with the situation, not a hook.
3. The tone stays conversational and peer-to-peer.
4. And there's a flat ban on em dashes and AI fluff.

That last rule was the one major tweak I had to make between my first and final runs. While the initial output already sounded like me, I noticed a slight over-reliance on em-dashes. I know em dashes are a perfectly good punctuation mark that writers have used for years, but the truth is, I wasn't reaching for them before AI started putting them everywhere. (I genuinely don't know where that key lives on my keyboard.)

The last piece is a self-check. Before the prompt finalizes anything, it scans its own output for the banned patterns and rewrites whatever slipped through. That's the step that catches the small AI-isms that the sample-matching alone misses.

It took a few rounds of testing before the tone really blended. But once it did, the posts started coming out the way I'd write them if I'd sat down and done it myself.

Before vs after showing generic AI-generated posts next to the same post after the voice samples were added.

What's changed so far

The pipeline is recent enough that I don't have hard engagement numbers to point to yet. A few runs have been live for a few weeks, which is enough to feel the difference but not enough to prove it with a chart. But I have noticed a few shifts, especially in the way I work.

First, those 15 to 20 hours a week I'd been pouring into community ops dropped to a fraction of that. The triage, the drafting, and the manual content calendar all happen inside the pipeline now, and what's left for me is the review and approval. That alone was the change I needed most.

Deadlines are much less stressful, too. The most common blockers from past training rounds are already answered in public by the time the next application-day rush hits, so the same questions pile up less. When the flood comes, the answer is often already sitting there waiting.

The change that took the longest to notice is actually the one I care about most. The questions coming in are different now. Instead of re-asking the original problem, people reference the public post and ask the next question on top of it. This is a strong signal that the content is achieving my main goal: reaching members who wouldn't have spoken up in the first place.

Why I built this

The volunteer role isn't a small commitment. Leading a growing community is a real job on top of a real job, and by the time I started looking at automation seriously, it had started creeping into my paid work. I knew I had to do something.

The practical reason is the one most people will relate to. The rest of my community team aren't engineers, so I needed something they could keep running without me. That's what made my specific stack the right fit. Anyone on the team can refine a prompt or adjust a step in Gumloop, and Buffer turns whatever comes out into a real content calendar they can see, schedule from, and trust. Now the work doesn't depend on any one person being awake. Someone can keep things moving whether I'm at my desk or asleep on a different continent.

There's also something about volunteering that keeps drawing me back. Sometimes I think God leads us to give without expectation, to plant seeds we may never personally harvest. Building this was one small way of doing that. Every question in those channels belongs to a real person trying to learn, build, or move forward. The more of those people I could help, the more worthwhile the effort felt.

Ready to build?

If you're taking Buffer's API for a spin, we've got resources to get you moving. Our developer docs cover the GraphQL schema, auth flow, and quick-start examples. The Buffer MCP server docs walk through plugging it into Claude or any MCP-compatible AI agent.

If you need hands-on help, our support team is around, or you can join our Discord server and chat to other people building with the API.

We'd love to hear about what you make. Find us in Discord, or @buffer on all major social channels.

For a long time, my ideas were scattered everywhere. Some were in my Notes app. Others were screenshots on my phone that I’d never opened again, or buried in old Claude conversations. Sometimes I'd remember a good line from a voice note I recorded months ago, but have no idea where to find it.

Everything was saved somewhere, just never anywhere I'd look when it was time to make something.

And even with this mega-level disorganization, I had been getting by fine. I have an 80-week creation streak in my personal Buffer account, and that's not counting the content I make for Buffer's channels. Coming up with ideas has never been my problem. Finding them again is.
So when MCPs started gaining traction, I went all in (though not in the way most tutorials suggested).

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) lets an LLM connect directly to the tools you already use, no code required. Most guides stop at what each individual connection can do, which is plenty useful. What changed how I work is using MCPs to pull all my scattered ideas into one place, then create and publish from that same place with tools that also run on MCPs, like Buffer, Canva, and Descript.

These are the 8 MCP servers I use every week to turn random ideas into finished posts without switching between a dozen tabs. Here's the stack and how each one feeds into the next.

The short version

Buffer is the best MCP server for social media if you post to more than one platform. It's a multi-platform MCP built for people who don't write code, it's free to connect, and it covers both ends of my system: a place for capturing ideas and a place for scheduling finished posts.

It’s in the top spot for a simple reason: every other tool in my stack exists either to get content into Buffer or to make the content that ends up there. Notion is home base for storing research, Granola pulls quotes out of my recorded calls, Google Workspace handles the admin, Elicit backs up my takes with research, Sublime holds everything I've saved from around the web, and Canva and Descript help turn an idea into something I can post.

Key takeaways

• Buffer is the best multi-platform MCP server for social media. It's built in partnership with social platforms, is free to connect, and works as both the place I capture ideas and the place I schedule posts. It connects to Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other MCP-compatible assistants.
• MCPs are the no-code version of APIs. You connect a tool once through OAuth, then ask Claude to do things in plain English.
• Every MCP in this stack is official and OAuth-based. You authorize access through your normal login and can revoke it anytime, which matters when you're connecting tools to your social accounts.
• The stack splits in two: capture and create. Notion, Sublime, Granola, Google Workspace, and Elicit gather and organize the ideas; Canva, Descript, and Buffer turn them into finished posts.

⚡Note: You will need at least a paid plan for your AI Assistant of choice to use many of these tools

How I think about my MCP stack

Before we get to the list, here's how the tools fit together, because that matters as much as what each one does.

One hub with two jobs

The hub is the AI assistant you already use (for me, that's Claude), and the two tasks are to capture and create.

A Capture task is anything that gets an idea into your system: a note, a voice memo, a line from a call, a post you saved.

A Create task is anything that turns that idea into something you can publish: a caption, a graphic, a cleaned-up video. Almost every MCP in my stack does one of those two jobs, while a couple of them do both.

Think in hand-offs, not single tools

Most people connect one tool and use it on its own, which is a good place to start. But I’ve seen the most benefit from the hand-offs.

An idea gets captured in one place, organized in another, and made into a post in a third, without you leaving the conversation to move it along. A quote that Granola caught on a call last month became a scheduled LinkedIn post in Buffer without me opening either app.

And there are even deeper levels to MCP usage, with my setup being a pretty simple one in the grand scheme of things.

Stick to official MCPs that use OAuth

When I'm deciding what to connect, I check for two things.

The first is official over individual. Anyone can build an MCP server, and many useful ones come from independent developers. But if something is going to have so much access to my data, I want it to be something that a company with strict security standards is accountable for.

The second is how you connect. The best MCPs run on OAuth, so you authorize them through your normal login (the same way you'd connect one app to another, like Instagram to Buffer), and you can revoke that access whenever you want.

Okay, now that we have that locked in, let's get into my list.

Buffer

Best for: Anyone posting to more than one platform who wants one place to capture ideas and schedule the finished posts.

I have my Buffer connected to Claude, which gives it direct access to my connected channels, my posting queue, and of course, my ideas board. The MCP is powered by Buffer’s API, and once you connect it, you can manage your whole queue by asking Claude in plain language.

Scheduling is the obvious use case, but for me, it's a capture layer for my ideas.

I'll be reading something on my phone, or halfway through a Claude conversation that's turned into a half-formed post idea, and instead of stopping to open Buffer and log it, I just say "save this as a Buffer idea." It lands on my ideas board, tagged for the right platform, ready to be developed later. By the time I sit down to batch my content for the week, the board is already full of starting points I'd otherwise have lost.

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However, you can't pull analytics through the MCP yet, so anything that depends on performance data still happens in the Buffer dashboard. For me, the MCP is a new front door to the queue, not a full replacement for it.

💡 Here's how to connect the Buffer MCP

Notion

Best for: Anyone who already stores their notes, ideas, or resources in Notion and wants to put them to use.

The Notion MCP gives Claude access to years of my notes and ideas, all saved as Notion pages. That includes every resource I've ever built to share with my audience, like my database of 100+ remote work resources.

That database is my best example of why this connection matters. I built it to be shared, but a resource only helps people if they keep hearing about it. With the MCP connected, I can ask Claude to help me find new ways to point people to it: text posts, short videos, carousels.

Most recently, I asked for a hook for an Instagram trial reel (b-roll with on-screen text) plus a caption that sends people to the database through DM automation. In my capture-and-create split, this is Notion's job: it's the deep storage the rest of the stack pulls from.

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It's not just audience-facing content, either. I keep a page to track my brand partnerships, and when a campaign wraps, I can spin up a post-partnership analytics doc and quickly share it with the brand, all from the same conversation.

Even with all that, I believe I’m still underusing this one. The obvious next step is to have Claude help me build new resources from the notes already sitting in there, not just promote the ones that exist.

💡 Here's how to connect the Notion MCP

Granola

Best for: Anyone who spends a lot of time on calls and suspects that half of what they say and hear could be content.

Granola records and transcribes my calls, and the MCP gives Claude access to all of those transcripts.

I started out using it for team calls, mostly to build internal communication and a reference library out of meeting notes. But lately I've been joining more calls with communities I'm part of and doing more interviews for podcasts and blog content, and those conversations are always valuable. I kept surprising myself with what I said, and realizing that a lot of what I was saying (and hearing) could be turned into content. But none of it was being captured.

Now I have Claude go through my Granola transcripts and pull content ideas. That's usually enough of a starting point for me to develop a post, and it usually becomes a carousel. These are ideas I never would have thought to write down before, and a one-hour conversation can yield weeks of content ideas.

If you're joining a lot of Zoom calls, or even listening to a lot of podcasts and video essays on YouTube (another place this has earned its keep for me), this is an extra content layer on top of something you're already doing.

💡 Here's how to connect the Granola MCP

Google Workspace

Best for: Creators who use any Google tool

I have my whole Google Workspace connected, but the thing I use it for most as a creator is staying on top of my emails. I've never been an inbox zero person (I'm more of an inbox 99,999 person), but there's a level of organization you need to be a successful creator, and I wouldn't get there without this MCP.

With it, I can ask Claude to keep track of ongoing conversations, find lost threads, set reminders for who I owe a reply, and flag potential brands to reach out to. The things that used to fall through the cracks of my inbox get surfaced instead.

I use the calendar side a lot, too. Being able to organize my schedule in natural language ("[real example of something you'd type]") is a bigger help than it sounds.

This is the one tool in my stack that doesn't really touch content. But it's what keeps everything else running.

💡 Here's how to connect the Google Workspace MCP

Elicit

Best for: Creators whose content makes claims about how things work, and who'd rather check than guess.

I connected Elicit because I wanted to strengthen my ideas. As a consumer, I prefer content that's based in research, and I didn't want to say things without being sure, without the backing of peer-reviewed work (at least where possible).

So Elicit was a dream find. Through the MCP, I can look through multiple papers at once, make connections between them, find related work that I’d never have surfaced on my own, and generally prove or disprove my own theories before they become posts.

Now, I don't put citations in my content as I’m not making purely educational content that makes hardline claims. But I like knowing that if anyone asks why I made a certain inference or mentioned something, I can point them to the research behind it.

One feature worth calling out: give Elicit the topic you're trying to tackle, and it can pull a group of studies together into one new paper you can share with your audience. The research becomes a resource in itself.

💡 Here's how to connect the Elicit MCP

Sublime

Best for: Creators who save everything (quotes, articles, Instagram posts) and want those saves to lead somewhere.

If Notion is where my own work lives, Sublime is where everyone else's lives. It's a tool for saving and connecting ideas: I store quotes, articles, and Instagram content there through the Chrome extension and the Instagram connection, all sorted into collections. Mine range from carousel formats I want to try to research on creator income.

What makes Sublime different from a bookmarks folder is that it's connected to a library built by every other Sublime user. When something catches my eye, the recommendation algorithm helps me understand it deeper, surfacing related ideas other people have saved, until I've got a fully formed idea woven together from a web of connected ones.

With the MCP connected, Claude can search all of it. When I'm developing a post, I can pull the quote I half-remember or the carousel format I saved a month ago without digging through my collections by hand.

One thing to know: there's no back-and-forth between Sublime and Claude. Claude can read my library, but saving still happens in Sublime, through the extension or the app. I personally like it that way. It means everything in there was added organically, by me, when it actually caught my eye.

Canva

Best for: Creators who already design in Canva and want to stop rebuilding the same assets from scratch.

With Canva connected, I can start a carousel idea in Claude and transfer it over once I have the copy. I can also reference my existing design library and assets, so I get ahead of spending hours figuring out where certain text should be placed.

All of my templates, fonts, and colors already live in Canva, so this was a no-brainer inclusion in my workflow.

This one doesn't stay all in Claude, though. I tend to move to Canva to finish up designs and export.

💡 Here's how to connect the Canva MCP

Descript

Best for: Creators who record long and post short — podcast episodes, interviews, and webinars that need to become clips.

This one is my newest discovery and potentially a game changer for creators. Descript's MCP only launched in May 2026, and I'll be honest: I haven't run many videos through it yet. It's still one of the coolest finds in my stack, and the one I want to use the most.

Once your video is in Descript, you can reference the raw file in Claude. Even better, you can edit it from the conversation: cut filler words, clean up the audio, add captions, pull out clips, and build a rough cut, then generate the accompanying copy for the post while you're at it.

Under the hood, your requests go to Underlord, Descript's AI editing assistant, so if you can ask for it in Descript, you can now ask for it from Claude. Descript's own pitch is that it handles 90% of the work and you show up for the last 10%. That last part matters: this isn't hands-off editing. You still open Descript to review the cut and make it yours.

A few things to know before connecting it: you need a paid Descript plan (the MCP costs nothing extra, but edits draw from your plan's AI credits and media minutes), and you can't import from YouTube links, only files and direct URLs.

What I'm looking out for in future updates is whether it'll eventually handle the finishing touches creators actually spend time on: transitions, sound effects, text on screen beyond captions.

💡 Here's how to connect the Descript MCP

Start with one connection

If this list feels like a lot, that's because you're seeing a system that’s grown over time. Mine actually started with Notion and grew from there as I discovered more tools, and yours can too.

Here's what I'd do to start: connect one MCP to the assistant you already use, and make it the one that catches ideas. For me, that's Buffer. It's free to connect, and the next time a good line shows up mid-conversation, you say "save this as a Buffer idea" and it'll be waiting for you when you’re ready to create.

You'll know it's time to add the next tool when you catch yourself switching tabs to move an idea along. If that tab happens to have an MCP, that’s your next connection.

FAQs about MCP servers for social media

What is an MCP server?

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server lets an AI assistant like Claude, ChatGPT, or Perplexity connect directly to another tool, like Buffer, Notion, or Canva. Once connected, you can ask the assistant to do things in that tool using plain language: save an idea, schedule a post, pull a transcript. No code required.

Do I need to know how to code to use MCPs?

No. Every MCP in this article connects through OAuth, which means you authorize it through your normal login, the same way you'd connect Instagram to Buffer. If you can connect two apps, you can set up an MCP.

What is the best MCP server for social media?

Buffer is the best MCP server for social media if you post to more than one platform. It's the only official, multi-platform option built for non-developers, it's free to connect, and it handles both capturing ideas and scheduling posts. The full breakdown is at the top of this article.

Are MCP servers free to use?

The MCP connection itself is usually free, but most require an account with the underlying tool, and some require a paid plan. Buffer's MCP is free to connect. Descript's MCP is free but requires a paid Descript plan, and edits draw from your plan's AI credits.

Are MCPs safe to connect to my social media accounts?

They're as safe as the tool behind them, which is why I stick to two rules: only connect official MCPs (built by the company, not a third party), and only use ones that run on OAuth so you can revoke access anytime from your account settings.

If you’re comparing social media management tools, Buffer and Metricool will probably both end up on your list — they certainly did for me! They’re in a similar price range, they cover similar platforms, and they show up in a lot of the same “best of” roundups.

They also have strengths in different areas, as I discovered upon extensive testing. 🤓 Which one works better for you comes down to how you work.

Buffer serves creators, solopreneurs, small businesses, agencies, and growing teams that want a simple, flexible publishing workflow and an easy way to stay on top of comments. 

Metricool is built for marketers and agencies who want to track competitors and need detailed reporting to share with clients or stakeholders.

In this guide, I’ll compare both platforms so you can decide which is the right one for you.

Key takeaways

• Buffer offers a free-forever plan with 3 social channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel (refillable anytime), API access on every plan, and basic analytics. Metricool's Free plan covers 1 brand with a maximum of 20 published posts a month, although LinkedIn and X/Twitter aren’t available on the free plan.
• Buffer’s paid plans scale per channel; Metricool’s scale per brand with paid add-ons. Buffer's Essentials plan is $6 per channel per month. Metricool's Starter plan is $25 per month for 5 brands, with a $5 per month add-on for each X/Twitter account you connect.
• Buffer’s Team plan ($12 per channel per month) includes unlimited users. Metricool’s team features are part of the Advanced plan that starts at $67 per month for 15 brands.
• Metricool’s competitor tracking is a differentiator. It lets you track up to 100 competitor profiles on paid plans and 5 on Free. Buffer doesn’t offer competitor tracking.
• Buffer’s AI Assistant is unlimited on every plan. Metricool’s AI text generator is capped at 3 credits per month on Free and 35 per brand per month on Advanced.
• Buffer supports 11 platforms, including Mastodon and Instagram personal profiles. Metricool also supports 11 platforms, including Twitch, with X/Twitter supported as an add-on on paid plans for an additional $5 per month per X account.

Buffer vs. Metricool at a glance

Let's look at the differences in more detail.

Plans and pricing

Here's what plans on Buffer and Metricool cost as of June 2026.

Buffer pricing (billed monthly, annual saves 20%)

• Free: 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel (refill anytime), 1 user, AI Assistant, API access, analytics, community inbox
• Essentials: $6 per channel per month. Unlimited posts, 1 user, advanced analytics, hashtag manager, first comment scheduling
• Team: $12 per channel per month. Unlimited posts, unlimited users, approval workflows, custom permissions

Buffer lets you build your own channel lineup. You can add the platforms you use, leave out the ones you don't, and your plan adjusts accordingly. You can also add multiple accounts on each social media platform.

See Buffer's full pricing guide here →

Metricool pricing (billed monthly; annual saves around 20%)

Metricool’s pricing is built around the concept of “brands.” One brand includes one account from each supported social platform.

• Free: 1 brand, up to 20 published posts per month, no LinkedIn or X
• Starter: starts at $25 per month for 5 brands, basic analytics, 100 scheduled posts per month, AI text limited
• Advanced: starts at $67 per month for 15 brands, team features, deeper reporting, 35 credits for AI generations per brand
• Add-ons across paid plans: $5 per month per X/Twitter account

I want to make sure I flagged the add-on structure clearly, because I think it's the part most people may miss when comparing the entry-level pricing. 

If you post to LinkedIn, you’ll need a paid plan on Metricool. It’s also worth noting that you can connect to either a LinkedIn profile or a LinkedIn page on one brand, but not both.

See Metricool's full pricing guide here →

What this means in practice

Here's a real scenario: a solo creator posting to Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and X/Twitter.

• Buffer Essentials: 4 channels x $6 per month = $24 per month. Everything included.
• Metricool Starter: $25 per month base + $5 X/Twitter add-on = $30 per month.

That’s fairly close at four channels. For each channel you add, your Buffer plan would go up by $6 per month, while Metricool would stay at $30. If you drop it down to three, the price would drop to $18 on Buffer and stay $30 on Metricool.

Scale it up to a three-person small business managing eight channels (two Instagram accounts, two Facebook pages, two LinkedIn pages, one TikTok, one X/Twitter):

• Buffer Team: 8 channels x $12 per month = $96 per month. All three team members included.
• Metricool Advanced: $67 per month base + 1 X/Twitter add-on ($5) = $72/month.

Again, the price would change (up or down) if you added or dropped channels on Buffer, while Metricool’s stays at $67 per month.

Since a brand on Metricool means one account from each supported social platform, this works well for most people. If you’re managing more than one —  a founder’s LinkedIn plus the company page, or one Facebook Group for your wedding photography business and another for corporate events — each one needs its own brand, which means your reporting is split across brands rather than in one place. It won’t add to your costs, but it’s worth knowing before you set things up.

Scheduling and publishing

Both Buffer and Metricool let you schedule posts across multiple platforms from a single dashboard. The differences show up in their interfaces and in how complex each one is to use.

Buffer's scheduling is intentionally simple. Write your post in the composer, choose your channels, customize per platform if you need to, and schedule. 

On the Team plan, anyone who needs sign-off hits “Save and Request Approval” instead of scheduling, and an approver can edit, approve and schedule, or reject.

You don’t even have to think about when to post. You can set up posting slots for each channel, and when you hit schedule, a post gets added to the queue and will be published in the next available slot. You can treat it as a “set it and forget it” schedule, or change it at any time.

Under ‘Generate New Posting Slots,’ you’ll find the option to ‘Set Recommended Times,’ which autopopulates your schedule with the best times to post for maximum engagement, based on the latest data from Buffer’s data science team. 

You can also get optimized posting times within the composer window, as in the screenshot below (one of my favorite features!).

You can also bulk upload posts using a CSV file. These posts automatically get added to your queue for the channel you’ve selected, or you can add a custom time for one or more posts in the CSV file.

Metricool’s planner works differently. There’s no “set it and forget it” queue for individual posts. You open the planner and click on the create post button or on the calendar to open the composer. There, you can compose, customize, send for review, and schedule.

For some channels, the calendar view has a heatmap for the best times to post. You can drag and drop scheduled posts onto a time slot of your choice.

Metricool also offers autolists, a feature that loops content automatically at specific times you choose. Unlike Buffer’s queue, these set times apply only to autolist posts. You can connect it to an RSS feed for your blog or YouTube channel, or use it to publish the same posts again on a recurring schedule.

If your content is mostly fresh posts, Buffer's queue keeps things moving without much overhead. If you're regularly recycling evergreen content or syndicating from an RSS feed, Metricool's autolist feature makes that easy to do.

Analytics and reporting

Buffer Insights are simple, designed to help you interpret the numbers, rather than just present them to you. The AI-powered takeaways go through that data and come back with specific suggestions like engaging with your audience, repurposing a post, or posting more in a certain content format. 

Insights is available on every plan and covers post-level performance and follower growth data across your channels. 

You can set any time range — the past 7 days, the past 30 days, the past quarter — and compare it against the same period before it or the same period last year. That flexibility is useful when you want to see how your numbers have shifted over time, not just week to week or month to month.

Paid plans also come with PDF, Markdown, and CSV export options. PDF reports are available for all your channels combined or broken down by individual channels, which is useful if you need to share the data with a client or stakeholder.

Markdown and CSV formats work well if you want to pull your data into ChatGPT, Claude, or your LLM or custom tool built on the API to dig into the numbers yourself.

📍 See Buffer's full analytics breakdown →

Metricool is great, but a little different. It packs a lot into its reporting for the price. You get platform-by-platform breakdowns, a custom report builder, granular post-level data, and audience demographics across every connected channel. You can also connect your website and see which posts and campaigns are sending people your way.

On paid plans, you can customize reports and download them in PDF or PowerPoint formats, schedule monthly email reports to go out automatically to multiple recipients, and include a personalized message with each one.

There's more on the advanced side, too. At the time of writing this, paid plan users get free access to advanced reporting, with caps based on your plan. This includes Metricool Studio, which lets you create AI-generated reports to analyze brand metrics, compare brands, or compare multiple periods of the same brand. Unlimited advanced reports are a paid add-on.

Metricool also connects directly to Google's Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio), so you can pull your data in and build custom dashboards there. 

All of that adds up to a reporting setup that's impressive at this price point.

There's also a hashtag tracker, which costs €25 to track any hashtag for 24 hours per social network.

If your job involves regular, detailed stakeholder reports, Metricool handles that natively. If you want to understand what's resonating and decide what to post next, Buffer's Insights are faster to read.

Inbox and engagement

Both Buffer and Metricool let you engage with your audience without leaving the tool, with different approaches.

Buffer focuses on comment management and covers a lot of ground: You can use it to track and reply to both comments and mentions on Facebook Pages, Threads, Bluesky, LinkedIn profiles and pages, X/Twitter, Instagram professional accounts, Google Business Profiles, TikTok, YouTube, and Mastodon. 

Buffer’s AI assistant also suggests replies, so you can respond quickly or use the suggestion as a starting point and take it from there.

Some other great quality-of-life features are the ability to save replies you’ll use often (like responses to frequently asked questions), plus a Comment Score, to incentivize you and your team to stay on top of responses. 

Metricool’s engagement covers Facebook Pages, Instagram professional accounts, LinkedIn Pages, X/Twitter, and Google Business Profiles. It’s a narrower set than Buffer, and it doesn't include LinkedIn personal profiles. 

Where Metricool goes further is in DMs: it supports direct messages on Facebook, Instagram, and X, which Buffer doesn't.

Which one works better for you comes down to what your engagement looks like — a wide range of platforms for comments, or a tighter set of platforms that includes DMs. 

Competitor tracking

Metricool has a built-in competitor tracking feature that lets you monitor other accounts' performance, which is something Buffer doesn't offer. 

You can add competitor profiles from Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, and Twitch on all plans. If you’re on a paid plan, YouTube and X/Twitter are in the mix too.

You get up to five competitor profiles on the Free plan, but there’s a catch: once you've added one, you can't edit or delete it. It's worth being selective from the start. Paid plans don't have that restriction, and you can track up to 100 profiles that you can swap out at any time.

For each competitor, you get metrics like followers, replies, likes, reposts, views, and quotes. You can spot what's working in your niche, benchmark your own performance, and pull competitor performance straight into your monthly reports.

Buffer doesn’t compete on this. Buffer’s focus is on creating and publishing your own content well, so competitor tracking isn't something it offers.

API and MCP

If you’ve ever wanted your social media management tool to talk to the other apps in your workflow, both Buffer and Metricool have options for that.

Buffer’s API is available on all plans, including Free. I’ve used it to build two workflows and, as a non-technical person, I can tell you it's easier to get started with than you might expect.

I’m not the only one. Buffer users have built some really cool things with the API, like a content engine that took the creator from impulse-posting to 21 scheduled posts a week, and a custom app that replaced three separate platform integrations with a single API call. If you like to tinker, the API opens up possibilities for how to make your social media workflow your own.

Beyond the API, Buffer also has an MCP that connects to tools many folks are already working in, like Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Cursor, and Raycast. Ask them what's scheduled for the week, brainstorm ideas and save them directly to Buffer, or draft and schedule posts without switching tabs.

Metricool has an MCP too, and it's available on all plans — just keep in mind that your plan limits still apply when you use it. Posts scheduled through the MCP count toward your monthly limit on the Free plan the same way anything else does. 

Where Metricool differs is on the API side: it's only available on Advanced and Custom plans, and it covers metrics access and export as well as scheduling and publishing automation.

AI features

One area where Buffer and Metricool take different approaches is AI.

Buffer's AI Assistant is available on every plan, including Free, with no cap on how much you use it. You can generate post ideas, write drafts, repurpose content for different platforms, create alt text for images, and brainstorm hooks whenever you need to. 

Outside of the scheduling features, AI-suggested replies are built into the Community inbox so you have something to work from instead of starting from scratch with each reply. 

And in Insights, the AI goes through your performance data and comes back with specific suggestions — repurpose a post that did well, try a different content format, engage more with your audience — tailored to your account.

Metricool's AI text generator covers a lot of similar ground: post ideas, captions, hashtag suggestions. Where it differs is in its usage caps. On the Free plan, you get 5 monthly AI credits total. On the Advanced plan, that goes up to 35 credits per brand per month. If you're drafting with AI’s help regularly, those limits arrive sooner than you'd think.

One feature of Metricool’s AI is brand voice configuration. You can set custom instructions for each brand, and go a level deeper by giving each platform within that brand its own voice. 

Your LinkedIn posts and your TikTok captions can sound different and platform-specific while still sounding like you. For anyone managing multiple brands or writing for clients, that saves time in the drafting process.

Buffer's AI Assistant doesn't have brand voice settings, so the output is more of a starting point than a finished draft. 

Metricool also has AI-generated reports through Metricool Studio, which I covered in the analytics section. They're available at no extra cost on paid plans for now, though they'll move to a paid add-on later.

On Buffer, you can lean on AI as a normal part of your daily workflow on any plan. On Metricool, the monthly caps mean you'll want to be more deliberate about when you use them.

Supported platforms and integrations

The platform coverage between the two tools is close.

Buffer currently supports 11: Instagram (personal, creator, and business profiles), Facebook, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, TikTok, YouTube (Shorts only), Pinterest, Google Business Profile, Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

Metricool also supports 11 platforms: Instagram (business and creator profiles only), Facebook, LinkedIn, X/Twitter (paid add-on), TikTok, Theads, Bluesky YouTube, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, and Twitch.

Buffer has a track record of picking up newer platforms early. Mastodon is a good example — if that's part of your posting mix, Buffer is the only tool of the two that covers it.

If you schedule content around streams or publish on Twitch alongside other channels, that's coverage Buffer doesn't have. Metricool also has native ad management for Meta, TikTok, and Google Ads built into the same interface, so you can handle both organic and paid from one place.

Ease of use

The two tools have a pretty different feel from the moment you log in for the first time.

Getting started on Buffer takes a few minutes. Connect your channels, set a posting schedule, and start creating. Everything you need is ready to go almost immediately, which means most of your time goes into making content rather than learning where things live.

Metricool's interface is denser, and that density is a reflection of what it does. There's more to configure — reports, competitor tracking, autolists, ad management — so it takes longer to get oriented. For users who genuinely need that depth, the time spent learning it pays back. For users who don't, it can feel like a lot to work around.

Who should pick which tool

Both Buffer and Metricool have strong feature sets, and the right choice comes down to how you actually work. Here's how I'd think about it.

Creators and solopreneurs

Pick Buffer. The free plan is a genuine free plan, not a 7-day trial, and it includes the AI Assistant with no caps as well as the API and MCP. When you're ready to grow, Essentials at $6 per channel per month gives you unlimited posts and full analytics. For a solo creator on four channels, that's $24 per month total. Metricool's free plan won't get you very far if you post to LinkedIn or X/Twitter, and the Starter plan plus add-ons sits at around $30 per month for the same setup (including X).

Small businesses and growing teams

Pick Buffer (usually). The Team plan at $12 per channel per month includes unlimited users, approval workflows, and custom permissions by default. A five-person small business managing eight channels pays $96 per month total. Metricool's Advanced plan ($67 per month plus add-ons) gets you team features, but you'll feel the AI caps if your team drafts with AI regularly. If you specifically need competitor tracking or detailed client-facing reports, Metricool earns its place even at this size.

Marketing agencies

It depends. This is the segment where Metricool is strongest. The competitor tracking, customizable PDF reports, and per-brand pricing are built for agency workflows. If your day-to-day involves managing 10+ client brands and presenting monthly reports with competitive benchmarks, Metricool's Advanced plan is purpose-built for this.

Buffer is a stronger fit for agencies where the work is primarily about producing and scheduling content across client accounts — teams that want a clean, low-overhead tool rather than one built around analytics-heavy workflows. The Team plan is easy to onboard new team members onto, and the per-channel pricing adjusts naturally as your client roster changes.

Data-led marketers

Lean toward Metricool. If you spend most of your week inside analytics dashboards, building custom reports, tracking competitors, and pulling granular data, Metricool's reporting depth is hard to beat at this price. Buffer is not trying to be a deep analytics platform, and that's a deliberate choice.

Rounding up

Buffer and Metricool solve different problems for different kinds of users.

If you want clean scheduling, useful AI on every plan, a free plan that's genuinely usable, and pricing that scales sensibly with the platforms you use, Buffer is the stronger choice. Starting at $6 per channel per month (or free, if you're just getting started), it covers what most creators, small businesses, and growing teams need without forcing you to learn a complex tool.

If competitor tracking, deep custom reporting, and managing many brands at once are central to your work, and you're willing to learn a heavier interface and absorb the add-on pricing for X/Twitter, Metricool earns its place.

Both tools have free options, so the easiest way to decide is to set up both and spend a week using them the way you'd actually use them. The right one will become obvious fast.

We'd love for you to try Buffer. The free plan is a real free plan, with no credit card, no trial period, and no expiry date. Sign up here to get started.

Frequently asked questions

Can I switch from Metricool to Buffer?

Yes. Buffer's setup takes a few minutes: connect your channels, set your posting schedule, and start creating. There's no automatic way to bring scheduled posts over from Metricool, but you can start scheduling new content in Buffer right away. The free plan lets you test Buffer indefinitely without a trial period or expiry date.

Does Metricool have a free plan?

Yes, but it's limited. Metricool's free plan covers 1 brand with a maximum of 20 published posts per month total, and excludes LinkedIn and X/Twitter. It's best treated as a way to test the product before committing to a paid plan. Buffer's free plan, by contrast, includes 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts per channel (refillable at any time) and the AI Assistant and API access on every account.

Does Buffer have competitor tracking?

No. Buffer doesn't offer competitor tracking at any tier. If competitor tracking is a feature you actively use, Metricool is the stronger choice. It lets you track up to 100 competitor profiles across most major platforms with engagement and frequency reporting.

Which has better analytics, Buffer or Metricool?

It depends what "better" means for you. Metricool's analytics are deeper, with custom report builders and granular platform metrics. Buffer's analytics cover post performance, follower growth, and channel data too — and layer AI-powered takeaways on top that go through your data and come back with specific suggestions. For day-to-day content decisions, Buffer is faster. For monthly stakeholder reports with competitor benchmarks, Metricool is more flexible.

Is Metricool's AI Assistant unlimited?

No. Metricool's AI text generator is capped at 5 credits per month on the Free plan and 35 credits per brand per month on the Advanced plan ($67 per month). Buffer's AI Assistant is unlimited on every plan, including Free.

Is Buffer good for agencies?

Buffer's Team plan at $12 per channel per month includes unlimited users, approval workflows, and custom permissions. For agencies focused on content creation and scheduling for clients, Buffer scales well. For agencies that build strategy off competitor tracking and present detailed monthly reports to clients, Metricool's agency-focused plans are built for that workflow.

You know how to schedule a week of posts in one sitting, keep up with comments across five channels, and 'B2B, but make it fun’ is practically your middle name. Same!

The nod to ‘social media management’ on our LinkedIn profiles doesn’t quite cover all that, does it?

Allow me to introduce you to LinkedIn’s Connected Apps. As of June 2026, you can connect Buffer to your LinkedIn profile and have the work you actually do show up as a capability — validated by Buffer, based on your real activity.

Here's what that means, which capabilities you can add, and exactly how to put one on your profile.

What are LinkedIn Connected Apps?

LinkedIn’s Connected Apps are LinkedIn-approved tools you can connect to your profile, turning your real product usage into credible, visible expertise.

You may have seen the idea already — perhaps you’ve spotted how Duolingo users can add their score to their profile? It’s exactly like that. And now a host of other tools (including Buffer!) are one of those connected apps.

When you link your LinkedIn profile to Buffer, the work you're already doing (scheduling, replying, publishing, and building with the API) can appear on your profile as a capability statement like "Schedules and publishes posts across multiple social media accounts in Buffer."

You don’t need to apply or submit anything for approval to get yours. All you need to do is toggle the feature on in your Buffer settings, and Buffer will flesh it out for you. Pretty cool, right?

How Buffer Capabilities work

The whole thing runs on real activity. Here's the short version:

1. You use Buffer the way you normally would — scheduling posts, replying to comments, publishing across your channels.
2. Buffer recognizes it. When your Buffer usage matches a capability (say, publishing to two or more channels), Buffer picks that up and validates it.
3. You choose to display it. Nothing appears on your profile automatically. You opt in and pick the capability you want to show.
4. It shows up on LinkedIn, attributed to Buffer, with a link out so anyone viewing your profile can see what it represents.

This works on personal LinkedIn profiles only, not pages, and at launch, you can display one capability at a time. (More on the why behind that below.)

The capabilities you can add right now

Buffer is starting with four capabilities. Each maps to a specific kind of work in the product, so the only way to add one is to actually do the thing.

• Schedules and publishes posts across multiple social media accounts in Buffer — based on publishing posts to two or more connected channels.
• Responds to comments and tracks mentions across multiple social channels in Buffer — based on engaging with comments, replies, and mentions across your connected channels.
• Publishes social content across Instagram and LinkedIn in Buffer for B2B and consumer audiences — based on publishing to both Instagram and LinkedIn through Buffer.
• Uses the Buffer API to build applications that automate social publishing and scheduling workflows — based on building an API client or shipping a Buffer integration.

The first three will fit most people managing social media day to day. The fourth is for the developers and vibecoders in the community — if you've built on the Buffer API, you can feature this on your profile, too!

How to add a Buffer capability to your LinkedIn profile

This will only take a few minutes:

Step 1: Connect LinkedIn OR refresh your connection

1. If you haven’t already, connect your LinkedIn profile to Buffer by clicking New > Channel > LinkedIn and signing in.
2. If you've already got a LinkedIn profile connected, you'll need to refresh the connection to unlock the feature. To do that, click on your name on the bottom left > Channels. From there, click on the gear icon next to your LinkedIn Profile (not page) and click Refresh Connection.

Step 2: Turn on capabilities

1. Click on LinkedIn from your channels list on the left, then the gear icon at the top of the window (near your name).
2. If you’ve already been using LinkedIn with Buffer for a while, you may already have some capabilities to choose from. Select the one you want to display on your LinkedIn Profile
3. Check your LinkedIn profile. The capability appears, attributed to Buffer, with a "Learn more" link for anyone who wants the details.

Click on General and scroll down to Show your Buffer Capabilities on LinkedIn. Toggle the button on.

Step 3: No capabilities showing yet? Give it time!

Keep using LinkedIn with Buffer to trigger your capabilities! If you have been doing this for a while and you don't see anything straight away, give it a day and make sure you've refreshed your LinkedIn connection in Buffer.

Here’s how it looks on my profile:

Why this matters for your profile

Social media work can sometimes feel a little intangible. You can grow an account into the thousands or run a multi-workflow content engine for a dozen clients, and still have very little on paper. A capability validated through a connected app is something you can actually point to when you're talking to a new client, applying for a role, or pitching for a project.

It pairs well with the profile work you're probably already doing. If you're optimizing your LinkedIn profile to stand out or building a personal brand on the platform, a validated capability adds a layer of proof that endorsements never could.

And for the freelancers and consultants in the community, it's one more credible signal when you're trying to source new clients on LinkedIn.

Similarly, it’s super handy for hiring managers looking for experience in a specific tool.

Ready to add yours? Connect your LinkedIn profile to Buffer and turn the work you're already doing into proof on your profile.

More LinkedIn

• How to Get More Followers on LinkedIn — Exactly What I Did to Get to 22K
• Why LinkedIn Is the Most-Cited Source in AI Search (and What Your Business Should Do Next)
• How LinkedIn’s Algorithm Works in 2026, According to the LinkedIn Team
• LinkedIn Marketing in 2026: The Complete Guide for Businesses and Creators

Three browser tabs open on your laptop, five apps on your phone, and you're copy-pasting the same caption into a sixth because that reel needs to go everywhere. If you're running multiple social media accounts, I'm willing to bet that was what your life looked like at some point this week. Because, same!

If you're a creator or brand active across several social media networks and you're looking to make those moments a little smoother, the goal shouldn't be "do more."

It's to do the repetitive parts once.

This guide walks through seven tactics that cut the busywork, whether you're posting for yourself or handling a handful of client accounts.

The short answer: The most efficient way to manage multiple social media accounts is to connect them all to one social media management tool and work from a single content calendar, scheduling posts, replying to comments and DMs, and checking analytics and insights from one dashboard instead of logging in and out of each app. Then add in templates, crossposting, and automation to remove the repetitive work, and add new platforms one at a time so you don't burn out.

Quick summary: how to manage multiple accounts

• Centralize in one tool: Connecting every account to a single dashboard replaces logging in and out of separate apps, so you schedule, engage, and report from one place. Buffer's free plan connects three channels and schedules 10 posts a month; paid scheduling is $6/month per channel.
• Build reusable templates: Repeatable post formats in Canva turn a from-scratch design into a quick swap and keep your branding consistent across accounts.
• Crosspost and repurpose: One strong piece of content can feed Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts with little or no editing, which means more output without more work.
• Automate the repetitive work: Scheduling, analytics, and AI caption edits remove the manual tasks that make multi-account posting feel overwhelming.
• Scale one platform at a time: Master one network before adding the next so you don't burn out, then carry what works to each new account.

The 7 methods at a glance

Most people end up combining three or four of these rather than picking one.

1. Create templates for repeatable post formats

Templates for the post formats you use more than once cut your design time and keep your branding recognizable across every account.

Say you post a "social proof" graphic every Tuesday. Build an easily editable template in Canva (or any design tool you like) that you can update in a minute or two. A saved template turns what used to be a 20-minute design into a two-minute swap.

Plus, templates take some of that pressure off. You don't have to come up with something completely new every single day. You have a repeatable post format you can lean into that you already know performs well.

Example: Here's the template we use for our reel covers:

Imagine how quickly you'd be able to create similar posts. You swap the content, nudge the graphics if needed, and everything else is already done. Templates in your back pocket make posting feel a lot less like starting over every morning.

2. Mix content curation into your social media calendar

Content curation (organizing useful posts you didn't create into a digestible roundup) fills your calendar without making you create everything from scratch.

You've seen these: someone rounds up helpful content from other creators around one topic, or collects the best posts from a single thought leader. That's content curation, organizing information that isn't necessarily your own in a way that's useful to your audience.

It's easier than starting from a blank page, which helps when you're posting across several accounts. It's also genuinely useful for your audience, because you're doing the work of finding and organizing things they might have missed (and saving them time hunting for social media post ideas).

Mix curated content with your original posts. It keeps you publishing consistently and can become a content series that people look forward to. At Buffer, we do exactly this in our weekly newsletter, rounding up the best of what's happening in social.

3. Crosspost and repurpose your existing content

Crossposting means posting the same content across multiple platforms with little or no change. Laura Whaley, for instance, posted the same video on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts.

Crossposting works best for platforms that take the same kind of content. Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts all love short-form video, so a reel that did well can go straight to TikTok with no edits. That's the payoff of testing one network at a time: you build a content library you can lean on for the next one.

Posting to all your accounts at once is where a management tool earns its keep. Instead of opening each app and pasting the same thing five times, you write the post once in a single composer, pick the networks you want it on, and schedule it. The tool sends it to each platform for you, which is the fastest way to keep every account active without the copy-paste tax.

Content repurposing goes a step further: you use one piece to make new ones. We turned our long-form article on brands using Threads well into an Instagram carousel.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Buffer (@buffer)

You can turn your:

• Long-form writing into Instagram carousels, X or Bluesky threads, or LinkedIn posts
• Long YouTube videos into short-form clips for Instagram and TikTok
• Research reports into Instagram and Pinterest infographics

4. Automate routine tasks in your social media workflow

Social media automation means letting software handle the repetitive tasks (scheduling, reporting, caption tidying) so your time goes to the creative and strategic work. A few tasks worth automating when you're running several accounts:

• Scheduling: Use management software to queue posts for every account at once
• Analytics: Use analytics tools (like Buffer's Insights) to measure performance across platforms in one view
• Customer replies: Use chatbots to field the most common questions
• Caption writing: Use AI tools to refine your captions

For instance, Buffer’s AI assistant can shift the tone of a caption to be more formal, casual, or funny in a click.

Start by listing every task involved in running your accounts, from finding content ideas to adapting posts for different platforms. Then find the tools that take those off your plate, or at least make them faster.

5. Create a solid social media strategy and content calendar

A clear strategy is what tells your content calendar what to do. Without it, you're posting on instinct. Having one means you know your:

• Target audience and their pain points
• Networks your audience actually uses
• Goals, and how they ladder up to your business goals
• The content you can create to meet those needs

From there, your strategy fills in an actionable content calendar: what goes live, on which network, at what time, and why. That's the part that makes running several accounts feel orderly instead of frantic.

6. Use a social media management tool to run all your accounts in one place

A social media management tool is the single biggest lever here: it brings every account into one place so the whole thing feels manageable. Most tools let you:

• Connect accounts from multiple platforms in one dashboard
• Schedule posts in advance from a shared calendar
• Manage engagement across accounts, including comments, DMs, and more
• See built-in insights so you can measure what's working and adjust

Connecting all your accounts takes one pass: you sign up, authorize each network once, and from then on, every account lives together, so you plan and publish from a single calendar instead of hopping between logins.

They're popular with teams and agencies, but they're just as useful for a solo creator or a small business.

Once you've got a strategy, shortlist a tool that supports the networks you're on and can grow with you.

If you're looking for something affordable (or free to start), Buffer lets you connect up to three channels at no cost and schedule ten posts per month.  The free plan also includes the AI assistant, a landing page builder, and an ideas board, which is enough to actually run a couple of accounts before you pay anything. You can try it for free and see if it fits your workflow.

Buffer is built specifically for creators and small business owners who need something straightforward and affordable. You can try it for free to see if it works for your workflow.

👀 One honest caveat: No tool publishes natively to every feature of every platform. Instagram first comments and some TikTok formats can still need a manual step. It still beats logging into five apps, but it's not 100% hands-off.

Managing multiple social media accounts for clients

If you're running accounts for clients rather than just your own, the job shifts from posting to keeping things separate and accountable. The fix is the same dashboard, organized differently: keep each client's accounts in their own space, with their own calendar, approvals, and reporting, so nothing crosses wires.

A tool built for agencies and freelancers lets you collaborate and switch between clients, schedule across each one's channels, hand drafts to a teammate or the client for approval, and pull per-client analytics at the end of the month. The two things that save the most time here are approval flows (so you're not chasing sign-off in email) and per-client reporting (so monthly updates take minutes, not an afternoon).

7. Join new social media platforms slowly and with intention

Add new platforms one at a time rather than all at once. Mastering one network before expanding prevents burnout and lets you reuse what already works. It's tempting to be everywhere immediately, but that's the fastest route to feeling underwater.

First, narrow down where your audience actually is, based on your business type. As a general guideline, many D2C brands see strong results on TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest, while B2B brands often prioritize LinkedIn, X, and Bluesky.

Different audiences discover products in different places, so don't assume. Ask your existing audience how they found you and where they look for new products in your niche.

Your audience might be on several networks, but they aren't in a buying mindset on all of them. If you sell shampoo, someone might scroll LinkedIn all day and never want to hear about it there — but catch them on TikTok, and they'll click through and buy.

So say you learn your audience discovers products like yours on Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. Don't launch all three at once. Start with Instagram, spend a few months learning what works and getting comfortable with the calendar, then bring on TikTok and repeat. Going slow pays off three ways:

• You don't overwhelm yourself by running everything on day one
• You carry lessons from one network to the next and skip repeating mistakes
• You build a backlog of content to repurpose onto each new account

There's no rule that says you have to be on every platform. To manage multiple social media accounts without losing your mind, you need to add new platforms slowly and intentionally. No one says you need to jump into managing multiple social media accounts at the same time. There are only benefits to moving in an unhurried manner and only risks in moving too fast.

Manage multiple social media accounts with ease

None of this is effortless. Even teams with a dedicated social person feel the grind of running several accounts. You're creating the content, learning each platform's quirks, and keeping up with what your audience responds to, often while wearing every other hat in the business.

So don't try to do all seven at once. Pick the two that fix your most annoying bottleneck this week (for most people, that's building a few templates and setting up a scheduling tool), get them running, and leave the rest for next month. It gets easier as you build the systems that fit how you actually work.

FAQ about managing multiple social media accounts

What is the best way to manage multiple social media accounts?

Start with a plan, then use the right tools. Choose the networks your audience already uses, build a simple content calendar so you always know what to post and when, and repurpose your best posts across platforms to save time. Then use a social media management tool (Buffer is a good option) to schedule content, reply to comments, and review analytics and insights from one dashboard.

How can I post to all my social media accounts at once?

Yes, you can post to all your accounts at once with a social media management tool. In Buffer, you write the post once, select every channel you want it on, and schedule it. Buffer formats and sends it to each network automatically, so you're not copying and pasting into five apps.

What's the easiest way to manage Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn from one dashboard?

Connect all three to a single management tool. With Buffer, you link Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn once, then schedule posts, reply to comments, and view analytics for all of them in one place, with no logging in and out.

How do I manage social media accounts for multiple clients?

Keep each client's accounts in their own workspace inside one tool, with separate calendars, approval flows, and reporting. A tool built for agencies lets you switch between clients, schedule across their channels, and pull per-client analytics without anything getting mixed up.

What is the best tool to manage multiple social media accounts?

The best tool is one that lets you schedule posts, respond to comments, and track performance from a single dashboard without adding complexity. Buffer is popular with creators and small businesses because it’s easy to use, affordable, and designed to scale as your needs grow.

Is it OK to post the same content on multiple platforms?

Yes, especially on platforms that take similar formats. Crossposting short-form video between Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts saves time and extends the reach of your best content.

What is the difference between crossposting and repurposing content?

Crossposting means sharing the same piece of content across multiple platforms with little or no change. Repurposing goes a step further by adapting one piece of content into different formats, like turning a blog post into a carousel or a long-form video into short clips.

Do I need a content calendar to manage multiple accounts?

A content calendar makes it much easier. It keeps track of what to post, where it goes, and why it matters, so you're not deciding on the fly every day.

More social media marketing resources

• Buffer vs. Hootsuite: Which Social Media Management Tool Is Right For You?
• The Best Social Media Scheduling Tools (+ How to Find the Perfect Fit)
• The 11 Best Social Media Management Tools — Tried + Tested
• 9 Tools for Social Media Automation (+ Automation Pro Tips)
• The Best Social Media APIs for Developers + Vibe Coders

I won’t bore you with a lecture about why you need a social media content calendar. You know you do.

You likely landed here because you’re looking for a content calendar template, a quick starting point for mapping out your content plan for the coming weeks or months.

I’ve worked as both a social media manager and content creator and live by my social media content calendar.

My current favorite tool is (of course) Buffer, but there are loads of other options out there. If you’re looking for something lo-fi to get started, I've got you.

Here's a list of 13 calendar templates to help you be more efficient, plus how to build your own if none of them fit.

The quick version

A social media calendar template is a ready-made structure for planning what you'll post, where, and when, so you're not staring at a blank screen every week.

The fastest way to start: Pick a format that matches how you like to work (a spreadsheet like Google Sheets, a visual tool like Canva, a flexible workspace like Notion, or a scheduler like Buffer that also publishes for you), grab one of the 13 free templates below, and block 30 minutes to map out your next two weeks.

If you want to build one from scratch instead, skip to how to create a social media calendar.

At a glance: 11 free social media calendar templates

1. Buffer social media calendar

This is not a downloadable template, per se, but Buffer is so easy to plug and play, it might as well be.

I'm definitely biased here, but take it from someone who has tried every tool and template on the block. I wholeheartedly believe Buffer has the best social media calendar out there!

Here's an overview of just some of the cool things you can do.

Let's start with the basics: Buffer’s content calendar features a weekly and monthly calendar view. You can drag and drop posts to easily change publish dates and times in real time.

These views can be filtered by platform, so you can see all your posts in a list if you prefer. You can even optimize your posting schedule according to the best time to post on each platform (more on this below).

The Tags feature allows for custom social content categories and color coding (my personal favorite feature). You can organize your posts by status, content strategy pillars, target audience, marketing goals, or type of content, whatever works best for your content strategy.

The benefits of mapping out your content in Buffer go way beyond just planning. Buffer is a social media scheduling tool, not just a social media planning tool.

This calendar is the only one on this list that will publish the posts for you.

Buffer can automatically schedule your social media posts (whether they're text, photos, or videos) on all major platforms to go live at precisely the time you want them to.  If you're juggling several accounts, it also makes it far easier to manage multiple social media accounts from one calendar.

It's an excellent option for both solo creators and social media teams, too, with handy collaboration features like approval workflows and smart permissions.

Unlike the rest of the calendars on this list, there’s no need to cross-reference multiple tools or systems or manually post every single content piece on different platforms.

Buffer connects with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Pinterest, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, Google Business, and more.

If you’re sharing the same posts on multiple social media platforms, you can schedule the posts in one go (and make minor tweaks to each platform if need be). I can’t even begin to tell you how much of a time-saver this is.

Outside the calendar, there’s the Create Space to help you brainstorm and organize your ideas, engagement tools to help you manage replies to comments, and Insights to check in on metrics at a glance.

How to use this calendar

1. Click on the Get started with Buffer’s calendar link below.
2. Create your Buffer account if you don't already have one (it's free).
3. Click Connect Channels (you can connect up to three on our forever-free plan).
4. Choose the platform you want to start with and follow the steps.
5. Click on the Publish tab on the top left.
6. Welcome to your social media content calendar. Click New Post on the top right to start scheduling posts.

2. Social media calendar template with the best times to post

Timing your post just right can have a positive impact on both your reach and engagement in social media marketing, which is why we dove into the data from millions of social media posts in Buffer to uncover exactly that.

Thanks to this analysis, we’ve pinpointed several posting times for each social media platform during which posts get more engagement or views. I’ve highlighted these times for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter/X in this downloadable PDF calendar.

How to use this calendar

1. Download the ‘Best Time to Post’ calendar template.
2. Once downloaded, right-click on the file and open it with Adobe Reader or another PDF reader.
3. Click Fill & Sign.
4. Click within the time slot you want to use to start typing.
5. Alternatively, you can always print these pages and fill them out with a good old-fashioned pen and paper.
6. The social media content calendar template is yours to edit as you see fit.

⏰ Get ‘Best Time to Post’ calendar template

There’s a whole lot more nuance in figuring out the best time to post for your audience. I’d recommend checking out these resources:

• The Best Time to Post on Facebook
• The Best Time to Post on Instagram
• The Best Time to Post on TikTok
• The Best Time to Post on LinkedIn
• The Best Time to Post on YouTube
• The Best Time to Post on Twitter/X

3. Simple weekly social media calendar template

This free content calendar template features the same layout as the one above, with publishing schedule time slots from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., just without highlights for the best times to post on each platform.

How to use this calendar

1. Get the simple weekly calendar.
2. Open with Adobe Reader.
3. Click Fill & Sign.
4. Click within the time slot you want to use to start typing.
5. Alternatively, you can always print these pages and use pen and paper to fill yours out.
6. The social media content calendar template is yours to edit as you see fit.

🗓️ Get the simple weekly calendar

4. Simple monthly social media calendar template

If you want to map out an entire month at a glance, this content calendar template is for you. Think of this calendar as your big-picture view. It can be helpful to map out the month in broad strokes by publish date using a layout like this one, to help you prioritize tasks.

How to use this calendar

1. Get the simple monthly social media calendar.
2. Open with Adobe Reader.
3. Click Fill & Sign.
4. Click within the time slot you want to use to start typing.
5. Alternatively, you can always print these pages and use a good ol' pen and paper to fill yours out.
6. The social media content calendar template is yours to edit as you see fit.

📅 Get the simple monthly social media calendar

5. Canva social media calendar templates

If you’d like to customize the simple calendars above to better suit you, here are the editable versions in Canva. You’ll need a free Canva account to tweak them.

How to use this calendar

1. Click on one of the Get calendar links below. A preview will open in Canva.
2. Click the View template button, then Open in Editor.
3. An editable version will appear in your Canva workspace.
4. The social media content calendar template is yours to edit as you see fit.

⏰ Get the best times to post calendar

🗓️ Get the simple weekly calendar

📅 Get the simple monthly calendar

6. Notion social media calendar template

Notion is a flexible project management tool, where, unlike some of the simple content calendar templates above, you can easily store the text, captions, and media you plan to use for each post in the calendar itself.

You can also view all your posts in different views, like a list, table, Kanban board, or Gantt chart, which can be useful in planning. It’s a great choice for a content marketing or editorial calendar template too, as you can map out newsletters, blog posts, and other digital marketing campaigns.

How to use this calendar

1. Get the Notion template.
2. Click on the Duplicate button (the juxtaposed squares icon) in the top right corner
3. Create a free Notion account if you don’t have one already
4. The social media content calendar template is yours to edit as you see fit.

🤖 Get Notion template

7. Google Sheets social media calendar template

If a spreadsheet is your happy place, a Google Sheets social media calendar template is hard to beat — it's free, it lives in the cloud, and you can customize it endlessly without learning a new tool.

I’ve never been a huge fan of using Sheets for anything outside data wrangling. But now that Google’s added a dropdown list feature, Sheets is growing on me as an organization and planning tool. It makes for a great social media planning calendar, too.

I particularly like how you’re able to use specific custom colors for the list options, too. I like my content calendars to be pretty.

This free content calendar template is, along with Buffer and Notion, one of the most customizable on this list. It's also suitable for storing entire posts and captions, rather than just making notes, as you would have done in the simple calendar templates above. If Microsoft Excel is more your speed, you can convert it in a couple of clicks (I've covered that in the steps below).

How to use this calendar

1. Make a copy of the Google Sheets template.
2. Read the instructions on the Start here sheet. If Microsoft Excel is your spreadsheet tool of choice, click File > Download > Microsoft Excel.
3. The social media content calendar template is yours to edit as you see fit.

📊 Get the Google Sheets template

✨ Calendar templates from our community

Social media calendars are pretty personal, and what works for one marketer, creator, or entrepreneur might not work for another.

With that in mind, I turned to our community, which graciously shared their real-life calendars, or even turned them into templates that you can use and download.

8. Simon Heaton’s kanban calendar

Buffer’s Director of Growth Marketing, Simon Heaton, leans on Buffer’s Create Space to plan his content and the calendar to schedule it.

He’s organized the Create Space kanban columns into content status like progress (there’s a big difference between ‘In progress’ and ‘Actual in progress,’ he told me).

Simon used Tags as another layer of organization in his Buffer social media planning calendar, with each color-coded tag corresponding to one of his content pillars (note the colored bars on his publish calendar above).

As part of his social media strategy, Simon has defined Buffer Promo, General Growth Tips, Growth @ Buffer, Remote Job Postings, Posts with Data, and Posts about Social Media as his content pillars.

“I double them up sometimes as things can overlap,” he says. “For example, 'Posts with Data' overlaps with 'Growth @ Buffer' a lot.”

How to set up your Buffer like Simon

1. Click on the Get started with Buffer link.
2. Create your Buffer account if you don’t already have one, and click Connect Channels (you can connect up to three for free). Choose the platform you want to start with and follow the steps.
3. Click on Create on the menu on the top left to navigate to the Create Space.
4. Toggle on ‘board view’ on the top right. Choose + New Group on the right to start a new column, and choose your desired column names.
5. Click on Tags (also top right) and the settings cog symbol to create your tags.

🌱 Get started with Buffer

9. Aiza Coronado’s email x ChatGPT calendar

Aiza Coronado, Marketer and founder of The Glimmer Code, has a very unique approach to her social media content planner. She has it sent straight to her email.

Bonus: It doesn’t just help her plan when to share the content; it also helps her plan what the content will be.

She prompted her AI tool of choice, ChatGPT, to generate ideas for her, then set up a ChatGPT task to have them sent straight to her email inbox.

“The prompt is super simple,” she says. “I used something like, 'From our past conversations, find and list email marketing insights, possible content ideas, and Substack topics I wanted to write about'.”

“The titles are cheesy, but it works as idea sparks,” she says. “I just need to remember what I did. And ask AI to uncover hidden insights I might have missed.”

How to create this system

1. Once you’ve landed on an output you’re happy with, you can create a task in ChatGPT at a cadence that suits you. Prompt in the same chat: “Send me one of these content ideas every morning,” or similar. Here’s more info on how to create a task in ChatGPT.
2. You’ll receive the tasks in your email inbox. Click on them to go back to ChatGPT and make changes before posting via the platform or social media scheduling tool.

I’ve created a more generic prompt you could use for the same purpose.

In ChatGPT, use a prompt like this one to start the conversation: “I’m a [job title/creator] who creates content about [X,Y,Z]. My target audience is [demographic]. I create [X] posts a week on [platform/s]. Find possible content ideas for me.”

Here’s some of the output it generates:

10. My simple calendar for TikTok consistency

Like Sabreen, I rely on predetermined time slots and goals to stay consistent on TikTok.

Using the info from our best time to post on TikTok study and analyzing my own video performance, I've pinpointed the best times for me to share a video on TikTok every day.

My posting goal is three times per week, but I have slots set up for every day to give me flexibility.

I've set up my Buffer content calendar to reflect those high-performing timeslots, so when the time comes to schedule social posts, I don't even have to think about it. Removing that late-stage friction has been a game-changer for helping to stay consistent.

Bonus: This works for any social channels, not just TikTok.

How to set up your Buffer like me

1. Get started with Buffer
2. Create your Buffer account if you don’t already have one, and click Connect Channels (you can connect up to three for free).
3. Choose the platform you want to start with and follow the steps. When you connect a new channel, you’ll be prompted to create a posting goal.
4. If you want to create a posting goal for a channel you have already connected, choose your channel from the channels list on the left-hand side, then click on + Set a posting goal right below the channel title.
5. To set posting times to appear in your calendar, click on the cog icon next to the channel name (also visible in the image above). Scroll down to Posting slots to add or remove slots to your calendar.

✨ Get started with Buffer

11. Kiran Shahid’s calendar for personal brand-building

Kiran Shahid has built an impressive personal brand on LinkedIn, and she’s looking to branch out to Instagram, too.

Thanks to the robust system she created on Notion while growing on LinkedIn, she’s finding her new Instagram project a whole lot smoother.

“I have these systems in place, I’m finding it so easy to start and have a content bank ready before I launch,” she explains. “If an idea pops into my head, I can note it down on Notion and develop it later when I sit down to plan my weekly content.”

The system is great for anyone who wants to be intentional about building a personal brand, she adds.

“Apart from making sure I never run out of ideas, having them all in one place makes repurposing a breeze, too. On days I’m feeling a bit lazy, I can simply copy-paste an old idea to make sure there isn’t a big gap in my scheduling.”

How to use this calendar

1. Get the Notion template.
2. Click on the Duplicate button (the juxtaposed squares icon) in the top right corner.
3. Create a free Notion account if you don’t have one already.
4. Kiran’s social media content calendar template is yours to edit as you see fit (use the tabs to see different sections and views).

🚀 Get the Notion template

How to create a social media calendar

Templates are the fast lane, but if none of them quite fit, building your own calendar from scratch isn't hard. Here's the eight-step process I've used as both a social media manager and a creator.

1. Start with your strategy

Before you open any calendar tool, get clear on the basics: why you're posting, who you're trying to reach, and what you'll actually post about. Random posting gets you random results. Having clear goals, understanding your target audience, and defining your content pillars will make your marketing efforts much easier and more successful in the long run

Even a single-page social media strategy — with your goals, your audience, and your content pillars — will make every decision after this easier.

2. Pick your tool and format

Choose the home for your calendar based on how you actually like to work, not what looks most impressive. A spreadsheet (Google Sheets, Excel), a flexible workspace (Notion), or a scheduler that also publishes for you (Buffer) are all solid starting points. The best system is the one you'll actually keep using, so try not to overthink it. You can always migrate later.

It would be remiss of me not to point out that there are a host of perks to housing your social media calendar in Buffer beyond the ability to plan and schedule in a single tool:

• A high-level monthly view for big-picture planning.
• A more in-depth weekly view to see all the key details at a glance.
• The ability to exclude certain channels from view for extra clarity and focus.
• Access it anywhere. Thanks to Buffer’s mobile app, you can check or amend your calendar on the go. 

📲 Download the Buffer app for iOS here

📲 Download the Buffer app for Android here

3. Set your cadence

Decide how often you'll post on each platform, and be realistic. Three posts a week you can sustain beats seven you'll abandon by Thursday. Consistency is the one piece of advice that survives every algorithm update, so build your calendar around a rhythm you can keep.

4. Build the skeleton

Map out your posting slots (the days and times you'll publish). If you're not sure when to post, our best time to post research, drawn from millions of posts analyzed in Buffer, is a useful starting point before you layer in your own performance data.

At Buffer, we think of the posting schedule for every social media platform as a Queue — basically, set time slots every week for posting.

You don’t have to stick to this, of course, but it’s a really handy way to commit to the cadence you laid out in your social media strategy. As time goes on and you experiment with different timings and frequencies on all the platforms you’re using, you’ll be able to pinpoint the slots that work well for your target audience. 

To set up your Queue, click on your chosen channel, then click on the cog icon next to your name and profile picture. Here you'll find the options for your posting slots, which you can edit according to your strategy.

5. Get your content ideas down

Ready for a brain dump? You likely have a solid idea of the kind of content you’re creating thanks to your strategy work in Step 1. Now, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work on the actual content creation. 

This is where Buffer’s Create Space comes in. It’s a versatile system that you can use in plenty of different ways, but if you’re working on building out your calendar, I’d advise you to start by using it as a hub for all your ideas.

You can view everything in a gallery or organize your ideas into boards.

6. Organize in a way that makes sense to you

Color coding is my organizational love language (you should see my bookshelf). Color-coding or tagging by content pillar, status, or format makes a busy calendar legible at a glance. It also makes it far easier to spot gaps like three promo posts in a row, or a week with no video.

There are a host of ways to use Buffer's Tags that will be incredibly useful in your social media management system. You could use them to tag posts by:

• Content pillar (my personal favorite)
• Post status (idea, draft, ready to publish)
• Format or type of content (text, video, photo, carousel)
• Platform (while you’ll be able to see which social media app your post is scheduled on in the calendar, this could be useful if you’re also saving ideas here for, say, a blog)

What’s really neat about Tags is that they translate over to the Insights section —you can filter your analytics by tag and measure the performance of one content pillar against another. This has been incredibly useful for me as I experiment with my content pillars to see which resonate the most with my audience.

Here's how to create and manage Tags on Buffer:

7. Start planning

Now comes the fun part: slot your ideas into the calendar. Now that you have a host of great ideas ready and waiting to be published on your social media channels, it’s time to get them on the calendar.

To do so, select an idea that’s ready to go in Create. Then click on the Create Post button at the bottom of the pop-up.

Next, choose which channels you want to post the update on. 

Tailor your post to each platform, then choose if you want to schedule, queue, or post immediately.

To schedule straight to your calendar, click the +New Post button at the top right, add your content, and schedule to the relevant platforms.

8. Review and adjust

A calendar isn't set in stone. With your content ready and raring to go, play around with your calendar to find the perfect mix for each day, week, and month. As long as the post hasn’t been published, you can tweak everything to your heart’s content. 

• Check in at the start of each week, move things around, and leave room for reactive posts, like a trending TikTok sound or a timely moment worth jumping on.
• Check in with your calendar at the beginning of each day to see what you have scheduled and refine your content if need be.
• Global events might mean you have to tweak your messaging, curate your content, or overhaul your plan completely.
• Over time, your own analytics will tell you what's working, and you'll repurpose your best-performing posts.

Vikki Tokarz, Head of Community at Scribe, finds calendars essential for anything bigger than a day or two: "Write timely, viral content when you have it, and schedule your 'bread and butter' (evergreen) content to cultivate a persistent, relatable social presence."

ICYMI, calendars for the win!

Social media success starts with a calendar

As a content writer at Buffer, I spend a good chunk of my time poring over the (often cryptic) algorithm updates from the various social media platforms. We have loads of great blog articles (if I do say so myself) breaking down the algorithm for every single platform, which we update regularly.

While a lot of the guidance for social media success changes in those resources pretty often, there’s one tip that always, always remains in them: be consistent. Whether you’re a content creator, social media marketer, or small business owner, be as active on your social network of choice as possible. It’s the best route to success on any given platform, whether you’re posting to Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Mastodon, you name it.

And what’s the best way to ensure you are consistently posting on those networks? A social media content calendar! Got your template? Congratulations. You’re on the road to success.

Social media content calendar FAQs

If you're new to using social media calendar templates (or just creating a social media content planner in general), here's some handy guidance from someone who lives by them.

Why do I need to use a social media content calendar?

If you are on the fence about setting up a social media calendar (with a template or from scratch), here's a quick overview of the benefits.

A social media calendar is a key part of building your social media strategy. It will help you:

1. Stay on top of multiple social channels.
2. Keep up with the content pillars in your social media marketing strategy.
3. Stick to a consistent posting schedule.
4. Schedule posts in advance and automate your content creation workflows.
5. Work with team members (if you’re on a marketing team or social media teams), collaborators, or stakeholders.
6. Stay on top of product launches, marketing campaigns, events, or even holidays.
7. Streamline a system of approvals before posting.
8. Save time with content batching.
9. Repurpose content.
10. Keep track of content ideas.

Why do I need to use a social media calendar template?

A template takes the guesswork out of getting started. Instead of staring at a blank screen wondering how to organize your content, you’ve got a ready-made structure to plug your ideas into.

It’s especially helpful if you’re short on time or juggling multiple platforms. All the heavy lifting of formatting is done for you, so you can focus on the content itself. Templates also make it easier to spot gaps, batch-create posts, and stay aligned with your broader social media strategy.

What should I include in my social media calendar?

Your calendar doesn’t need to be fancy; it just needs to work for you. Here are a few things most calendars include:

• Posting dates and times
• Platform and post format (Reel, Story, text post, etc.)
• Captions and visuals (or at least notes)
• Content pillar or category
• Status (drafted, scheduled, published)

Some people go all in with hashtags, CTAs, social media campaign labels, audience segments, and all the necessary details on their marketing calendar, but if that feels overwhelming, start with a simple social media planner and build from there.

How do I create a social media calendar?

Pick a tool, pick a format, and block some time to plan. You can start with a template (like the ones above) or build your own in the tool of your choice — Notion, Google Sheets, Buffer, whatever you’re most likely to actually use. Then set a recurring time each week or month to map out your content.

Even just planning three social posts in advance can make a big difference in your workflow.

How do I make a social media calendar template work for me?

The keyword here is template. It’s a starting point, not a strict set of rules. Tweak the layout, add color coding, rename columns, or delete sections you don’t need. If you’re not a morning poster, shift your suggested times. If you post more on TikTok than LinkedIn, prioritize that.

It’s your calendar. Make it reflect your social strategy or marketing strategy, goals, audience, and actual capacity.

What features should you look for in a social media content calendar template?

Look for flexibility and clarity. A great template should be:

• Easy to navigate
• Compatible with your planning style (visual? list-based? Kanban?)
• Customizable to fit your social or marketing strategy
• Shareable (if you work with a team or clients)

Bonus points if you can filter by platform, track post status, or include media files and notes directly in the calendar.

More social media marketing resources

• How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy — 7-Step Guide
• Buffer vs. Hootsuite: Which Social Media Management Tool Is Right For
• The Best Social Media Scheduling Tools (+ How to Find the Perfect Fit)
• The 11 Best Social Media Management Tools — Tried + Tested
• 9 Tools for Social Media Automation (+ Automation Pro Tips)
• The Best Social Media APIs for Developers + Vibe Coders

You design a great-looking visual in one tool, and you're still several steps from getting it in front of anyone. Download the file, open your scheduler, upload it again, write a caption, adjust it for each platform, then post. That stretch between finishing a design and going live is where a lot of creative momentum gets lost.

It's the gap Daniel Futerman and his co-founder set out to close when they built a Buffer integration into Hiding Elephant, an AI design workspace for creative teams. This is the story of what they built, why they built it on Buffer's API, and what it changes for the designers, agencies, and social teams who use it.

Meet Hiding Elephant

Hiding Elephant is an AI design workspace built by designers, for designers. It brings AI image and video generation together with professional editing, vector tools, automation workflows, live collaboration, shared assets, and a brand intelligence layer, so e-commerce brands, agencies, and social teams can produce on-brand content faster without giving up control of the details.

Daniel came to it from a creative background. Before Hiding Elephant, he ran a motion design studio called Amigo Motion, where control over the creative process was everything. When AI generation arrived, he was amazed by how fast it was, then frustrated by how little control it gave him.

Take a simple example. Trying to create one specific shirt design, he could describe the general idea in a prompt but never land the exact shapes, layout, and details he had in mind. AI was great for exploration and ideation, but designers still needed a way to use it without losing their craft. So he and his co-founder built Hiding Elephant around that idea: pairing AI's speed with the editing tools and precision designers actually expect.

Why they built a Buffer integration

Daniel is refreshingly blunt about why they built it: content creation only gets you halfway. Hiding Elephant is strong at helping teams make content, but once a visual existed, users still had to get it out into the world, and that meant leaving the platform.

A large share of Hiding Elephant's users are managing brands and posting across multiple social media channels. For agencies, e-commerce brands, and social teams, this is how they build awareness, keep products visible, and stay in front of an audience. Sharing their designs to social bubbled up as friction in the workflow: create in one place, then leave to publish somewhere else.

What the integration does

With the integration connected, a user can generate on-brand images and videos in Hiding Elephant, reframe them for different aspect ratios, and publish to their social accounts through Buffer in a single click.

The brand intelligence layer does more than move files around – it writes the captions too. Hiding Elephant analyzes the image, combines it with what it already knows about the brand's voice, tone, and visual style, and generates platform-specific posts: shorter for X, longer for LinkedIn, and so on.

That's important for teams juggling more than one client. A design agency managing five brands can set up brand intelligence for each one, create on-brand visuals, generate captions in each brand's voice, adapt the content per platform, and send it all straight to the Buffer queue or save it as drafts for review.

Building on Buffer's API

The core integration took less than a week to build. Daniel's team is deep in AI development, so implementation moved fast. Most of the time after that went into testing, QA, and polishing the experience before launch.

The build itself was smooth.

"Buffer's API and documentation are clear, so getting everything up and running was straightforward," says Daniel.

The edge cases took more work. Every platform has its own character limits, supported media types, and publishing rules, so the team built those validations into their workflow to keep publishing simple for users.

Daniel is clear on why they went through Buffer rather than connecting to each platform themselves:

"With Buffer, one integration gives our users access to all their connected social accounts. Going directly to each platform would've meant maintaining separate OAuth flows, rate limits, media specifications, and platform-specific APIs. Buffer abstracts all of that behind a single integration, allowing us to focus on what makes Hiding Elephant unique."

Maintaining publishing across every social platform is an ongoing cost, and it's not where a product like Hiding Elephant wants its engineers to spend time. Buffer takes that off their plate.

How this plays out in practice

The result is a much shorter path from creating something to getting it out. The old flow was create in Hiding Elephant, download, re-upload to Buffer, write the post, then do it all again for the next asset. Now it's create, generate ready-to-share posts, and publish across channels in one continuous flow.

Time saved is the easy one to point to. The bigger one, for Daniel, is consistency. Because the brand intelligence layer is already doing the work, the posts match the brand's voice, visual style, and campaign context, not just the picture attached to them.

What's next

The near-term focus for Hiding Elephant is video. It's one of the strongest formats for getting attention and telling a story, so the team is building out its video capabilities and the workflows around creating higher-quality video.

For the Buffer integration specifically, Daniel sees room to make the workflow smarter over time: syncing with past Buffer posts, tapping into hashtag and performance data, and feeding those insights back into future captions, brand messaging, and the content itself. The goal he describes is closing the loop between creative production and performance, so teams can create faster and make sharper creative calls based on what actually works.

The elephant in the room

There's a reason for the name. When AI first arrived in the creative world, the elephant in the room was the worry that it would replace the people doing the work. Daniel's team took a different position.

"AI should enhance creativity, not replace the creative process. We believe the best results happen when humans stay in control, and AI helps them explore ideas, iterate faster, and bring their creative vision to life."

The Buffer integration fits that view. It leaves the creative decisions alone and takes care of the tedious stretch between finishing a design and getting it in front of an audience. And on a personal note, Daniel has been a Buffer user for years, so this was a partnership he was glad to be part of.

Building on Buffer

Hiding Elephant is one of a growing number of products built on the Buffer API. If you're building a tool and want to give your users social publishing without maintaining a separate integration for every platform, that's what the API is for. You can dig into the docs here: https://developers.buffer.com/

And if you just want a simpler way to publish your own content across channels, Buffer has a free plan built for exactly that.

Fair warning: I’m that person who will try every tool, test every feature, read every changelog, and build a whole workflow just to shave time off a task. 

I’ve done all these things in Buffer and Sprout Social as a creator, small business owner, and social media consultant for an enterprise company. And after spending serious time on both platforms, one thing became clear: they’re built for very different versions of “someone who manages social media.”

Buffer is designed for creators, businesses, and agencies that want a flexible, affordable tool to manage their social media presence. Sprout Social is built for large, enterprise teams that need complex team workflows and advanced social listening.

Neither platform is universally “better,” and they both have plenty of great features for managing and growing your social media presence. The better fit comes down to how you work day to day, and what kind of setup makes that easier.

Here’s what I found when I compared them side by side.

Key takeaways

• Buffer offers a free-forever plan that includes three social channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel (refillable anytime), an AI Assistant, and basic analytics. Sprout Social has no free plan, only a 30-day trial.
• Buffer’s paid plans scale with the number of channels you connect, while Sprout Social’s scale with the number of users on your team. Buffer starts at $6/channel per month; Sprout Social starts at $99/seat per month. For a single user managing five channels, that’s $30 per month on Buffer’s Essentials plan vs. $99 per month on Sprout Social’s Essentials plan.
• Buffer’s Team plan ($12/channel per month) includes unlimited users. On Sprout Social, features that most teams need — like approval workflows — are available on the Professional plan ($399/seat per month) and higher. Adding a second person to your Sprout Social team would cost you $798 per month.
• Sprout Social’s Smart Inbox is a strength. It pulls direct messages, mentions, and comments from every connected platform into one unified inbox. Buffer’s Community inbox handles comment management but doesn’t track DMs and mentions.
• Sprout Social offers social listening and competitive benchmarking, which are features Buffer doesn’t have. If those are important for you, Sprout Social earns its price.
• Buffer supports 12 social platforms, including Mastodon, which Sprout Social doesn't cover. Sprout Social supports WhatsApp and has a deeper YouTube integration.
• Both tools have AI features, but different features are available to teams at very different price points.

Buffer vs. Sprout Social at a glance

Let’s look at the differences in more detail.

Plans and pricing

Pricing gives you a practical sense of how each tool is set up and who it’s built for. Here’s what each one costs as of April 2026.

Buffer pricing (billed monthly)

• Free: 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel (refill anytime), 1 user, AI Assistant, analytics, community inbox
• Essentials: $6/channel per month — unlimited posts, 1 user, analytics, hashtag manager, first comment scheduling
• Team: $12/channel per month — unlimited posts, unlimited users, approval workflows

Since Buffer charges per channel, not per seat, you can add as many people to your Team plan as you need to without worrying about the cost going up. A small business managing five channels on the Team plan pays $60 per month, whether it has two users or 10.

See Buffer’s full pricing guide here →

Sprout Social pricing (billed monthly, per seat)

• Essentials: $99/seat per month — 5 social profiles, optimal send times, profile and post-level reporting
• Standard: $249/seat per month — 5 social profiles, consolidated inbox, keyword monitoring, review management
• Professional: $399/seat per month — unlimited profiles, approval workflows, competitor insights, AI Assist (Enhance Post)
• Advanced: $499/seat per month — AI Assist reply, external approvals, sentiment analysis, Sprout API, helpdesk integrations, team productivity reports
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

It’s worth noting that, while you can have multiple users on the Essentials and Standard plans, you don’t get features like approval workflows that many teams need. If your team has some users whose posts need to be approved before they’re published, you’d have to choose the Professional or Advanced plans.

Sprout Social also offers add-ons — Social Listening, Premium Analytics, Employee Advocacy, Influencer Marketing, and Professional Services — each at an additional cost. These are available for teams on the Standard plan and higher.

See Sprout Social’s full pricing guide here →

What this means in practice

Here’s a real scenario: a three-person marketing team managing eight social channels.

• Buffer Team plan: 8 channels x $12/month = $96/month. All three team members are included.
• Sprout Social Professional: 3 seats x $399/month = $1,197/month.

That's $1,101 savings in a month, or $13,212 in a year, with Buffer.

The question isn’t whether Sprout Social costs more — it does, significantly. Whether that gap is worth it depends on how much you’d actually use what you’re paying for.

Scheduling and publishing

For core scheduling — writing posts, choosing times, and publishing across platforms — both tools cover the basics well.

Buffer keeps things simple: write your post, choose your channels, customize for each platform if needed, and schedule. On the Team plan, anyone who needs sign-off hits “Save and Send for Approval” instead of scheduling, and whoever has approval permissions can edit, approve, or reject it. It’s intentionally designed to help you get your posts out quickly.

Sprout Social’s publishing interface is denser, and there’s a learning curve to it — but that’s partly because it does more. On the Professional plan and higher, you get features Buffer doesn’t offer, including a shared asset library for media, setting up and using different approval workflow configurations, and campaign planning and management built into the publishing tools.

Both Buffer and Sprout Social have a queue system that makes it easy to set recurring time slots so posts go out consistently, without you picking individual times for each post. You can set up the queue times manually or let the platform suggest them based on the best times to post.

If you’re a solo creator or small team that wants to schedule posts quickly, Buffer’s simplicity is a strength, not a limitation. If you’re coordinating a content calendar across a larger team with different approval chains and campaign tracking, Sprout Social’s publishing tools are the better fit.

Analytics and reporting

Both tools offer analytics, but they work a little differently.

Buffer Insights (currently in beta!) is available on all plans and covers both the details and the big picture: how each channel is performing individually, and how your social presence looks as a whole. 

Insights for individual channels include AI-powered takeaways that tell you what performed well, and what you might try next. 

Post-level data and follower metrics round it out, so you can track both how individual posts land and how your audience is growing over time.

On paid plans, you can export your analytics in PDF, CSV, and Markdown formats. The latter can be incredibly useful if you’d like to take your data to Claude, ChatGPT, or a custom app for deeper analysis.

Insights replaces Buffer’s Analyze, offering many of the same features and  more depth, especially with the weekly takeaways that are tailored to your channel’s performance.

Sprout Social takes a deeper reporting approach. On Professional and higher, you get competitor insights, paid ad performance tracking, and detailed reporting on engagement, which are really useful if you’re running ad campaigns or answering support tickets on your channels. 

On Advanced, team productivity reports give you a picture of how your social team is performing operationally, and you can connect to business intelligence tools if you need to. Sprout Social also has AI Insights, available with the Premium Analytics add-on for Standard and higher.

The difference shows up in how you use the data. If the goal is a regular stakeholder report with competitor benchmarks, sentiment trends, and branded outputs, Sprout Social handles that natively. If you need to understand what content is working and what to post more of, Buffer’s analytics focus more directly on that at a lower cost.

Social inbox and engagement

For teams that treat social as a customer support channel, Sprout Social’s Smart Inbox is tough to beat. It pulls messages, comments, mentions, and DMs from every connected platform into a single stream. You can assign conversations to team members, tag messages by topic or sentiment, and respond without switching between platforms. 

Keyword monitoring on Standard and above also means you can keep tabs on brand mentions even when you’re not tagged.

Buffer’s Community inbox focuses on comment management. You can view and respond to comments on your posts from within Buffer. It’s practical for staying on top of engagement without logging into each platform separately, and it’s available on all plans. But it’s not a fully unified inbox like Sprout Social’s. It’s built for creators and small businesses that want to build relationships with their audience, not for handling support tickets.

If managing inbound messages at volume is a core part of your job, Sprout Social’s Smart Inbox is the stronger choice. For creators and teams who need to stay on top of comments and conversations, Buffer’s Community inbox does that well. You can reply without jumping between apps, getting pulled into feeds you didn’t mean to open, or managing a full-fledged support queue.

AI features

Both Buffer and Sprout Social have invested in AI, which works differently depending on where you are in each tool.

If you’ve ever stared at a blank composer wondering what to post, Buffer’s AI Assistant takes some of that pressure off. You can use it to generate ideas, write drafts, and even repurpose content across channels. It’s available on every plan, including Free. 

That same “remove the empty canvas” approach carries through to the Community inbox. AI-powered reply suggestions give you a starting point so you don’t have to write every response from scratch, though the Free plan caps these at five per week. 

And in Insights, AI takeaways connect the dots between your numbers and suggest what to try next, instead of leaving you to interpret the data on your own.

Sprout Social’s AI also shows up across the platform, and what it can do expands significantly as you move up the plans. On Professional and higher, Enhance Post helps you tighten a caption, translate it, or spin up a new post based on your top-performing content. 

On Advanced, support teams get AI-powered reply suggestions that cut down response time, and Summarize Conversation means anyone picking up a long thread mid-way can get the full picture in seconds rather than scrolling back through pages of messages.

Sprout Social also has Trellis, an AI agent you can ask questions to and get insights and recommendations based on your data and social listening.

One thing to keep in mind if AI is a big part of your workflow: Buffer’s AI is built around individual creators and small teams, with access at every price point and a focus on making content decisions easier. Sprout Social’s AI also covers a lot of ground, but how much you can use depends more heavily on your plan.

API and MCP

Both Buffer and Sprout Social have public APIs and MCPs, and they come with different access points.

The Buffer API is available on all plans, and the plan you’re on will decide how many keys you can generate and the rolling rate limit windows. I can tell you from personal experience that it's incredibly easy to use. As a non-technical person who loves to tinker, I’ve already built a weekly recap workflow and an app to help me plan LinkedIn content, and I’m now plotting a macOS menu bar app.

I use Buffer as a solo content creator, so I generated my own API keys. If you’re on a Team plan, your organization’s owner can generate a key that the team can use in workflows and apps.

Buffer also has an MCP that you can use to connect to tools like Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Cursor, and Raycast. 

Sprout Social’s API comes at a high price point — it’s only available for teams on the Advanced plan. For enterprise teams, it offers access to both analytics and the Inbox, which means you can pull post performance, profile analytics, and inbox and customer care data into your own tools for reporting and monitoring.

Sprout Social also has an MCP, although it’s currently limited to TikTok data in ChatGPT.

Supported platforms and integrations

Buffer currently supports 12 platform types: Facebook, Instagram (personal, creator, and business profiles), LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube (Shorts only), Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, Google Business Profiles, and Start Page.

Sprout Social supports Facebook, Instagram (business profiles only), LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube (brand accounts only), Bluesky, Google My Business, Threads, and WhatsApp.

Sprout also integrates with helpdesk platforms (Zendesk, Salesforce, HubSpot), Google Play and Apple App Stores, and review platforms (TripAdvisor, Glassdoor, Yelp).

Where Buffer stands out: Buffer has been consistently early to adopt emerging platforms like Mastodon. If you’re active on decentralized or newer social networks, Buffer is likely to support them first.

Where Sprout Social stands out: WhatsApp messaging, YouTube (full video, not just Shorts), TripAdvisor, and Glassdoor review management. The helpdesk integrations are also significant if your social team needs to escalate issues to a Zendesk or Salesforce queue.

Ease of use

This is where Buffer really shines, and I’m not just saying that because we built it.

Buffer’s interface is intentionally simple. Setup takes just a few minutes — connect your channels, set your posting schedule, start creating. There’s no onboarding maze, and no feature overload on day one. The learning curve is almost flat, which means you spend time creating content instead of learning the tool.

Sprout Social’s interface is more complex. The depth of features means there’s more to get familiar with, especially if you’re using things like social listening, competitive reports, or multiple approval workflows. For teams that need that level of functionality, the time investment makes sense. For teams that don’t, it can be a little overwhelming.

On review sites, Buffer consistently scores high for ease of use, while Sprout Social scores high for advanced features. Those are different strengths, and which one matters more depends on how your team works.

Customer support

Both Buffer and Sprout Social have solid knowledge bases and resource libraries for self-serve support. If you help with something specific, they take slightly different approaches.

Buffer offers email support on every plan, including Free. Because we’re a global team, someone is always available, so you’re not waiting until Monday morning for a reply. Our advocacy team is also active in our Discord community, answering questions in a dedicated support channel and across the server. Most support queries get a response within two hours, regardless of what plan you’re on.

Sprout Social offers support five days a week via email, live chat, and, for North American customers, toll-free phone. Standard plan and higher also get onboarding support to help your team get set up. For teams that need guaranteed response times, the Premier Success option — available at an additional cost — includes a guaranteed two-hour first reply from the Support Team. 

If you need live support on weekdays, Sprout Social covers that. If you’re looking for consistent response times across plans, including evenings and weekends, Buffer’s support is set up for that.

Who should pick which tool

Both Buffer and Sprout Social have a solid set of features to manage your social media presence. Choosing between these two comes down to which tool that fits what you need. Here’s my honest recommendation:

Creators and solopreneurs

Pick Buffer. The free plan is a real free plan, not a 7-day trial. You get three channels, AI-powered content creation, and basic analytics without entering a credit card. When you’re ready to grow, Essentials at $6/channel per month gives you unlimited posts and advanced analytics. Sprout Social’s entry point — $99 to $249 per month, with limited features — is a tough sell for one person.

Small businesses and growing teams

Pick Buffer. The Team plan at $12/channel per month includes unlimited users, approval workflows, and branded reports. A five-person team managing eight channels pays $96 per month total. On Sprout Social, that same team would pay $1,995 to $2,495 per month. Unless you specifically need social listening or enterprise reporting, Buffer gives you everything you need at a price that scales sensibly.

Mid-size companies and agencies

It depends. If social listening, competitive benchmarking, and unified inbox management are central to your workflow — and your budget supports $399 to $499/seat per month — Sprout Social is purpose-built for this. The reporting depth and Smart Inbox are excellent for teams managing social at scale.

But if your needs are primarily scheduling, analytics, and team collaboration — and you’d rather invest that budget difference elsewhere — Buffer’s Team plan handles those core functions well.

Enterprise teams

Lean toward Sprout Social. At the enterprise level, you likely need helpdesk integrations, compliance features, sentiment analysis, and dedicated account management. Sprout Social’s Advanced and Enterprise plans are built for this. Buffer is not trying to be an enterprise platform, and that’s a deliberate choice.

The quick answer

Buffer and Sprout Social solve different problems at very different price points. If your needs include social listening, enterprise reporting, competitive benchmarking, or managing a large team with complex workflows, Sprout Social is worth the investment. Its pricing reflects the depth of what it offers.

For creators, solopreneurs, and growing teams, Buffer gives you everything you need to manage your social presence — scheduling, analytics, engagement tools — starting at $5/channel per month. Or free, if you're just getting started.

We’d love for you to try Buffer. The free plan is an honest-to-goodness free plan, not a stripped-down trial. Sign up here to get started.

Frequently asked questions

Can I switch from Sprout Social to Buffer?

Yes. Buffer’s setup takes a few minutes — connect your channels, set your posting times, and start scheduling. There’s no automatic way to bring scheduled posts over from Sprout Social, but you can start creating new content in Buffer right away. If you have a spreadsheet of posts, you can upload them to Buffer in bulk! The Free plan lets you use Buffer indefinitely without a trial period or expiry date, so you can take your time deciding whether a paid plan makes sense for you.

Does Sprout Social have a free plan?

No. Sprout Social offers a 30-day free trial, but it does not have a free plan. After the trial, the lowest-priced option is the Essentials plan at $99/seat per month. Buffer’s free-forever plan includes three channels and 10 posts per channel, so you can use it indefinitely without paying anything.

Is Buffer good for agencies and teams?

Yes. Buffer’s Team plan costs $12/channel per month and includes unlimited users, approval workflows, custom access permissions, and branded reports. A five-person agency managing 10 channels pays $120 per month total. For comparison, Sprout Social’s plans with approval workflows start at $399/seat per month, so the same five-person team would be looking at $1,995 per month minimum.

Which tool has better analytics?

It comes down to what you’re trying to do with the data. Buffer Insights gives you post performance, follower metrics, and AI-powered takeaways on what to post more of. It’s available on all plans, with more depth on paid ones. Sprout Social offers competitor insights, paid ad performance tracking, and detailed engagement reporting on the Professional plan and higher, plus AI Insights with the Premium Analytics add-on. If you need to understand what’s working and act on it quickly, Buffer covers that well. If you’re producing regular stakeholder reports with competitor benchmarks and detailed engagement data, Sprout Social is the stronger fit.

Which social media platforms does Buffer support?

Buffer supports 12 platform types: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube (Shorts), Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, Google Business Profiles, and Start Page. Buffer tends to be early to support emerging platforms and was among the first tools to add Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky.

I'm trying to hit 5,000 Instagram followers by the end of Q2 2026, and Instagram DM automation is one of the biggest reasons I'm even remotely close to that goal.

If you’ve been on Instagram recently, you've almost certainly seen it in action. A creator posts a reel and says, "comment GUIDE and I'll send it to your DMs." You comment, and seconds later, the thing lands in your inbox. That's DM automation, and it’s a big part of what has helped me build my following.

My credentials are (spoiler): some of my best-performing content has some form of DM automation attached to it. It’s brought in roughly half of my current list of 3,000 followers, takes almost no time to set up, and, done right, doesn’t feel like a bot. So in this article, I'll show you how to set it up, why you might want to, and how to keep it human, all based on what's worked for me.

What is Instagram DM automation?

Instagram DM automation uses Meta's official API to send direct messages automatically. It’s triggered when someone comments on a post, replies to a story, or sends you a specific keyword. It lets creators and businesses deliver a link, a resource, or a reply in seconds, without having to answer every message by hand.

In practice, it runs on three triggers:

• A comment on your post or reel (the "comment GUIDE and I'll DM you" setup)
• A reply to your story
• A keyword sent straight to your DMs

Now, here’s one thing worth clearing up early, because it trips people up. "Instagram automation" actually covers two very different worlds.

There's message automation — the kind we’re discussing in this article — that sends DMs through Meta's official API and is completely above board.

And then there are growth bots: the auto-like, auto-follow, fake-engagement tools that violate Instagram's rules and can get your account restricted or banned.

This article is 100% about the first kind. If a tool promises you "guaranteed followers" or asks for your Instagram password, that's the second kind, and not what we’re about.

⚡ Pro tip: The simplest litmus test for any tool: does it log you in through Meta's official OAuth pop-up, or does it ask for your password directly? If it’s an official login, you’re safe. If it’s asking for your password, run.

How to set up Instagram DM automation

There are three ways to set this up, and the right one depends on your situation: whether you want the most powerful tool, the free platform-native option, or to lean on a subscription you already pay for. One thing they all need first: a business or creator account on Instagram, since DM automation runs through Meta's professional features.

Use ManyChat if you want the most popular, purpose-built tool

If you want the most capable option, start with ManyChat. It's what I use, it's the one most creators reach for, and it's an official Meta partner, which means it connects through Instagram's API in a safe way.

Once your Instagram is connected, the setup follows the same six steps every time:

1. Connect your account. Link your Instagram business or creator profile to ManyChat through Meta's official login (remember, it’s always the OAuth pop-up, never a password).
2. Pick your trigger. Start a new automation and choose what kicks it off. For the classic comment-to-DM, that's Instagram comments.
3. Set your keyword. I keep mine short and obvious, like GUIDE or CV, so people actually type it correctly. (More on choosing this well in a moment.)
4. Write the DM. A warm opener plus the resource or link they asked for. This is where your voice matters most: it should read like you wrote it.
5. Add the following requirement (optional). This has been a major growth lever for me. Toggle it on, and people follow you before they receive the resource. Whether you use it depends on your goal: pure reach or pure goodwill.
6. Test, then scale. Send yourself the keyword to confirm it fires, then attach the same automation to as many posts, reels, or carousels as you want.

⚡ Pro tip: Always test the keyword before you go live. A broken automation in front of a post that's taking off is so much worse than no automation at all.

ManyChat isn't your only option. If the pricing or feel isn't right for you, a few other tools connect through Instagram's official API, too:

• Chatfuel
• Inro
• Spur

They cover similar ground, so the real differences come down to price, how the flow builder feels, and whether they lean more creator- or business-focused. I'd still point most creators to ManyChat first, but it's worth exploring the field.

Use Meta Business Suite if you want to stay platform-native

If you'd rather not add another subscription or login, start here: Instagram has DM automation built in, for free. It lives inside Meta Business Suite, under Inbox → Automations, and it covers the essentials — instant replies, away messages, frequently asked questions, and what we need: comment-to-DM.

Setting up a comment-to-DM is quick:

1. Open the automations. In Meta Business Suite, go to Inbox → Automations and choose the comment-to-DM option.

1. Choose your post and keyword. Pick which post it applies to and the word people need to comment.
2. Write the auto-reply. Add the message and link that lands in their DMs.

1. Turn it on. Save, and it's live.

If you just want to test whether this whole approach is worth it, this is honestly where I'd start. There’s no subscription, no new login, no risk.

However, you hit the ceiling fast. The keyword logic is basic, there's no real visual flow builder, and you don't get the branching, follow-to-unlock toggle, or analytics that a dedicated tool gives you. I can replicate a lot of what I do in ManyChat here, but the flow-building just isn't as good, and you’ll feel that the moment you start running this as a real growth engine.

⚡ Pro tip: Think of the free version as your testing ground. Run it for a couple of weeks, see if comment-to-DM actually moves the needle for your content, and only pay for a tool once you know it does.

Use Buffer if you want to lean on a subscription you already have

If you already use Buffer, you can run a lighter version of this without adding a single new tool. I'll be upfront: this one isn't automation in the strict sense; it's a fast manual workflow. But it gets you to the same place: the right link in the right person's hands.

Here's how I do it:

1. Publish your "comment to get" post (scheduled through Buffer, naturally).
2. Open the Community tab, where every comment across your posts sits in one place.
3. Spot the people asking for your resource. where they'll be lined up in one view instead of buried in the app.
4. Reply to each one with the link, right from that tab.

It's more hands-on than an automated flow, no question. But having every comment in a single view makes it super fast, and when you're already in Buffer to schedule the post, you never have to leave.

I tend to use this route on lower-volume posts, or whenever I want my own eyes on every comment anyway — sometimes the real conversations are hiding in there, right next to the keyword requests.

Is Instagram DM automation allowed?

Short answer: yes, as long as your tool connects through Meta's official API and you're replying to people who engaged with you first. The kind of automation we've been talking about — someone comments, they get a DM — is exactly what Meta built the API to do.

Where Meta draws the line is consent. You can automate a reply to anyone who comments, replies to your story, or messages you a keyword, because they started the conversation. What you can't do is build a list of followers and blast them with cold promos out of nowhere.

There are a couple of caps worth knowing, though they won't cramp a normal creator:

• 200 automated DMs per hour, per account. Meta dropped this from 5,000 back in 2024, mostly to stop spam operations. If you ever hit that 200-DM limit, a compliant tool just queues the extra messages and sends them when the window resets so no messages fall through the cracks.
• One automated DM per person, per 24 hours, from a comment or story trigger. This is newer, and it's a good thing as it stops anyone from hitting the same user from three different posts in a day.

Then the stuff that actually gets accounts banned, so you can steer clear: password-grabbing tools, auto-like/follow extensions, cold DMs to non-engagers, and anything promising "guaranteed followers."

If you only take one thing from this section: stay on an official API tool, only message people who reached out first, and you're inside the lines. The reason I've never worried about my account is that ManyChat handles all of this for me by design.

How to keep it from feeling robotic

This is my one non-negotiable: whatever you’re sending has to be worth the follow.

The resource needs to be hyper-valubale. If it is, the automation never reads as a trick to farm a follow, because the person actually walks away with something good.

I'm almost obsessive about this. Two of mine have worked really well: a Notion database of remote-work resources I built, and my CV template. Both brought in followers, but the part I care about more is that people genuinely wanted them and told me so. I care because I want to make sure I’m growing an audience rather than just inflating my numbers.

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The other part of the equation is staying present. The automation handles the keyword requests, which frees me up to reply to everything else by hand. When someone comments a real question instead of the keyword, I'm the one who answers. That's the rule I come back to: automate the logistics, never the conversation.

Automating my DMs hasn't made my engagement less personal: it’s cleared out the repetitive parts so I can spend my time on the messages that need my attention.

Start with one post

I'm not at 5,000 followers yet (come back to the blog to see if I make it by my goal date), but DM automation has been one of the steadiest ways I've moved toward it, and easily the lowest-effort one. The whole lift is this: make one resource you'd genuinely be proud to send, set up one automation, and attach it to the content you're already posting. After that, it just runs.

If you go the free or manual route, you still need somewhere to publish and keep track of the posts that earn those comments in the first place. That's where a tool like Buffer fits naturally: you schedule the reel or carousel, the comments roll in, and you're right there to reply. Automation grows the audience, and consistent posting gives it something to work with.

So pick one post. Choose a resource you'd want to receive. In my experience, the following tends to come on its own.

Get started with Buffer for free →

More Instagram resources

• Schedule Instagram Posts, Stories, and Reels with Buffer

I don’t know about you, but my earworms are pretty much exclusively trending songs from TikTok at this point. (Even the non-music sounds from TikTok tend to get stuck in my head, but I digress…)

The catchiness of these tunes is incredibly powerful for creators and brands on the social media platform to tap into, because not only do users remember the song; chances are, videos that featured the track will probably stick in their minds, too.

Beyond memorability, of course, is the algorithmic effect of being right on the cusp of a trending TikTok song. And who would say no to a little boost for the content they worked so hard on?

In this post, I’ll share the most viral songs and sounds on TikTok in July 2026 — and how to use them to boost your content.

Why trending TikTok sounds matter

Since you’re here, I probably don’t need to tell you that using a hot sound on TikTok can increase your chances of landing on the For You Page, especially if you’re early to the trend.

TikTok’s algorithm often prioritizes familiarity and repeatability, so when a song is on the rise, jumping on it can give your post more visibility.

For example, if I’m scrolling through my FYP and watch a video with a particular audio, the TikTok algorithm will likely test the waters with another video that uses the same sound a couple of videos later. The algorithm wants to understand exactly why I lingered on the first video. Was it the music?

If yes, boy, does the FYP have more where that came from.

The right TikTok sounds or songs can instantly set the tone, spark emotion, or cue a punchline for your audience, particularly if the sound, like many of the ones below, has been used in a specific way.

The songs or audio that rise to that level of virality that they become a moment in time for internet culture are the really special ones.

All that said: you don't need to spend hours scrolling to find the right audio for your next post. Here are the most popular TikTok songs and audio right now, updated in 2026. We’ll keep this list regularly updated, so do be sure to bookmark this page and come back if you need more inspiration!

How to find trending songs on TikTok

• Browse TikTok’s Creative Center: Visit the Creative Center to see top trending songs by region and time period (above). It’s TikTok’s built-in trend tracker for sounds, creators, and hashtags. Note: TikTok Creative Center trends is "Taking a short break. Back better and stronger in Q2."
• Use TikTok’s search bar: Search phrases like “viral sound” in the TikTok app, tap the Sounds tab, and scroll through the most-used tracks labeled popular.
• Get personalized recommendations from TikTok: When you upload a video, TikTok will suggest music that matches your content, a great shortcut for finding relevant sounds.
• Discover playlists curated by TikTok: Tap Add Music > Discover more sounds to browse playlists by genre, category, or what’s hot in your region.
• Check out Tokchart: Tokchart shows the fastest-rising TikTok sounds from the past 24 hours, updated in real time. You'll need a paid account to get all the details.
• Look for trending audio on Instagram: Instagram Reels often feature songs that cross over to TikTok. Tap the music icon in the Reels editor and check the Trending tab for current hits.

💡 Bonus tip: Always preview how a sound is being used. Tap the sound name on TikTok to watch example videos — this gives you the context you need to ride (or remix) the trend.

13 trending TikTok songs and sounds

Updated July 2026

1. How You Like Me Now

How You Like Me Now? by The Heavy is the soundtrack to all those "told you so" moments. With the FIFA World Cup in full swing, the official FIFA account is using it for match highlights, and creators are using it for any video that ends in a well-earned win.

🎧 Get the song

2. Self Aware

Self Aware by Temper City has quickly found its audience since its release earlier this year. Creators are pairing the lyric "God, you look so pretty" with breathtaking landscapes, golden-hour sunsets, and the people or places they love most.

🎧 Get the song

3. Big Boom In The Room

Say no more, right? This techno beat by Araao de Santana works when you have something BIG to reveal. Show us whatya got!

🎧 Get the song

4. PRESSURE!

PRESSURE! by Nyck Caution lives up to its name. The official FIFA account is leaning into the track for World Cup highlights, while brands and creators are using it to showcase epic sporting moments and any clip that needs a dose of high-octane.

🎧 Get the song

5. Janice STFU

STFU by Drake is one of Drake's newest releases, and creators are already putting it to work. The lyric "Reach me, baby. Call my phone and say you need me, baby" is popping up as a text overlay on everything from relationship posts to fan edits and "send this to..." style videos.

🎧 Get the song

6. original sound by dusty

This original audio by dusty is behind the "That's triggering me" trend on TikTok. Creators lip sync the sound while adding a text overlay revealing the very specific thing that's triggering them.

⚠️ Contains an expletive.

🎧 Get the sound

7. original sound by I Green Screen Things

This original audio by I Green Screen Things is fueling the seriously dramatic "No no no" trend. Creators lip sync the escalating sound in reaction to whatever they're opposing.

🎧 Get the sound

8. original sound by user7653246788

This viral Drake interview audio is all about discovering something so good you instantly become its biggest fan. Creators are using it with text overlays and lip syncing along to share wow moments and the discoveries they can't stop recommending.

🎧 Get the sound

9. Melisa I'M Drunk And Outside

Pure fun, this one from Afroplugs. Creators are using the iconic "Melissa, I'm drunk and outside" line with text overlays to share whatever funny or dramatic moment they need to tell you about... right away.

🎧 Get the song

10. Dai Dai

No surprises that the official FIFA World Cup song by Shakira and Burna Boy is trending. As the lyrics remind us, the World Cup "energy is contagious, and it never fails." Adding Shakira's dance moves is always encouraged.

🎧 Get the song

11. i just get so nervy (super slowed)

i just get so nervy (super slowed) by HYFY is pulling double duty on TikTok. Some creators are using the slowed-down lyric literally for nerve-racking moments, while others time the distinctive "bam, bam, bam" beat with group poses, outfit reveals, or perfectly synchronized transitions and reveals.

🎧 Get the song

12. Moment Of Reflection

Moment Of Reflection by jhonatan, Piano Sky, and Dee Piano is one of those piano tracks that seems to resurface every now and then. Creators use it as a subtle backdrop for actual reflective moments and emotional storytelling.

🎧 Get the song

13. original audio by user11183909019

This original audio by user11183909019 uses Cheerleader by OMI as the soundtrack to one of TikTok's easier dance trends. It's a simple lip sync and choreography that's accessible enough for just about anyone to join in, making it a great option for creators and brands looking for a low-effort trend.

🎧 Get the song

⚡Pro tip: For business use on TikTok, only use songs from TikTok’s Commercial Music Library or tracks you have a royalty-free/commercial license for. Using personal-use music in ads or branded content can get your videos muted or removed, so always double-check the license before posting.

Found a track for your next TikTok?

When you're creating content for your business or personal brand, staying on top of TikTok's audio trends can help you reach new audiences and keep your content fresh.

Start with one or two of the methods we discussed to find popular sounds, and don't forget to save your favorites for later.

If you've created a TikTok post with audio from this list, we'd love to see it. Tag @bufferapp on TikTok so we can find you!