Got 60 Seconds? Learn Something New in These 25 Short & Sweet SlideShares About Social Media

Slide decks exist somewhere near the intersection of visual content and written content, a hybrid form of information and consumption perfect for bite-sized bits of learning.

If you’ve not got time to read through a 2,000-word article, you might have a moment to flip through a SlideShare.

We’ve been excited to experiment with the process of building slide decks around the Buffer content we have here on the blog, and in the course of doing so, we discovered a trove of wonderfully succinct and visual slide decks all about our favorite topic: social media.

We’ve collected a great group of 25 here—the first handful from our top Buffer posts and another handful from the amazing selection on SlideShare. I’d love to hear if you have a favorite!

A quick note in praise of SlideShare

With our main marketing focus on creating useful content via the Buffer Social blog, I’ve been a bit slow to experiment and fully explore other ways to provide content in a helpful way to you. I’d love to improve here. And SlideShare has been a huge source of encouragement.

Get this: Our most popular SlideShares match or exceed the traffic we get on our most popular blog posts.

In our case, we’re very grateful that popular Buffer blog posts can get 75,000 to 100,000 views.

Our popular SlideShares can go just as big—or bigger!

• Frequency Guide – 205,000 views
• If Don Draper Tweeted – 74,000 views
• Social Media Strategy – 73,000 views
• Twitter Science – 64,000 views

If you’ve yet to explore SlideShare as a potential source of views and exposure, I’d highly encourage you to do so. (I’d be happy to write more detail in a post on the topic later on!)

Okay, now on with the SlideShares!

1. The Complete Guide to Social Media Frequency

One of our most popular posts on the blog also became the most popular SlideShare to date on our Buffer account. We were fortunate to find some really great research on the topic of how often you should post to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more. It’s all here.

My favorite slide:

2. The 10 Best Copywriting Formulas for Social Media Updates

Based on our big list of copywriting formulas (over 25 formulas made it into the original post), this slide deck covers a quick overview of the top formulas we see on social. There’s some really great subtle framing at play here, with things like Before – After – Bridge and AIDA that make it easy to get your message across.

My favorite slide:

3. The Science of Twitter

We had the great opportunity to partner with Twitter on a webinar last summer. The topic (one of our favorites): The science of creating must-click content on Twitter.

Courtney and Twitter’s Jimmy Hang shared all sorts of tips on the best words to use, the ideal timing, and the top strategies for Twitter success.

My favorite slide:

4. Instagram 101

We’ve been really excited to explore different ways to grow the Buffer Instagram account, and before we dove in headfirst there, we spent some time researching and writing (and creating SlideShares) about the best strategies and stats. This SlideShare lays a good foundation for businesses looking to get started on Instagram.

My favorite slide:

5. How Much Time Does a Good Social Strategy Take?

Time-saving tips and techniques are one of my favorite ways to experiment with marketing. It seems that coming up with a solid social media strategy is one key way to make sure you’re spending your time online in the best way possible. We collected a number of tips here in this SlideShare overview for those looking to refine their social strategy.

My favorite slide:

6. The Burrito Principle & Beyond

I’ll admit it’s hard to resist the cleverness of a name like The Burrito Principle (thanks, Darian!). Coined phrases like this make marketing ideas all the easier to grasp. We collected a handful of favorite ones in this slide deck.

(The burrito principle, by the way, is explained on Slide #4.)

My favorite slide:

7. The Science of Social Media Headlines

Courtney pulled in some amazing research into the psychology and science behind why we click on certain headlines. She identified 8 ways to write a social media headline that people will love, including things like curiosity, surprise, negatives, and more.

My favorite slide (a bit of an inside joke about the proliferation of great content—and a good headline to boot!):

8. 91 Free Twitter Tools

I just really love tools posts, and I had a blast trying out hundreds of free Twitter tools to compile this list for you. If you think it might be worth a quick browse, I’d hope that maybe a name or two might pique your interest enough to give it a try. Some of my best tool discoveries started out that way!

My favorite slide:

9. Power Words – 189 Words That Convert

I tend to notice specific words that cause me to click or pay attention. And it seems there are certain words that catch the eye of not just me but many, many others. These so-called “power words” can be great additions to the text in your social media updates or headlines. Here’s a great big list of them.

My favorite slide:

10. Headline Formulas

As mentioned above, there’s a certain psychology to writing headlines that get noticed. There are also certain formulas that tend to work really well. This list compiles several of the most popular ones used in blog posts and social media updates.

My favorite slide:

11. 20 Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin & Pinterest Features You Didn’t Know Existed

(via HubSpot)

What I love about this slide deck is that it includes the good kind of FOMO—helpful social media features that could significantly impact my workflow. It’s great to learn about these hidden features like Facebook polls and Twitter collages and exciting to brainstorm ways to put them to good use.

My favorite slide:

12. Psychology Hacks to Boost your Marketing

(via Moving Targets)

Psychology is near and dear to us on the Buffer marketing team, so we’re always keen for articles and slides on the topic. This set of psychology tips from Moving Targets covers a huge variety of different tactics that would be fun to experiment with on social media updates and more.

My favorite slide:

13. Seven Habits of Highly Effective Digital Marketers

(via Digital Annexe)

A riff of Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, this slide deck takes a high-level view of ways to help organize and plan ahead your social media strategy.

My favorite slide:

14. How to Choose the Perfect Stock Photo

(via IMPACT Branding & Design)

This is a very fun and entertaining slide deck all about stock photos. The advice comes in handy for anyone who’s searched around free photo sites for the perfect image to add to a blog post or include in a social media update.

My favorite slide:

15. 6 Snapchat Hacks Too Easy To Ignore

(via Gary Vaynerchuk)

Are you on Snapchat? Gary Vaynerchuk highly recommends it (he’s found a lot of success there, and the app has huge reach!). Here are six easy ways to make the most of Snapchat for your brand.

My favorite slide:

16. 5 Critical Rules for Writing Compelling Copy

(via Henneke Duistermaat)

One of my favorite sources for writing inspiration, Henneke lays out five simple-to-follow rules that will improve the copy you write for tweets, updates, and calls-to-action.

My favorite slide:

17. 4 Tactics to Build Word Of Mouth

(via ReferralCandy)

Word of mouth can be huge on social media. It’s often how things spread fast and how people feel comfortable making purchases or joining up with brands. Referral Candy’s slide deck on word of mouth strategies covers four essential parts of the formula, with detailed tips on each technique.

My favorite slide:

18. Social Media for Time-Strapped Entrepreneurs

(via We Are Social)

Working effectively and efficiently (see slide below) is key for those of us social media marketers who manage social in addition to wearing many other hats. This deck from We Are Social looks at ways to ensure that your time is well spent on social media, including ways to plan ahead and strategies to make the most of every minute.

My favorite slide:

19. Sharing Content On Social Media More Than Once: The Total Guide

(via CoSchedule)

Do you share your content more than once on social media? It’s one of our top social media tips as we’ve seen tons of additional engagement by mentioning blog posts more than once and finding new ways to share old content. CoSchedule is a source of inspiration for us on this topic, and their slide deck guide to sharing is chock full of good information on exactly how best to share content on social.

My favorite slide:

20. Finding Your Brand’s Voice

(via from Distilled)

When thinking about your social media strategy, voice and tone are two huge considerations to make as you’re getting started. One of the best sources out there for advice on brand voice is Distilled’s articles on the topic, which have been repurposed here in slide deck form.

My favorite slide:

21. The Secret of Success on Facebook

(via Peter Minkjan)

Catchy title! This guide from Peter Minkian includes examples of Facebook pages who have seen enormous engagement on their Facebook posts as well as analysis and research on viral content and what makes things spread.

My favorite slide:

22. 5 YouTube Marketing Lessons from Unlikely Sources

(via Brian Honigman)

Video marketing has become big business of late, particularly as a way to get more interaction on Facebook. YouTube remains a huge channel also for those looking to build a video platform and share video content. The tips in this slide deck from Brian Honigman offer some actionable ways to get more out of your YouTube marketing by cross-promoting and remixing content in new ways.

My favorite slide:

23. 7 Proven Strategies to Maximize Twitter for Your Business

(via Dave Kerpen)

This slide deck from Likeable Media and Social Media Today provides a great overview of some quick-win strategies on Twitter. For example, reply to everyone (see slide below)—80 percent of customer service queries go unanswered. Lots more great ideas to implement throughout the slide deck.

My favorite slide:

24. 19 Simple Twitter Retweet Tips

(via Shéa Bennett)

Retweets seem to be a favorite metric on Twitter, and for good reason: retweeting gets your content in front of a brand new, potentially huge audience. The tips in this deck make a lot of sense for those looking for more retweets, and they also work really well for anyone looking to boost engagement in general—more clicks, more favorites, more replies.

My favorite slide:

25. 10 Reasons Why Twitter is Content Marketing’s Best Friend

(via Mark Schaefer)

As a content person, I really love this deck from Mark Schaefer as it reaffirms the power of social media for helping to spread content. Twitter in particular is a powerful platform for sharing links and growing an audience, and Mark lays things out clearly here.

My favorite slide:

Over to you

Do you have a favorite SlideShare that isn’t on the list here?

I’d love to know which ones you enjoy and if you picked up any good tips from the ones in this post. We’re excited to push ahead with creating more slide decks based on Buffer content also, and it’d be so great to have any input from you on what would be most helpful!

Image sources: Startup Stock Photos, IconFinder