Tips / How To - Page 5
A collection of posts on Tips / How To
“Could you pop into a quick morning standup, Ash?” “I’ll be there in a minute,” I’d reply. “I’m just finishing up a Facebook post.” As a community manager, most of my mornings would start along these lines. One of the toughest, and most time-consuming, tasks in community and social media management is finding a stream of high-quality, engaging content to share with your audience every day. A social media calendar is an excellent way to keep on top of this. But staring at a blank calendar can
If you’ve been on social media for any length of time, you may be well aware that images can help boost your online engagement. But while it’s true that a picture can add some pizazz to your posts, it’s not always easy to determine the best type of image to publish. They can also take a long time to create, especially when you’re not sure what you’re trying to communicate. Thankfully, deciding which format best suits your posts can be a straightforward process. In this post, I’ll outline a few
The Internet is becoming increasingly cluttered. In 2005, we were reportedly exposed to over 3,500 brand messages per day. Nowadays, that figure is closer to 10,000 (if not already higher). 5.3 trillion display ads are shown online each year, 400 million Tweets sent daily, and 4.75 billion [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151908376716729&set=a.10151908376636729.1073741825.2053131672
Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it. – Anne Lamott This quote from Anne Lamott resonates with me quite a bit. I seldom know what I’m doing until I’ve done it. I also seldom know what other writers are doing either. I recognize what I enjoy reading … aaaaand I’ve little idea why I enjoy it. That’s what makes the topic of linguistics and language so fascinating to me because it helps explain
Hi there! Buffer has evolved a lot since we wrote this blog post back in 2015. Some of the content and screenshots are now out-of-date. Check out the new-and-improved Buffer at buffer.com. We do not often write articles focused on Buffer here on the social blog, but we wanted to try something different this time around and hope you will find it useful! If you are already using Buffer to share on Social Media (THANK YOU!!) and are looking for some tiny tweaks that could make the experience bett
Nowadays, in order to grow an audience on social media, it’s not as simple as just posting when you feel like it. Audiences have become more sophisticated over time and as a result it is important to have some sort of social media strategy. In order to start implementing that strategy, a schedule is a must for a lot of businesses. A sharing schedule can help you double your traffic and provide your audience with consistent and valuable information that will make them more likely to follow and
What sets winning businesses apart from the competition? Automation is one edge. The Lenskold Group found that 63% of companies that are outgrowing their competitors use marketing automation. What is an underrated way to drive more conversions? Again, automation. Companies that use marketing automation also see 53% higher conversion rates than non-users, according to the Aberdeen Group. All of which raises the question: What kind of marketing automation are these winning businesses doing? An
On social media—whether you’re a business , a brand , or an individual—you’ll likely come across plenty of different conversations — each presenting a unique challenge. For instance: How do you appease an angry commenter? How do you handle a technical question? What to do with a troll? It can feel overwhelming. If you take a step back and examine the emotions
Have you ever wondered what percentage of people actually see your Tweets or Facebook posts? The data shows it can be as low as 2%. This is in line with our findings at Buffer — on average our 10 most recent Facebook posts have reached around 2.4% of our fans with our highest reaching post being seen by 5.25%. When you work hard to produce and share great content, it’d be great if people could see it! I’m excited to share some things we’ve found that can help your content break through and re
I try to read as much as I can, and every morning I put aside 30 minutes to check out the latest posts from my favorite blogs and writers. In 30 minutes, you can only take in so much. Some posts I read thoroughly, others I open and close again within a matter of seconds. My favorite ones, I load into Buffer and share. Often, my decision to read a post and then subsequently share it relies a lot on the formatting: Is it easy to read? Can I scan through? In this post, I’m excited to share with
If you’re curious for ways to grow your social media numbers, to have more success, to get more followers and more clicks, the absolute best piece of advice we’ve found is to keep trying new things. Always be testing. Need inspiration? I’ve drummed up 29 new, small, and simple experiments and growth hacks you can try this month to see what works for you. They’re all low-cost, big-potential. I’d love to hear which ones you’re interested in trying! (And which ones work for you.) My must-have
Ready to get started on YouTube? Or wish your YouTube Channel were performing better? I’m here to help! YouTube is effectively the second largest search engine in the world (behind only Google). With video becoming more and more important (we even launched Buffer for video last week!), now is the perfect time to start optimizing your YouTube Channel and begin reaping the benefits of a strong video strategy, including connecting with new potential customers, getting a better search presence and
People are brilliant and amazing. I’ll often run across an incredibly cool social media strategy or format or tool or link and think to myself, “Whoa, how’d they do that?” There are things like shortened custom URLs, evergreen queues, personalized recommendations, and more. And I’m so inspired by the cleverness and resourcefulness—not to mention the great value and utility—of these methods. So I’ve gone about trying to figure them all out. Check out my DIY tips below for putting together eac
Social media is constantly evolving. As soon as you feel like you’ve got Facebook and Twitter figured out, suddenly there’s Vine and Snapchat and a whole bunch of exciting new stuff to learn. It keeps things interesting, and keeps social media managers on our toes. Lately it seems like more and more social media managers are enthusiastic about Instagram and the opportunities there to engage with fans and share great photos and videos. And the opportunities are big! With more than 300 million
What makes a great social media manager? More specifically, what habits make an effective social media manager? What do the best social media managers practice every day that makes them amazing at what they do? There seems to be a lot of good advice out there about the best social media tactics used by marketers—tactics that might work great right away but are often not sustainable. I was keen to find the best habits. And to understand what traits would help a person become more effective as
This post originally published on March 17, 2014. We’ve updated it here with the latest information, images, and resources. Before I joined Buffer, I barely had a Twitter account. It existed by its lonesome for a few years as a placeholder for the day when my work allowed me to tweet freely. That day came when I had the privilege to join up with the Buffer team, and I dove right in, applying all the Twitter knowledge I had stowed away. And still, even with a running start, I had so much to lea
Whenever we have the chance to chat with folks about social media stats and marketing strategies , we are amazed at the many unique ways you all go about charting a path to social media success. Every industry and niche—every social profile, even—is unique. Non-profits are a great example of a segment of social media with its own unique elements and expectations. The non-profit structu
When I joined Hubstaff a few months ago to spearhead the growth of the company, I noticed we weren’t utilizing the full potential of Buffer. In order to increase our social media growth and take full advantage of this tool, we developed a few strategies that resulted in overwhelming success. The engagement teams at Hubstaff began to use Buffer to share engaging content at optimal times and freque
As we’ve started to dig in on the best way to connect with our audience on Pinterest, we came across an interesting question: How can we best create visual content for Pinners to Pin? We’re not in one of the top niches for Pinning: food and drink, crafts, home decor. How can we make sure that every blog post we write is as Pinnable as possible? It’s been a fun experiment to see what’s worked. I’ll be happy to share with you some of the best practices we dug up with our research and how any br
Is your brand—personal or professional—on Pinterest? Seventy million people are, with a large number of those being bloggers, companies, brands, and businesses. The opportunities to expand your reach and meet your audience are many on Pinterest, and they come in many unique ways. Though falling under the umbrella of social media marketing, Pinterest has its own special notes and best practices that help make it an extremely fun, exciting place to test, iterate, and add value to those on the net
Being great on social media isn’t always intuitive . Sometimes the best way to learn is to get inspired by the what others are doing. Late last year, Kapost compiled a list of 2014’s top brands in content . Much of what has made many of the
Big or small, influencer or newcomer, everyone looking to get more followers and more likes on social media—more engagement, period—seeks out strategies that work. And what works with a platform of 11 million followers tends to work for platforms with 100, too. Social media is a moving ocean of posts, images, tools, ideas, and content that flows at a fast pace. You can find success by building your own social media strategy and keeping it fluid by checking and rechecking what’s working. I’ve
If you feel challenged by Facebook marketing these days, you should know you’re not alone. In an increasingly crowded news feed, Facebook’s algorithm updates can make it tough for brands to get much notice. In fact, brands are now responding to plunging organic reach on Facebook by posting more content to Instagram than they are to Facebook, according to a report by research firm L2. But don’t despair; there’s plenty of life left in Facebook yet. We’ve been scouring the web to find out what’s
Digital marketers—like you!—are all stars. You have your hands full with all the many ways to reach your audience. At any given time, you may need to be fluent in email, content and social media because your audience is cross-platform. Few people make buying decisions anymore based on information from a single medium. So when marketers focus all their energy on one channel, they could be missing out on other opportunities and the natural rhythms of the buying cycle. So how can you keep on top
