I looked at Buffer before, way back when Monday morning cool tool was just a little thing I did on my Facebook page.
I use Hootsuite to manage my Twitter account and I schedule some tweets via it. I’m a big believer in scheduling, I can’t be online composing tweets all day so I find the content I want to share and schedule it so that people who aren’t up early in the morning get to see it too. I don’t rely on scheduling totally, I believe you have to check in to twitter, reply and converse with people in real time as it is this relationship building that makes Twitter so effective. Hootsuite is great for me as it does everything I need it to, however I’ve discovered that some of my clients don’t want to learn a complicated new tool on top of learning Twitter and that is where Buffer can come in handy.
Buffer app automatically spaces out your tweets so that you are not flooding peoples newsfeeds, since I first tried it there is far more app integration and far more bells and whistles so I thought I’d give it another look. Today I’m just going to look at basic setup but I do recommend trying some of the apps that integrate with it. I’ve added Social Bro as this allows Buffer to schedule tweets when it knows my followers are online the most.
Here’s how it works:
Go to www.bufferapp.com and sign up using a social network. I’d recommend Twitter.
Next you need to add the buffer button to your browser. This allows you to share any web page you are visiting by simply clicking it.
Next go to the Buffer ‘Dashboard’ – Here you can add another social network by clicking ‘connect account’
Once you have set up your social networks it’s time to try posting from the app. Buffer offers you a message to share or you can create your own.
When composing your own you can add a link by simply posting it into the tweet box, Buffer automatically shortens it for you.
You can also add a photo (by clicking on the camera icon on the left hand side)
Now click ‘Add to Buffer’ the app will schedule the Tweet to go out from your Twitter account. (or post to another network if you have selected them).
Once you have scheduled your tweet you are able to edit it, delete it and if you have scheduled a few you can change the order that they appear in your schedule.
If you want to play with some of the other tools that support Buffer click on ‘Apps & Extras’ on the top menu.
If you use Google Chrome to browse the Internet the extension that you added at the beginning of the process automatically adds the option to add a tweet to buffer from the web application. I’ve also noticed it appear on Facebook as an option when I’m posting and this morning I noticed it pop up as an option on my Google reader, being able to tweet directly from my reader would be a massive time saver.
The great news is that once you have sent a tweet via Buffer you can see some statistics about that tweet, you can see who it reached, how many replies and RT’s it received and how many times any shortened links you added have been clicked. It really is a simpler version of Hootsuite.
Do you use Buffer? What is your favourite feature? What apps have you added? Lets talk in the comments below.
