Buffer is a very interesting tool out there to help bloggers share their news and updates to social media. As a blogger with several blogs and social media profiles in all directions, Buffer might be the helper you are looking for. But how to use Buffer? In this article you will find out.
Buffer is an application designed to manage your social networks. It was supposed to have around 400,000 users by the end of 2012, so I guess that by the time I am writing this article that amount has been almost doubled (but, that is just guessing).
What is Buffer good for?
If you have several social media profiles and accounts, you have for sure experienced how boring it is to log off an account, only to log into a new one to send the same message. Also if you have a blog that has a Twitter profile, a Google+ profile and a Facebook profile, and maybe you want to post to your personal Facebook profile and to your LinkedIN profile at the same time, it takes a whole lot of time to get your message out to all these, even though it is the same message. Buffer(App) is one of the tools out there on the market with the goal to help you do all of this, in one single step, thus saving you time and energy.
How to get started with Buffer?
The first thing to do is to sign up for a free account. With a free account you are allowed to add two social media profiles to your Buffer dashboard. That means you can for example add your Twitter profile and your Facebook profile or a Facebook page. If you want to share content on your Google+ page from Buffer, find out how to share to Google+ from Buffer here. When you have added these you can start sharing messages to those networks and once you have posted your first messages or pictures, you can see live statistics telling you how many people have seen your message, commented what you posted and so on. It is really easy with the statistics, and thus you can follow the attention you get on social media easily.
Another function that might come useful when using Buffer is that you can “buffer” your messages, making sure that they are posted at a later time. That means that you can post your messages at custom times. If you for example know that most people are online around 16.00, then make sure to post your messages, new blog posts and pictures at those times of the day.
The cost of using Buffer
The problem is though that most bloggers have far more than two social media profiles, and thus you will need to “Go Awesome”, which means that you have to pay 10USD a month, and then you will be allowed to add 12 social media profiles. If that is not enough you can subscribe to one of the business plans which 25, 50 or 250 social media profiles, but those cost far more than these described packages.
Now I know how to use Buffer. Should I use it?
If you have several social media profiles and want a tool that can easily help you share news, information, links and pictures to your profiles, then it is great. It is extremely easy to use, and that is one of the advantages of Buffer, compared too for example HootSuite.
Since it is free to join, it is not dangerous at all to do so. If you want to try more, you can also sign up for a free trial of the business plan, and thus you can see if it is worth using some money to use this on a permanent basis.
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