Time saving tools are always welcome to anyone with the job title social media manager. If you have this title, or something similar, it is very likely that you manage multiple social accounts everyday. Whether it is different social networks, multiple Twitter IDs, or brand clients, efficient tools are necessary to keep updates flowing.
A tool that is specifically powerful for anyone who is seeking a professional appearance and consistent messaging is Buffer. This powerful web app has the ability to create a stream of updates to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn with only a few minutes spent each day. Updates can include links, messages, and photos which give great diversity across different types of social media channels.
How Buffer Sends Updates
For yourself or for clients, you may want to send updates at specific times to reach the maximum number of followers and engagement. For example, Facebook users might respond better after 5PM, you could schedule a post everyday at 5:30PM. Buffer will let you set a schedule for each account connected and then automatically send out status updates or tweets at those specific times.
Efficiently Add Content
As a social media manager for multiple clients, I have many accounts that I need to keep updated with relevant content from different industries. To do this I combine Buffer and Google Reader. To keep interesting content flowing from the social accounts I manage, every morning I add articles from the RSS feeds in my Google Reader.
My reader is set up with folders for each client containing RSS feeds from relevant blogs. I simply have to skim through the folders and add the best articles I find to each matching social media account using Buffer. A recent update to the browser extensions has included the add to Buffer button inside Google Reader which makes the process even faster.
How Buffer Helps Your Community
Having hundreds or thousands of followers is great, but how do you reach them all? Well you can’t really but you can increase your chances. Sending out updates consistently and at various times will help you reach people that you might not have otherwise. You will save a lot of time adding scheduled messages once a day rather than trying to remember to manually post throughout the day.
Using Buffer will also allow you to focus more on using social media to actually be social and engaging. Knowing that your content is scheduled to send, focus on reaching out to members and joining some conversations. Having an active and fresh social presence will be attractive to new members of your community.
Buffer has a great free version and also a pro version which is good for those that manage many social accounts. I am giving away 1 full year of Buffer Pro on my Facebook page, find the details here.
Related articles
- Social Media Tool BottleNose Launches Twitter, Facebook Pages And RSS Feed Aggregation (thetechnologycafe.com)
- Smart Marketing Tips From Get Busy Media: Ease Your Twitter Efforts With the Right Scheduling Tools (theepochtimes.com)
- Don’t Let Social Media Stop Your Real Life Existence (soshable.com)
- Buffer Has Scheduled 10M Social Updates And Signed Up 180K Users (techcrunch.com)
