One of the biggest problems I have always had on Twitter was being consistent. Either I would go and post lots of tweets at once, overwhelming my followers with too many tweets. Or I wouldn’t tweet enough for a few days, not keeping my followers posted about the great stuff I am reading.
Not anymore I decided and jumped on the Buffer wagon. So maybe that has happened to you too?
If you feel you are in the same boat here, let me walk you through Buffer, a new Twitter App, that will help you to keep up with Twitter. Yet, without spending hours and hours on it (even though we would all love to do that.)
Buffer in 10 seconds (estimated reading time)
All you do with Buffer is you throw a few tweets in your Buffer and they will in return be scheduled for you during the day. That’s it.
What makes Buffer “Killer”?
Throwing a few tweets in your Buffer is super simple. After creating your account you can start putting tweets into your Buffer right there.
Or make it even simpler still and install the right browser extension for you (Firefox, Chrome, Safari). Now, if you are reading a page you like, click the Buffer icon and you will get the shortened link and the title of the page. Like with this post from Ileane:
Add tweets from any page you are on.
Track the full impact of your Tweets
As of today you are also able to track your full impact of buffered tweets. You will be able to see Clicks on your links, Retweets, Avatars of who retweeted you and Reach. Simply click “analytics” on your Buffer dashboard. Here is how this looks like:
Clicks on your Links
How many followers did you reach?
How many Retweets did you get?
Who retweeted you?
When will I tweet?
The frequency of your daily tweets in Buffer is totally up to you. As is the timing. By default Buffer gives you tweeting times at twitter peak times, however you can adjust them to your needs. Maybe you rather want to reach people from different timezones? Try out different patterns and frequencies? Here are mine:
Set timing and frequency
Is Buffer right for you?
In case you have similar habits like me, wanting to share the great content you read on the web, give Buffer a try. It will make it super simple to create a consistency on Twitter and you will send out tweets without overwhelming your followers.
UPDATE AND BONUS VIDEO:
How to use the BufferApp and Buffer Extension for Chrome
What are your thoughts on Buffer? Please let me know below.
About Leo Widrich
I love Social Media and Startups. My blogging focuses on twitter tips at http://blog.bufferapp.com. Please say hi anytime :).
Schedueling has become an important part of our lives, we’ve become so busy that we can’t possibly do everything we want when we want it.
I’m sure this app called buffer made a lot of people happy, not just you 🙂
Hi Maria, many thanks for your comment.
Indeed, I think so too that Buffer makes a lot of people happy. 🙂 I agree scheduling has become super important nowadays if we want to get things done outside twitter. Of course I would never schedule ALL my tweets, so finding the right balance between buffering and live tweeting is key. 🙂
I also do the same, to balance between my live tweets and buffering.
good review Ileane, I know it’s a bit much to take when someone is clearly having a day on stumbleupon and sharing every.single.site with twitter so it sounds like having a buffer to make sure you don’t flood your followers is a great idea!
Andy, thanks for the comment.
Totally agree! This is the perfect use case. Just give it a click on the Buffer icon and your tweets will be well spread out, without annoying anyone :). Really glad you like it.
Hi Ileane/Leo,
This sounds like a cool little app. I’ll have to give it a try. I already use SocialOomph to schedule some of my tweets but Buffer seems to function a bit differently, am I right?
Thanks for sharing this!
Ilka
Hi Ilka,
Yep Buffer functions quite differently. You don’t need to schedule tweets individually. All you do is you put some tweets in your Buffer and they are scheduled for you. You can add tweets right from the site you are on by using the browser extensions so you don’t go back to your home account. Hope that helps, let me know if it is clearer now :).
Thanks Leo for the review and that clarification.
I too use other tools (TweetBig) to schedule my tweets, but this seems like a cool way to do so,
I’ll try it out .
Thanks again.
Tobi
Buffer is obviously impressive 🙂 Leo & his team has done a good job 🙂
Mani, many thanks for your compliment, it really means a lot to us that you appreciate our work. Most importantly, we are glad you like to use Buffer :).
Many thanks for stopping by!
Looks like another great Twitter app. First time I hear about it and will most likely head over there now as soon as I finish writing this 🙂 Thanks for sharing @leo
@Ileane, OMG, you have a new “theme”. Fantastic and wise decision, lol
Hi Francisco, so glad you like it.
Sure, just try throwing in a few tweets into your Buffer. It’s super simple to share all the great stuff in a well spread out manner as you browse the web :).
Hope you can let me know what you think about it once you gave it a whirl.
Buffer seems like a useful tool for those who are concerned about the frequency of their tweets. But to me, it just seems like too much hassle. I tweet when I feel like and and if I don’t feel like it, I don’t tweet. 🙂
Hi Dan, many thanks for stopping by.
Indeed there are many different ways how you can use twitter, if you feel a consistency in your tweets is important, Buffer can certainly help. If you just want to tweet whenever you want to tweet, it won’t be of much use.
Have a great day :).
I am always all over the place and would benefit immensely by using Buffer I’d bet. I like the idea of not having to schedule individual tweets. And a browser extension too, the developers must have been spying on me 😉
Thanks for the recommendation and review. I’m off to check it out!
Happy St. Patty’s day to you!
Kathy, that is SO great to hear. Me too, just like you, I am all over the place on the web. If I were to tweet every blogpost, my follower count would definitely tend to go towards 0 I believe ;).
Awesome Kathy, sure check it out, looking forward to hear what you think about it :).
Hey Brankica, I finally got my hands on Thesis! I’m learning how to customize it and getting some help from Hesham. When I’m all done I’ll blog about my experience but so far so good. Thanks!
Brankica, awesome to see you here too. Many thanks for your compliment. Indeed all we want to give people is the title and the link, I believe everyone is smart enough to make whatever they want with it then.
Just heading over to your famousblogger – guestpost. Was sitting there too long now, have to finally read it. From my first glance it seems to be a superb resource.
What an interesting service. I wonder how superb it would be if a plugin was available to install it in our blog and users could tweet the posts in that way.
Going to check Buffer…
Suresh!!! You are the man! This is exactly what we are planning to do next. A simple Buffer button for blogs. I will let you know once we have it ready 🙂
Many thanks for stopping by, I hope you will find Buffer useful. Give me a shout on twitter if you have any questions.
That would be best gift for the bloggers. Make one option to specify twitter username so that adding via @userName be possible to include by default.
I’ve registered Buffer and exploring it now.
another great point Suresh, adding the twitter username by default would definitely come in very handy.
Great you have signed up for Buffer. Looking forward to hear your views on it.
Hi Ileane/Leo,
It’s good to know that other folks have the same issues as me with Twitter. 🙂
Great app I was unaware of. Will have to try it out. I’ve been developing for 16 years but just recently hopped on the social/blog bandwagon. Still a lot to learn and this blog is definitely something I will keep an eye on to help me along the way.
Thanks again for the tips.
Hi Chris,
Many thanks for commenting. Haha, exactly it’s an issue many people seem to have on twitter. With Buffer you will simply breathe a little easier :).
Definitely, Ileane’s blog will keep you posted with amazing resources. And this new theme has a super slick design too.
Wow Leo, this is a remarkable find!
It is what I have been looking for because it combines two tasks, finding stuff to tweet, and scheduling it within whatever app you use (Tweetadder in mycase) because its integrated within the page.
Thats Gold right there! Thanks for bringing it to my attention Leo, and thanks Ileane for having him
Hi Alex,
I am very happy you find Buffer helpful. Exactly it’s these two tasks Buffer simplifies for people. You don’t schedule individually, but simply add to Buffer AND you can do that from any page.
So glad this is the right thing for you. 🙂
I like Buffer! 🙂 Just sread their site.
I think Timely.is has somewhat same features like scheduling tweets and else?
Hi Saksham,
Many thanks for your comment. Awesome you enjoy using Buffer, be sure to try one of the browser extensions, they will make your life a lot simpler still :).
Yep, indeed Timely is quite similar. The major difference is that timely schedules tweets at times where your past tweets had most impact. This means, it will tweet for you when you have been tweeting already anyways.
If you would like to extend your reach and reach more followers, this might not be the optimal solution for you then. No doubt that it is still a great product though. 🙂
I am in the same boat, and will be checking this out for sure, thanks!
Hi Dennis, many thanks for your comment.
Glad you are in the same boat with me here. Sure, go and have a look, I would love to hear what you think about it. 🙂
You just pointed out the problem of the majority of the millions of Twitter users. We just don’t twitt regularly as you said. This extension will definitely solve this problem. thanks a lot Leo.
Steven, many thanks for your comment. I really appreciate you find the app useful. Exactly once you get a consistency of tweets up it will feel very organised and easier to interact with your followers.
Hope you will give it a go and make good use of it yourself. Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Leo,
That is one cool application. I have already started using the application ( signed up). Now I have to use it as frequently as possible. Thanks for the heads up.
Regards,
Ashvini
Ashvini, I am super glad you find Buffer useful.
Yes, I totally agree, simply getting into the swing of using it frequently will make your life a lot easier.
Thanks for stopping by!
Awesome tool 🙂 Gave it a try and gotta say , its chrome extension is pretty handy of easilyand quickly scheduling tweets . I would rather prefer hootsuite for scheduling tweets as it has no limits whereas buffer has only 3 per day for freemium plan !
Glad to try new app 😀
Hi Ajinkya,
Many thanks for the compliments and really awesome you have started to use it.
Hmm, well we have just extended the free version to 5 per day. Hope that is an incentive for you to continue using it! 🙂
many thanks for your feedback!
*sigh* Oh, consistency, you can be such a killer!
I have been anything but consistent with Twitter, and it’s only recently that I’ve given it another try. It’s really f un, now that I’ve gotten a bit more of a handle on it.
I’ll have to give Buffer a try and see what it’s all about.
Delena
Hi Delena,
Many thanks for stopping by. Yep indeed, being consistent can really be quite hard, I had the same issue you just described! 🙂
Sure, just give Buffer a go, would love to hear what you think about it :).
This sounds great – I will have to give it a try!
Hi Phil,
Glad you found it interesting. Sure, go ahead and give it a shot, would love to hear what you think about Buffer. 🙂
Many thanks for stopping by.
Very nice find, i had started like this buffer. Will definitely give it a try.
Hi Zenil,
Many thanks for your comment and I am very glad you like it. Yep, I believe giving it a try will show you the full impact of Buffer. Hope you enjoy it! 🙂
Sounds great. I’ll definitely give it a try. Now I only have to find something like that for facebook, as I encounter the same problem (overloading my friends) there…
Great stuff Andy, definitely give it a go. As for Facebook, Buffer currently doesn’t support this, but we are having it high up on our list to build it in, so you can post to Buffer too :).
Many thanks for stopping by, it’s much appreciated! 🙂
This app is mind blowing. Saves our time and helps us in being consistent as mentioned in the post. I will visit your site and sigh up for buffer app.
Hi Pavan, so glad to hear that. Indeed Buffer will save you lots of time help you getting consistent on Twitter. Glad you find it useful :).
Sure, go ahead and give it a go, I am sure you will like it! 🙂
Yes I will give a try for sure. Once again thanks for this wonderful piece of info.
Buffer! I heart Buffer!
It was so simple, so easy, that it blew me away. Not many apps boast being *so* simple that you can do it one-handed with a fussy baby climbing all over you –which happens to be how I conduct about 95% of my business and work. Something that makes my Twitter processes so easy that it does most of the work for me?
Definitely!
Delena
Aww, Delena, this is so cute. I can totally imagine a cute little baby climbing all over you, whilst you are working away.
Really glad to hear Buffer is saving you so much time! Yep, it is really intended to be super simple and a no hassle approach for everyone, really glad you like it 🙂
Many thanks for your comment, just keep on Buffering 🙂
This social application SocialOomph looks very useful , i must give it a try , anyhow overall its a nice review about twitter ,and consistency is the problem of many of the users of twitter
I think it goes with your time management. But if you are always busy and you do not have ample time even to yourself, perhaps Buffer will work. I will give it a try …
Hi there,
Yes, you are very right, it all comes down to managing your time efficiently, hope Buffer can help you with that then! Absolutely, give it a go and if you have any more questions, just let me know 🙂
Wow, buffer is a great solution.
I’ll go and check if I can put tweets in the buffer for a day or 2 in advance. That would be great. That way it is easier to schedule twittering time. Structure is important for productivity and efficiency.
Another great find Ileane!
Twitter is an important tool for social media optimization to drive traffic to websites. Several Internet marketers use it to push their products to buyers. Tools like Buffer give Twitter users more control and allow them to stay more organized.
This sounds like a cool little app. I’ll have to give it a try. I already use SocialOomph to schedule some of my tweets
Hi Leo,
I’ve only used twitter for getting my pages indexed. With Panda though, it seems apparent that we need twitter to keep our pages up in the serps. Thanks for the tips! I’m definitely going to try Buffer.
I had no idea about buffer and it looks amazing. I am also amazed by all that I don’t know! I will be trying buffer out and hope it works as well as it looks.
Good review of Buffer, Leo
I get caught up and waste too much time in Twitter. With this, I can insulate myself from direct interaction and get on with more important SEO. Yes, I use Twitter pretty much solely for SEO and not as a social device.
Thanks,
RJ
Buffer is such a great service to use. Plus it is free. how can you not beat that!
The fact that you can schedule tweets when you want to be posted is such a huge plus. Keep up the good work at Buffer!
Really a helpful post. i don’t know the buffer will try it
Buffer App!
I have tried the demo version of Buffer, and so far! I have found it very useful for my social interactions with tweeples and Facebook’er’s.
Actually, before going with Buffer Pro! I was looking for the reviews, and suddenly while reading some other post! I used the search box to check whether you have it or not! and… boom! You already have a review of it.
After learning some new features of Buffer from this article. I am going to give it a try!