When the administration of different social networks you not only have to know the effectiveness of related posts, but it is also necessary that the publications be uploaded at different times with original content.
For this reason, the work of Community Managers is not easy. Besides being a creative task It is time consuming in editing the images and publishing the stories.
To solve this problem there is Buffer. Which is a tool that allows you to publications in a simpler way. If you want to know more about this feature, keep reading.
What is Buffer and what is this tool for Community Managers?
Buffer is a tool that allows Community Managers to schedule posts on different social networks. In addition, it has the possibility of analyze the results of the posts that were uploaded in each of the RRSS. In this way it is achieved save time on posts, since it allows you to upload images and videos as you would do it manually and being connected at that time. This generates an increase in the efficiency of the administrator of social networks and improves the results of the social media plan.
It has a free version and a paid version. With the first option you will have the possibility to publish up to 10 posts per month, while in the premium distribution you can publish 100 or up to 2000 stories, according to the plan you choose. It has a web version and an application that is available for Android and iOS. In addition, it allows the installation of a extension in the browser Chrome.
Buffer functions and characteristics What are the most useful of the platform?
As we told you in the previous section, Buffer has a paid version in which you can choose a personal subscription with which you can upload up to 100 stories in the month. If you wish, you can opt for a corporate membership with which you will have the option to publish up to 2000 posts / month. If you choose the free one, the limit will be 10 posts on all social networks. Its handling is very simple and intuitive, no matter how much it is in English. Therefore, the user may have basic or advanced knowledge on the use of RRSS.
With this tool you will have the possibility to increase your presence in social networks through planning that you will have to do when you run the social media plan. In this way, you can do branding to build a better image of your brand. Also, You will be able to schedule a first comment, tag users through hashtags, include the location and have a strong presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.
Among the most outstanding functions you can mention the tool that will allow you upload a photo or video and generate a custom image using a template. You can do it through a schedule with a calendar. If we mention the analytical tools, you will have the possibility to get a report of the last 30 days of your activity and in this way you will know which were the most popular stories, the most read and the ones that had the most interactions.
You can also analyze the behavior of your audience and what hours it is most active. This will help you have a more efficient scheduling calendar. By last, you can set a time zone so that the publications appear according to the country that is most interested in your content. You should not be confused and believe that this is all the work you have to do as a Community Manager, since the objective is to create engagement. That is, increase interactions with the audience.
Benefits of using Buffer Why should it be indispensable for Community Managers?
Among the most outstanding benefits that this tool has we can highlight is the simplicity it presents when handling it. This is due to its graphical interface, which is quite intuitive due to the location of its controls in the configuration panel. It also has the possibility that work on the computer or directly from the mobile. In addition, the actions you perform will be synchronized automatically, due to the online storage that the server has.
If you are just starting out and want to save money, you can use a free version until you know its functions well and then decide if it is convenient for you to pay at least € 10 per month. Another benefit is that by submitting a Chrome browser extension It will allow you to work faster and thus you will save several steps in the publication of a content. In case the buyer people to whom you want to impose your brand are in another country that has a different time zone than yours.
You can schedule posts according to that time slot. This will help you increase the efficiency of your posts. It has not been mentioned so far that you can post on various social networks at Same time, allowing you to save hours of work and not make mistakes in each of the stories you upload. By last, you will have an analytical tool that will allow you to know your true performance through different metrics.
Buffer tricks to get the most out of all its features
If you want to get the most out of this social media tool, you can use some of the following tricks:
- Use the function Posting schedule to pause posting times. This will allow you not to delete the content, you will only stop posting on social networks.
- When you want to change the time zone you will have to go to the tab Schedule and then the city to which you want to direct the publication.
- In case you want to improve the appearance of your posts, Buffer allows you to use thumbnails before publishing. You can do this if you press Thumbnail.
- They organize the publications by giving them an order. To do this, you must put it in the queue using the function Shuffle. But if you think that a post should be uploaded before others, you will have to click Add to Queue and then in Share Next.
- Buffer It also allows you to post on the spot, this will prevent you from putting it on the calendar. For this you will have to click on Share Now.
- To modify the location of the post within the schedule queue, you will have to choose the tool Move to Top, after selecting the content.
- What you are looking for is to know the time of one you must go to the tab Analytics and search for it by type of social network.
List of the best alternative tools to Buffer that every Community manager should know
In case you want to use another type of tool, similar to Buffer, you can choose one of the ones that we present below:
Hootsuite.com
It is one of the tools most chosen by Community Managers due to the large number of functions it offers, in which you can not only schedule a publication in Instagram or in other social networks but also obtain an analysis of the performance of the stories you upload.
You will have the possibility to choose, between the paid versions, different types of plans. They will be divided by the number of publications that you can make automatically. Also, you will be able to keep abreast of the contents that are important or from the conversations that take place on the networks. You can do this by configuring a filter in which you must include keywords.
Kuku.io
With this platform you will be able to create calendars for the programming of content in different social networks, which will allow you to adjust it according to the type of followers you have in each one. It is a paid tool in which you will have a 7-day free trial. Among the most outstanding functions are the possibility of get reports from up to 10 social networks. This will help you correct deviations from the social media plan and better understand the tastes and preferences of buyer personas.
SocialPilot.co
This platform is also highly recognized by Community Manager. It has the possibility of connect Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr to make a single publication in all of them. This can be done through a calendar that will allow you to meet the goals that you have established in the marketing plan.
It does not offer a free version, but its price is only € 10 / month to access a basic plan which includes all the features of the most expensive plan. The difference is in the number of posts you can upload in the month. The analytical tool will help you understand through graphics what is the progress of your campaign.