Blog - Page 43

A collection of 2,439 blog posts

OpenMar 16, 2017
The 3 Types of Activities & 1 Gameshow That Helped Our Remote Team Bond on our 8th Retreat

The chance for in-person time is precious for a remote team. It had been over a year — 392 days to be precise — since saw each other at our last retreat in Hawaii . From Thailand to South Africa, Iceland to Australia, each of our company retreats has looked a little different. Our team of 75 around the world has just returned from our most

Guides & CoursesMar 16, 2017
The Complete Guide to Instagram Ads: A Step-by-Step Guide to Advertising on Instagram

Instagram offers incredible opportunities for businesses of all sizes to reach their target audiences. But as more and more brands join Instagram and the feed becomes more competitive, it can be harder to stand out. Imagine being able to reach the specific groups of Instagram users you want to connect with, engage them, and convert them into customers. Well, that’s totally possible! In late 2015, Instagram opened up Instagram ads. Using the Facebook

Self-ImprovementMar 14, 2017
What Running 700 Miles in One Year Taught Me About Business

At heart, I’m a running purist. No headphones. No waistband for water bottles. No activity monitor or GPS tracker. Just my trusty Asics Trainers and a $10 Casio watch for pace. Seven hundred miles. At seven minutes per mile, that equates to roughly 4,900 minutes, 81.6 hours, or 3.4 days. That’s a lot of time to think. One of the secrets to running is the ability to lose yourself in positive thought; Brainstorming, reflecting, strategizing, and conjuring up crazy ideas while endorphins are go

Getting to Know the Ghost: The Complete Beginners Guide to Snapchat

This post has been refreshed for 2017. Snapchat is the latest platform taking the social media world by storm. Since its launch, in September 2011, Snapchat has shown incredible growth. The Venice, California-based company now boasts over 161 million daily active users and 10 billion video views , daily. And with consumer attention comes ad dollars, with many major brands turning to Snapchat as a

PodcastsMar 13, 2017
Harnessing the Power of LinkedIn Marketing to Monetize and Grow Your Business – Candice Galek [SSM034]

When I hear the words “LinkedIn marketing” my mind immediately jumps to traditional sales tactics . Cold emailing or messaging, following up, following up again, and then sometime down the line, closing the deal. Although a robust sales tool, LinkedIn rarely gets brought up in conversations about effective social media marketing channels for businesses. But Candice Galek [https://www

ToolsMar 11, 2017
37 Free Social Media and Marketing Courses to Elevate Your Skills Today

When I first started out with digital marketing, I was blown away by the sheer amount of online social media and marketing courses available! I read hundreds of articles and enrolled in as many marketing courses that I could possibly get my hands on. Even today, millions of resources continue to be published online every month. It’s enough to wonder … Where can you go for the best, most useful marketing information? I’ve had the chance to test out and research a huge amount of resources, and

BufferchatMar 9, 2017
Branding on LinkedIn: A #Bufferchat Recap

This week on #bufferchat, we talked all about using LinkedIn as a platform for branding. The community shared advice for writing great profile summaries, growing as an influencer , building relationships, managing a LinkedIn company page , and much more! Read on to discover all of the awesome knowledge and insights that were shared during the chat! Catch our weekly Twitter chat [https

20 Must-Attend Social Media Conferences in 2017

Update (January 2018): We have an updated list of the top 22 social media conferences to attend in 2018. Feel free to check it out! Working on social media can be a little lonely at times, especially if you are working as a team of one. Imagine being around like-minded people who understand your daily struggles and learning from top professionals in the marketing world. Maybe even doing this while on a vacation! Social media conferences are the secret to all that. These conferences, ranging f

OpenMar 7, 2017
How I Approach Company Retreats as a CEO

By now we have a fairly long history of doing retreats at Buffer. We’re now a team of 75 who all work remotely, and we just wrapped up our eighth company retreat in Madrid, Spain. Here’s a quick history of retreat locations, timeline, and size over time: It’s been a wild ride for us at Buffer, and the regular company retreat is a very clear part of our culture. Each retreat has felt a little different, and the nature of the retreat evolves as the company grows

AnalyticsMar 7, 2017
Know What’s Working on Social Media: 24 Free Social Media Analytics Tools

Where do you turn for meaningful stats on your social media marketing ? I’m grateful for the insight from some truly incredible tools that help make sense of the actions I take on social media. How have my followers grown this month? Which posts seem to perform best ? Which times [https://b

BufferchatMar 2, 2017
Risks & Experimentation: A #Bufferchat Recap

This week on #bufferchat, our community opened up and shared their learnings from taking risks and experimenting in work and in life. We chatted about the process of experimenting and trying new things at work, how to know when to take a risk, what to do if your ideas aren’t successful, and much more. Read on to discover all of the awesome knowledge and insights that were shared during the chat! Catch our weekly Twitter chat [https://bu

Self-ImprovementMar 1, 2017
When Goals and Plans Are Eclipsed by Survival Mode

I worked myself into a lovely pickle at the end of 2016. I gave my manager feedback that I’d love to have a session on career planning and goals for my role in the company. I love these sorts of chats! Well, I used to. I’ve been so knee-deep in survival mode during my son’s first year of life, wrangling a puppy, and finding out that I was pregnant with number 2 when my son was 9 months old that I suddenly realized, while preparing for this chat, that I had no short- or long-term goals. “Well

OpenMar 1, 2017
Buffer and the AWS Outage: How This Interruption May Have Affected Your Posts

tl;dr – Buffer experienced interrupted service due to the AWS outage on Tuesday. All is back to normal now, and all posts are going out as expected. We know how important a reliable social media experience is for you, and we recognize how interruptions to Buffer can have a significant impact. We’re incredibly sorry for the disruption we caused you today. Here is precisely what happened and how it may have affected you. What happened For several hours on Tuesday, one of Buffer’s main hosting p

11 Storytelling Formulas to Supercharge Your Social Media Marketing

Legendary marketer, Seth Godin, describes marketing as “the art of telling a story that resonates with your audience and then spreads.” If you look at some of the biggest brands around, you might notice that they are often amazing storytellers. * Apple tells stories of people challenging the norms * Nike tells stories of people doing the impossible * Airbnb tells stories of travelers living in homes around the world and belonging any

PodcastsFeb 27, 2017
Social Media Algorithms: How They Work and How to Use Them in Your Favor – Michael Stelzner [SSM032]

Social media algorithms are a lot like “Dog Years.” They seems to progress and change at a rate of seven years for every one year on the human calendar. We’ve seen first-hand the dramatic declines in traffic and organic reach over the last two years as so many businesses have. But despite the challenges that marketers face with social media algorithms, there is still a way to overcome them and share your content with the world. Michael Stelzner

OpenFeb 24, 2017
Cloudbleed Update: Buffer Data Is Not Affected

tl;dr – Customers should not worry about their Buffer data after the Cloudbleed incident Several hours ago our team learned of a large security incident at Cloudflare , a service we use for Buffer. The incident, which you may have heard about, has been nicknamed “Cloudbleed.” Many websites, including Buffer, use Cloudflare to help handle web traffic more quickly and efficiently amongst many other th

BufferchatFeb 23, 2017
Finding Success with Freelancing: A #Bufferchat Recap

This week on #bufferchat, we discussed how to find success with freelancing, with Kate Kendall , founder and CEO of CloudPeeps , as our special guest! The community talked about great skills to have while freelancing, advice for expanding one’s network, the best places to find freelance opportunities, and much more. Read on to discover all of the awesome insights that were shared during the chat! Catch our weekly Twitter c

ResourcesFeb 22, 2017
20 Creative Ways to Use Social Media for Storytelling

Storytelling has always played a part in successful marketing. Stories enable us to build personality and create a connection with consumers. But can we actually tell a story on social media? Is it possible to narrate a story with social media posts that are supposed to be short and sweet? It turns out there are many ways to use social media for storytelling! In this post, I’d love to share 20 actionable ways to use social media for storytelling. Ready to dive in? Navigating this article

PodcastsFeb 20, 2017
Proven Instagram Stories Strategies from the Experts at Bustle – Hannah Caldwell [SSM030]

Instagram Stories is quickly becoming one of the go-to marketing channels for some of the world’s top brands. Take Bustle , for example, with more than 1.4 million followers on Instagram alone, they are seeing incredible results from investing in a consistent and thoughtful Instagram Stories strategy. In fact, they’re seeing so much success that they’ve

BufferchatFeb 17, 2017
Taking Your Instagram Stories Up a Notch: A #Bufferchat Recap

This week on #bufferchat, we talked all about how to take our Instagram Stories up a notch in quality, engagement and value! It was awesome to have Sue B. Zimmerman as our guest in the 2nd chat time, who dropped so much wisdom and knowledge during the conversation. The community discussed the best kind of content for Stories , hidden features and tricks, how to increase audience retention, and much more. Sue e

ResourcesFeb 16, 2017
50 Video Marketing Stats to Help You Create a Winning Social Media Strategy in 2017

Video is taking over social media. In our end of 2016 social media survey, 83 percent of marketers said they’d like to create more video content if they didn’t have restraints such as time and resources. We also found that 30 percent of marketers are looking to spend more time focused on Facebook video in 2017. To help you make the fullest use of video marketing on social media and create a successful social media strategy for 2017, we’ve pulled together 50 of the most relevant video marketing

ReportsFeb 14, 2017
How Managers Can Support Family Leave + New Reflection Experiment

Buffer People/People Ops Report January 2017 * Last month’s report Last month’s Ops report * All People reports * All Buffer reports Applicants 168-53% Open blog posts published 14-1 Open blog visitors 142,867 +19% Bimonthly team NPS score [https://buffer.com/resources/why-we-ask-our-team-to-grade-us-ev

ReportsFeb 14, 2017
Live Chat Support Launched for Business Customers

Buffer Happiness Report January 2017 * Last month’s report * All Happiness reports * All Buffer reports Responses within 1 hour 35% 0% Customer satisfaction score 93+2% Email conversations 10,429 +17% Twitter conversations 6,801+33% Avg. Twitter response time 8 hr 58 min -20% Webinars hosted 6 Hello to live chat! At Buffer, we are committed to quality and s

ReportsFeb 14, 2017
Staying on Top of Alerts with Respond: Slack Integration, Inbox Filters

Respond Report January 2017 * Last month’s report * All Respond reports * All Buffer reports MoM: +9% Paying customers 90(+3%) Bugs fixed 34+ It’s February. 2017. No, you’re not alone. It’s amazing how fast this year is moving. But with the holidays behind us, our team is kicking off 2017 with a bunch of great new improvements and updates just for you. Let’s dig in :-) Facebook comments rolled