This happened to me many times I have to admit. Every morning I would read lots of great blog posts and really wanted to share them all on Twitter as they were great resources. Turns out that hitting the Tweet Button that often in a short period of time isn’t much appreciated amongst my followers.
So I constrained myself on not tweeting often, yet wasn’t very happy I couldn’t share my great findings with my followers.
Until finally a few weeks back I found a solution to my problems, which would allow me two things:
- Tweet ALL my great findings
- Don’t overwhelm my followers with tweets
It is through the use of a nifty new App called Buffer.
How does Buffer work?
With Buffer all you do is you simply put tweets into your Buffer. The App then schedules these tweets for you throughout the day.
How does Buffer solve this?
Buffer comes with a feature I like to call its “Killer” feature, which makes it into a real must have tool. It is a browser extension for either Chrome, Safari or Firefox. It allows you to add Tweets to your Buffer from any article you are reading with one click.
By default the App gives you the shortened link and the title of the page. Here is how this looks with Jane’s recent article:
How can this help me as a blogger?
I found that one of the big problem when trying to appreciate all the great pieces my favourite bloggers write is that doing it efficiently is a big issue. As in my case I am only part time online besides studying for my degree and it is really crucial that I can do everything in a time saving manner.
In order to achieve this I have also tried out some full automation tools which would send tweets via my account without me even having a chance to read it. Although some are perfectly fine with this, I always felt it’s not quite genuine.
In Buffer’s case it is still me writing the tweets, however the whole process is very time saving and I can write lots of tweets without annoying my followers.
When are my tweets sent?
The default settings for your tweets being sent out is at Twitter Peak times. You can always go back to your account of course and adjust the times to your needs. I decided to tweet at a frequency of 5 daily tweets:
Achieve the highest impact
Another thing that is very helpful is that for every tweet sent via Buffer you will get detailed analytics. This means info about Clicks on your links, Retweets, Avatars of who retweeted you and Reach of your Tweets. Here are some of my latest stats:
Why Buffer?
If you are anything like me, reading lots of great stuff every day and trying to keep your followers posted about it in a hassle free way, definitely take a look at Buffer.
I experienced that you gain both a consistency of tweets and are freed up to jump right into the interaction on Twitter.
Takeaway from Jane:
Twitter is a great platform for communication. Especially for bloggers it is a wonderful place to come together, share and talk. I have recently realized the awesome power of Twitter - I have written a post on this story:
My Twitter breathes. I can now USE Twitter ultimately!
Well, I am just amazed to know about the functionalities of Buffer. I simply love the stats and the Tweet at peak times options. Seems so promising. If you haven’t so already, I strongly suggest you to try it out. I am sure you will love it.
What are your views on this new Tool? Do you think it could be useful for you too? Please let me know your views below.
Leo Widrich is a Social Media enthusiast with an extra large addiction to Twitter. You might noticed already ;). He is an constantly on the lookout for the best Twitter Tips and Tools to share. Say hi @leowid anytime. 
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Leo,
This is a great tool! You know, it’s not even the fact that people (your followers) would necessarily get annoyed with you, but they may REALLY want to see / read the content you have tweeted, but simply can’t keep-up / lack of time. I love finding these nifty little internet gadgets. Everyone find them before I do! Thanks for sharing,
Bryan
Bryan,
thanks a lot for your comment, it is really good to see you find Buffer useful.
Oh definitely, it is just like you say, your Twitterstream is so busy, that you can never keep up with all the tweets, especially not if they are sent all that many in a row!
Haha, yep, well Buffer is a very new one, so you are certainly amongst the first ;).
Thanks again for stopping by.
Hi there,
I think the built-in analytics are a great feature to using this application. Twitter peak times? Another great feature!
Right now I use Hootsuite but, as far as I can tell, I have to be using that interface to input. Buffer is neat because it’ll pull the data from the button you’ve clicked within an article.
Hi Jon, thanks for your comment.
Great to hear you like the analytics feature. Me too, I find it very useful.
Oh ok, yes I think Buffer goes very well in addition to your favourite Twitter client and together with Hootsuite I think it will work really well.
As in my case I am using Tweetdeck and Buffer and its a real good combo I think :).
This twitter buffer program looks pretty cool the only issue I have with it is that a lot of times I post a tweet I find people responding to my tweet and if I don’t tweet back to them I feel that it’s no longer a social tool but a mere traffic building tool. Maybe use buffer while I’m asleep and then normal tweeting during the day
I think we should reply to others.
if not then this tool will be same like all others out there.
just for the sake of increasing followers.
Hi AJ,
Oh right, yes that’s a very good point you are making. Twitter is definitely made to be instantaneous just like you say. My experience with Buffer is that when people reply to my tweets and I reply about an hour or so later it doesn’t really hurt.
Do you feel having a delay of say 30 minutes or so would severely disrupt your flow?
Hope we speak some more soon :).
Leo,
I think it is all about how you use it. If you are only making <10 auto tweets a day I think that's cool. But if you are one of those people leaving 100's of auto tweets a day you will find yourself loosing a lot of your followers and having trouble sparking real conversations and social interaction. We all know twitter can server as a good "feed" for your website as Google crawls it constantly, so my suggestion is to set up a legit twitter account with your own tweets meant for social media and one account for auto-tweets intended for search engines.
AJ, I think you are absolutely right and it this is a great point. Having everything in modest way, without flooding your followers is definitely key. In my case, I am not sending more than 6 tweets a day via Buffer, which is just like you say beyond a threshold where you just overwhelm your followers with information.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to word out your thoughts, I believe it is a very important discussion and what you are saying is spot on!
Great post! Leo is such a cool guy, full of Social Media enthusiasm and great ideas! His Social media Examiner post on Twitter tools was excellent. I interviewed Leo yesterday and my Buffer post will be out tomorrow, look out for it!! It’s a pleasure to see such a talented Social Media start up coming from the UK. It’s all good, thanks for the post, keep up the great work, regards Peter
Hi Peter,
thanks a lot for your kind words!
Yes, just read your post on your blog, it is definitely very recommendable, really great insight into Buffer. Hope to speak to you soon Peter, really thankful for your amazing support!
I can always count on Jane to bring in the latest and greatest, and Leo, I appreciate this bit of info.
I’m a big fan of free tools, which this is, and it’s even got a “suggest a tweet” option for those times when my creative juices might be a little sluggish.
Looking forward to using this one.
Thanks-
Nanette,
Thanks a lot for your comment.
Yep, indeed the suggest a tweet one is quite nice once you are looking for a great quote. Just click through it and lots of different suggestions will come up!
If you have any questions, be sure to let me know, always happy to help out!
Hey Leo,
I’ve heard about Buffer a lot recently. I’ve always used a couple other automatic tweeting services but I think the more I hear and learn, the more I need to pay attention and look into this.
I too enjoy tweeting about posts I’ve read and I know my followers enjoy them as well. They know I only share really good stuff with them so I pray they don’t get too annoyed with me. But I guess I should consider spreading the love around a little more.
Thanks for this explanation again. This time I’m going to pay attention.
Appreciate it and thank you Jane for having Leo share this with us.
Adrienne
Adrienne, thanks a lot for your comment.
Yes you are right, there was some great coverage about Buffer in recent days, really glad to hear you will look into it :).
Oh, yep, definitely simply throwing your tweets in your Buffer makes life a lot easier, as the App schedules them for you throughout the day. Hope you will give it a go and test it for yourself :).
Leo, aloha. Thx so much for this great info. Two features that you mentioned about Buffer that I particularly like are:
1. Adding tweets to any article with one click
2. The analytics-WOW, how helpful this will be
Leo, I so appreciate the clarity of your articles. Whenever I read one, I know just what I must do. Jane, mahalo nui loa for inviting Leo to share his knowledge with us once again.
Best wishes to you both for a fantastic week. Aloha. Jaent
Janet, thank you very much for stopping by.
Yep, absolutely right, those are my favourite features too, adding tweets on the fly from anywhere is really super helpful and alongside the analytics it is a real timesaver isn’t it?
Thanks for your kind words and indeed it was my real pleasure to share it with you here.
Hi Leo,
Thanks so much for this awesome info. I’m hearing a lot of good things about Buffer.
It looks fantastic. I like the feature of scheduling tweets.
Thanks for sharing. Retweeted
.
Hi Devesh, thanks for your kind words.
Yes, indeed there has been a lot of buzz about Buffer recently, glad you noticed.
Awesome, be sure to give it a spin, would love to hear what you think about it :).
Thanks for the RT Devesh too
Hi Leo,
I must say… Thank you for sharing this tool! I’ve never heard of it. So now, I must go and try it out.
Have a great day…
Josh
Hi Josh, thanks for stopping by.
Glad I could tell you about, yes definitely go and give it a try, would love to hear how it compares to other tools for you :).
You too, have an awesome day!
Hi Leo,
This is exactly what I needed. If I miss a day of tweeting, I can get a little tweet crazy trying catch up with the time that I lost. With this I won’t have to worry about remembering to tweet everyday.
I love that we can set up a time to tweet.
~Tisha
Tisha, thanks for your comment.
Awesome, so glad I could help you out with it then. Exactly, simply top up your Buffer with tweets and you will be fine for the whole day.
Yep, you set fixed tweeting times and then forget about them. Buffer will send out one tweet at each of them each day.
Thanks again for your thoughts, have a great day
What a great find! I’ve been using SocialOomph to pre-schedule tweets, but that can be a little cumbersome, as you have to schedule them by the minute and space them out that way. I’ll definitely be taking a look at this app!
Thanks for sharing
Hi Sarah,
Yes very true, me too I have been a big SocialOomph user, yet Buffer, just like you say makes it a lot easier. No fiddling with individual time setting and you can add to your Buffer from any page you are on, glad you find it useful!
Thanks for your comment.
Hi Leo,
The Buffer does look like a good buy. I have a question however - Which is better, Buffer or HootSuite? This is because I used the latter in the past. And I wish you success with Twitter.
Peace!
Hi Emmanuel,
In a way I think Hootsuite and Buffer complement each other rather than being competitors.
In my case I am an avid Tweetdeck user and using this as my client works perfectly. Now in addition I would throw tweets in my Buffer to create a consistent Tweeting Pattern which is very helpful to keep my followers posted.
Hope you will give it a go and see for yourself, I definitely wouldnt recommend to use it instead of Hootsuite but really together with it!
I really like Buffer and I am just now testing out HootSuite. HS’ scheduling feature is so clunky compared to Buffer. I think I need time to get comfortable with HS but right now I’m really wishing scheduling in HS was as easy as Buffer.
I think I remember hearing from Ryan Deiss and Perry Belcher that you should send tweets in groups of 5 or something around there because many of your messages will get lost. By doing it in this manner, you’ll end up getting more attention. If you have a lot of people with very few followers, it might be a different story though. Either way, this resource could help quite a bit.
Nice solution. Yeah I have the same problem I want to post almost every thing before i go to work but followers don’t appreciate that so this app can help me and maybe my friends too
Great Find! I know the feeling when you tweet a post, and then tweet a post again, worried that your followers might just think that you’re just spamming and all that. Thank again! Downloading…
Great article. Also in the busy days and holidays. I’ve used it for a few weeks now but i’m convinced.
I have to admit, I do tweet a lot and that does worry me at times if I’m bombarding my followers with one too many tweets. I always make sure to tweet useful information and links, but when you tweet half a dozen to a dozen tweets consecutively, that could seem spammy without looking at the actual tweet. Buffer seems like a perfect tool for intermediate to experienced internet marketers and bloggers with large number of followers. Thanks for the heads up, this will be a very nice addition to my IM tools.
I discovered buffer a little while ago and really like it a lot, specially for sending day time tweets when I am not available or tweeting when I am traveling. I like how it gives you information about how many people click on your tweets as well.
Indeed same with me, Linda. And I usually tweet when something interesting come up.
Buffer is going to make a really big difference - I hope - in the way that my Twitter feed looks, Jane.
You’re a perfect example how someone can be extremely profession, provide quality content but still, even by accident, come across a little overzealous when it comes to sharing links online.
We’re all really hazardous about links now because of the amount of rubbish we have to deal with but there has to be a balance struck for those who have a steady amount of valueable, resourceful stuff to share that their followers will actually want to read.
Here’s hoping ‘Buffer’ is that balance.
I have to admit it as a networker I was guilty of spamming my followers networker twitters with way too many content and I had a hard time trying to come up with a good solution to pace out my tweets into an acceptable time frame intervals until you recommended to me the great tool called the Buffer. This has saved me such a great head ache, thanks for pointing that out!
Keep up the good work Leo!
Loving buffer but I wish there was a way to respond to replays/retweets from buffer. Any thoughts on the best way to go that? I’m using buffer for twitter, personal fb page and a business page.
I’ve been using Buffer more and more and starting to realize it’s value. I think I need to dig deeper into the features; looks like there’s a lot more to it! Thanks for the heads-up, Jane.