Buffer – social network publishing

For the last couple of weeks, I have been posting my articles and videos manually to social media. While not the end of the world, I was really looking for a system that could automate this for me, and buy me back some time. That’s when I stumbled across Buffer.

Buffer is a web based system that allows me to share all of my content across my social media channels (Facebook Page, Instagram and Twitter). So I can input the text once, add the link once, and add any thumbnails once. I then click share, and that’s me done.

The really cool thing is that I can either choose to share my content immediately, or I can set up a schedule and the post will join a queue ready to be published. Each social media channel has it’s own schedule and queue so my content won’t necessarily hit all my channels immediately. This gives my posts a little more of a natural feel that I really like.

But that’s not where it stops…

Thanks to this brilliant article on WPbeginner.com, I discovered the WP to Buffer plugin that allows me to automate this process even more. After tinkering with the WP to Buffer settings a bit (check the above link how), I could hit post on my article, and the were automatically sent to Buffer for to join the queue of the relevant social media channel.

Wowsers!

This plugin and buffer work so seamlessly that I don’t even need to check it now, although you obviously can if you want to or change the wording or schedule at all. I’m just using the free account, but this is definitely a tool that I’ll be looking to upgrade at some point as it really removes the friction around this process of sharing my work. The premium account allows you publish to more channels and have greater control of you schedule and queue. Check out a comparison here.

I would definitely recommend checking out Buffer, WP to Buffer (if you’re on WordPress obviously!) and the above article to figure out how to get them synced, and make the most of the time you save to be even more productive!