Tools for Marketing and Content Creation

Delivering consistent mobile experiences is hard. Between iOS and Android's distinct design languages, different versions of native components, and Buffer's own design language, mobile apps can sometimes feel fragmented. Designers and developers end up speaking different languages, duplicating work, and shipping experiences that feel inconsistent across platforms. At Buffer, we really felt this friction. Our mobile design workflow wasn't as efficient as it could have been. We spent too much time reinventing the wheel, manually patching together screenshots, and playing catch-up with our web app counterpart. We knew we needed a better way. So we built one. Meet 🍿 Popcorn T…

I used to be a chronic overthinker, and it fueled my anxiety. Whenever I had to attend social gatherings, give a presentation, or even record a talking head video, my mind would spiral. I’d analyze every tiny detail until I was paralyzed, putting off the thing I intended to do. That started to change when I joined the global 100-Day Project this year — and chose posting on TikTok as my challenge. I took it on specifically to push back against the anxiety of showing up online. The more I showed up, the less I worried about being judged or coming off as “cringe.” Over time, I noticed a shift — I felt less anxious and stopped overthinking every move. Each post became a sma…

The remote work movement is a growing global phenomenon. 79 percent of knowledge workers worldwide said they work from home, and 80-90% of the U.S. workforce would like to work remotely at least part time. And while no two remote work situations are identical, there are some common themes when it comes to the tools and accessories for success. Of course, the most crucial element is wifi. But after that, there’s still plenty to consider: the desk setup, the commuter bag, the headphones, the travel accessories and more. And then, there are the more classic questions… Mac or PC? iPhone or Android? On Buffer’s global team of 80 folks, many team members have spent a great deal…

“If you want engagement, do engagement.” It’s probably the simplest social media advice I’ve ever seen (hat tip to Buffer’s Suzanne Kelly and Carolyn Kopprasch for coining that) — and it’s 100% accurate. Not just anecdotally, either. Replying to comments on your posts can significantly boost engagement across six major platforms, according to a massive analysis by Buffer’s data scientist, Julian Winternheimer. He pored over nearly 2 million posts from over 220,000 accounts on Threads, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, X, and Bluesky. His conclusion was a clear and consistent pattern: Posts where creators and brands reply to comments perform better almost every time. You want…

Facebook is a new frontier for me. I've been having loads of fun over the past few months experimenting with the shiny new features Facebook has launched to woo creators. Facebook itself may not be all that shiny, but there’s no denying that it's enormous. And for a lot of creators, small business owners, and marketers, it's a great place to find new audiences. I'll be honest, though: even Facebook has over three billion monthly active users, and I'm... not reaching even a teeny tiny fraction of them. My content performance has been hit and miss. So when Buffer's senior data scientist, Julian Winternheimer, dug into over a million Facebook posts as part of his cross-platf…

Ever noticed how, if you’re really on top of replying to your LinkedIn comments, your posts seem to perform better? I certainly have — and now I have some seriously impressive data to back my anecdotal evidence. Replying to comments on your LinkedIn posts can boost engagement by around 30%, according to a massive analysis by Buffer's data scientist, Julian Winternheimer. Julian analyzed 72,000 LinkedIn posts from nearly 25,000 accounts, and the pattern was clear: When creators engage back in their comments, their posts perform significantly better relative to their own baseline. This is one of my favorite data analyses we’ve done at Buffer, because it’s hard evidence that…

I love the idea of the mythical Instagram hack. When a social ‘expert’ pops up on my feed, emphatically telling me to do the Fate of Ophelia choreography during the full moon after every post to go viral — there’s a good chance I’ll give it a bash. (If you saw me practicing that dance in my last vlog, no, you didn’t.) The fact is, though, those hacks, in the truest sense, really don’t exist. The quality of your content is the be-all and end-all of Instagram post performance. But there are a handful of things you can do to give your content a helpful little boost. Posting at a good time for the platform can help, as can keeping up a consistent posting cadence. We have data…

Threads doesn’t just reward replies — it was built for them. Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, has said this more than once, and he hasn’t minced words on it, either: "The sum of all your replies is about as valuable as the sum of all the value of all your posts," he told Platformer. Turns out, he wasn't exaggerating. We have data to back up just how powerful responding on Threads can be. Replying to comments on your Threads posts can boost engagement by around 42% — the highest lift we've seen across any platform — according to Buffer data scientist Julian Winternheimer's analysis of over 128,000 Threads posts. Julian found that when creators and brands engage back in the…

Last year was Buffer’s first profitable year after two years of losses. This turnaround has been a huge accomplishment for our team. Given our focus on long-term sustainability and growing through revenue from customers rather than funding, it was a symbolic achievement in service of the path we’ve chosen. We closed 2024 with a net profit of $202,459. But perhaps the most exciting part for me of achieving a profit is that we were able to distribute our profit share bonus again. Read on to learn more about our philosophy as it relates to profitability and profit sharing. The journey back to profitabilityLooking at how we achieved profitability in 2024 tells an interesting …

If you've been wanting to post on social media but keep putting it off, this one's for you. I asked Buffer's team of creators — because creating is important to us since our product is for creators — to share what actually helped them get past the fear, overthinking, and blank-page paralysis that accompanies early-stage content creation. And their advice was refreshingly actionable. A bit of backstory: In an initiative spearheaded by Sabreen Haziq, our Senior Brand & Community Manager, Buffer's team has been transforming into a group of creators with real skin in the game. Over the past 8 months, we've collectively: Published over 11,000 postsEarned 14 million impress…

Social media managers are juggling multiple plates at once every day: brainstorming content ideas and creating text and video contentscheduling posts and engaging on multiple social media accountsanalyzing social media marketing performance and tweaking strategy based on data…And a lot moreWhew. It takes some elbow grease to keep the wheels spinning. But what if you don’t have to do all that every single day? What if you could automate the mundane, repetitive tasks to social media tools and focus on your core jobs that actually move the needle toward your return-on-investment (ROI)? Enter: Social media automation aka using software to automate repetitive tasks like sched…

Picture this: Your boss is asking you about the business impact of your social media strategy. You know you’ve moved the needle — brought in website visitors, converted some of them, and nudged brand awareness. But how do you prove it? This is where a social media dashboard comes in handy. It’s a visual representation of the key metrics that prove the impact of your social media efforts. Your job as a social media manager is to convert the raw data of social media metrics into something easily understandable for you, your team, and your executives. But that’s not all it is. A social media marketing dashboard also helps in: Uncovering actionable insights about what kind of…

Picture this: You’re demonstrating your products or services at a kiosk — its benefits, use cases, social proof, all that jazz. You know your offer is A+, but no one seems to notice. They’re just passing you by like you’re invisible. What are you doing wrong? How can you get your audience’s attention? This is precisely what social media feels like without engagement — like you’re shouting into a void. After all, engagement makes social media “social” in the first place. You want to reach the right people, spark conversations, and help each other. Which is why a social media engagement strategy can be incredibly helpful for achieving your social media goals. But with so ma…

If you want to share scroll-stopping content on your social media profiles, you need eye-catching images that display well in the feed. Awkwardly cropped photos and pixelated images are a sure way to put potential followers off. But figuring out image sizes for each social network is tricky, especially considering how many different image options each platform offers. Which is where this guide comes in. Keep this handy, and you won’t have to store all those fiddly numbers in your brain — or google “what’s the best image size for [insert platform here]” with every post. In this article, you’ll find the ideal social media image sizes for nine popular platforms, focusing …

When I first started posting on LinkedIn consistently, I couldn’t understand why some posts were a huge hit and others flopped like soggy tacos. That is until I started monitoring my social media analytics. Suddenly, it all became much clearer: I had data that pointed to which hooks grabbed the most attention, what time got the most engagement, and what the ideal length for a post was. Everything clicked. The clues are out there for you too, right in your analytics. And they can guide your social media strategy in the right direction. But if you run multiple social media platforms, it can be hard to collate and stitch these insights together. Luckily, plenty of social me…

It goes without saying that managing multiple social media platforms — whether for yourself or for a brand — can mean some serious multitasking. On any given day, you are: Creating social media posts, repurposing existing content for socials, staying on top of trends across multiple platforms, reviewing your analytics for social media reporting, and so much more. If you’re a creator or a small business owner managing your social media presence yourself, all of this is in addition to running your business. Luckily, there are plenty of social media management tools to take some of the tasks off your to-do list — and make all that work a little more fun. These are the 11 …

While it’s entirely possible to have a strong social media marketing strategy without a stack of tools, the right ones can make your life a lot easier. With social media more fragmented than ever — new platforms popping up, AI reshaping content creation, and algorithms constantly shifting — there's a lot to keep up with. Social media marketing tools can help you create content, schedule posts, engage with your audience, analyze performance, study competitors, keep up with trends, search influencers … phew, I could go on. Whether you’re flying solo or working with a team, having a few good tools in your toolbox can save time and help you focus on what really matters: creat…

Every year brings a fresh wave of headlines and bold predictions about what social media is about to become. A new platform. A new format. A new rulebook we’re all meant to learn overnight. But when you zoom out, the underlying dynamics don’t actually change all that much. ✅ Creators want more ownership. ✅ Audiences are more precious about what they give their trust and attention. ✅ Platforms are making updates and changes. I’ve been working in and around the creator economy long enough to recognize these patterns when they keep showing up. I see them as a consumer, through my work at Buffer, and as a creator who’s increasingly embedded in the space myself. That’s why thi…

I took my first foray back into AI video generators when the first version of this article came out in mid-2024. I was pretty impressed with what was on offer at the time, but my initial assessment was that, while there were some helpful AI-driven features in the world of video, nothing could really change the game for me just yet. As I updated this article in 2025, let me tell you — I’ve just had my socks knocked off by some absolutely incredible AI video generators and tools. What's pretty cool, too, is that there is a huge spectrum of functionality when it comes to AI video generators, too. The artificial intelligence tools on this list can do everything from helping y…

No one likes to be left on ‘seen’ — not your friends, not your partner, and definitely not your social media community. Social media monitoring is the process of tracking your brand mentions, post comments, and direct messages (DMs) on all major social media channels. Sounds simple, right? Reply to every comment, DM, and brand mention you receive. But messages start slipping through the cracks as your social media presence expands. Maybe you’re on many social media channels, and it’s hard to respond everywhere promptlyMaybe your social followers have ballooned rapidly (yay!), and the number of messages and customer queries you receive is piling by the minuteMaybe you’re h…

The use of AI to generate weird and wonderful imagery is definitely one of my favorite applications of the cutting-edge tech. I've tested out AI writing tools and AI productivity tools, but putting the host of AI image generator through their paces was hands-down the most fun I've had in testing tools in ages (and I love testing tools). As with other AI tools, there's no shortage of artificial intelligence image generators on the market. I'm sure by the time this article is published, about 35 more will have just launched. ❗Looking for Pablo? We've sunsetted Pablo, Remix, and Stories Creator (more on that here), but the AI tools on this list might help!By now, we all kno…

Social media marketing is more complicated than ever. You need a proper strategy, content creation skills, copywriting formulas in your back pocket, and a knack for tying it all together. It doesn’t hurt to borrow the hard-earned lessons of industry experts who’ve come before you. Here are the top 12 courses to improve your social media marketing skills. Some of these courses are free. But even the paid courses are worth every penny, I promise. There are two types of courses on this list: Cohort-based courses: These courses have a fixed start and end date. You’ll work through the material in real time with other students and your instructor(s). These courses are excellen…

When your to-do list is already longer than a TikTok scroll, hopping between apps to schedule social media posts is the fastest way to lose focus. That’s why the smartest creators and marketers rely on social media scheduling tools to batch content, stay visible, and actually log off. I used to publish on the fly too, but I’ve been converted to content batching. And after testing a dozen schedulers, I found what really matters — and what doesn’t. Today, planning content in advance lets me stay visible on most social media platforms, reclaim evenings for real life, and still hit my growth goals. In this guide, you’ll find the media scheduling tools that make that possible,…

There are many factors to consider when it comes to posting on Instagram — but the one that often feels like a make-or-break decision is what time to post your content. It's a fair concern — the last thing you want is to spend the time and resources needed to create a showstopper piece of content only to post it in a social media dead zone that results in… crickets. Sharing Instagram Stories, reels, feed posts, and carousels at optimal times for reach and engagement is an important consideration in your social media strategy. If your content immediately makes it to your target audience's feed while they're around to engage with it, it's more likely to succeed. That's why…

After digging into millions of posts sent through Buffer, we’ve pinpointed the best time to post on all major social platforms for maximum engagement and reach — LinkedIn included. Discovering the best time to post on LinkedIn was particularly fascinating. While most other social media platforms can be pretty unpredictable, with ebbs and flows in activity happening at random times of the day, LinkedIn’s high-engagement time slots are like clockwork. I’ll be honest: this is a nice change of pace compared to the unpredictability of social media in general! It makes sense, of course — LinkedIn’s primary purpose is to connect professionals, and many users need to log on daily…