Tools for Marketing and Content Creation

X has been more open lately about how its algorithm works. In its own documentation, the platform notes that engagement is the strongest signal for visibility — replies, profile clicks, and dwell time top the list — but Premium subscribers also get an extra lift. In a recent breakdown from Social Media Today on the X algorithm, verified accounts (which come with a Premium subscription) benefit from this boost, alongside other factors like video watch time and conversation depth. On the flip side, link posts, all-caps updates, and “offensive” content see sharp penalties. In other words, X has made it clear: if you want reach, you need to be engaging and verified. This insi…

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 …

Social media was never just a one-way broadcast channel. A holistic social media strategy includes creating useful, entertaining content and building a community. But you can’t connect with your audience if you’re not responding to comments, ignoring direct messages (DMs), and skipping brand mentions. If you’re here, you already understand why engagement matters. Most creators and small business owners struggle with: Lack of time to reply and engageScattered notifications on multiple platformsAbsence of systems makes engaging feel overwhelmingThat’s where social media engagement tools come in. They help you stay on top of your notifications across channels, collaborate wi…

I used to treat comments like notifications I needed to just… clear. See comment > reply if I had time > move on. But when I crossed 10,000 followers on LinkedIn — a platform where genuine community building can have benefits way beyond engagement metrics — I knew I was not doing my audience (and myself) justice. Many of my creator teammates were running into similar issues, especially if they were active on multiple platforms. Replying to comments can be pretty time-consuming. You're jumping between apps, missing notifications, and losing track of conversations. Plus, you’re missing out on the powerful engagement boost that comes with actively responding to comme…

“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…

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” I bet you’ve heard this one from Peter Drucker, one of the best-known thinkers and writers on the subject of management theory. And maybe that’s why you’re here: You know that growing on TikTok isn’t just about posting videos — you need to dig into the data to see what actually works. But, if you’re anything like me, when you first open the TikTok analytics tab, it feels like staring at a spaceship dashboard. Numbers, charts, percentages … Where do you even start? The good news is that you don’t need to measure everything; it’s more important to measure the right things based on your goals. The magic happens when you focus …

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…

Until fairly recently, I admit that YouTube Shorts weren’t a priority in my social media mix. Then I scheduled a YouTube Short for a Buffer blog I was writing, and happened to check the analytics. 1,436 views in just a few days — that’s more than all my other videos combined. Taking a deeper look at my analytics, it’s clear that YouTube Shorts are doing all the heavy lifting: This power performance of these bite-sized videos is not just anecdotal. According to Buffer’s data, engagement on YouTube Shorts is on the rise (from 3.95% to 4.71%), with usage skyrocketing from 5.6K to 147K in just 18 months. YouTube Shorts offer a unique opportunity for creators to reach a wide…

At Buffer, we build with customers, not just for them. If you’ve seen my LinkedIn posts asking for quick chats, that’s why. Real conversations sharpen our product thinking, so whenever we start exploring a new idea, we talk to the people using Buffer every day. As a product manager focused on how our users create content, these conversations are particularly helpful in understanding how users come up with ideas and where Buffer fits into their workflows. As we explored improvements to Buffer’s content creation and scheduling experience, I spoke with 30+ users across industries and goals: solopreneurs, team managers, and creators growing personal brands. We wanted to unde…

What if you could read your audience’s mind? You could create the products your customers need, improve your profits, and save many hours. You’d become the creator or brand that just “gets it.” Ding, ding, ding! Your wish is granted. 🧞 There is a way to keep your pulse on the market and proactively anticipate what your audience wants — through social listening. What is social listening?Social listening is observing what your audience is saying about your brand and industry online to understand their needs. Let’s say you’re a skincare company. You want to launch a new product but have no idea what your audience is struggling with. Along with interviewing your current custo…

Dark Mode is now available in Buffer! And we timed it perfectly for spooky season. This has been our second most-requested feature, with 352 upvotes from our community. We heard you loud and clear, and we're thrilled to have it ready for you! As a creator, you know the feeling: it's late at night, inspiration hits, and you're ready to plan your content for the week. Or maybe it's early morning, and you're catching up on comments before the day begins. Dark Mode is designed for precisely these in-the-zone moments. It's about creating a calm, comfortable workspace that protects your focus and reduces eye strain. More than just flipping a switchWhen we set out to create Dark…

Since its launch in July 2023, Threads has gone from Meta’s “what if” project to one of the most talked-about social media platforms in the world. What started as an alternative to Twitter/X has found its own rhythm. It now attracts millions of active users, sparks cultural moments, and gives both creators and brands another space to join the conversations that matter most — no matter how niche. In fact, thanks to its growing popularity and the allure of uncharted territory, I’ve kick-started a project to grow to 1,000 followers on the platform by December 2025. Now, you may be wondering — why is Threads so buzzy? What makes it different from other text-first platforms? A…

One of the most common questions creators and brands ask: “Is my engagement rate good?” The answer depends on your follower count. A 5% engagement rate looks very different for a neighborhood café with 500 fans than for a news publisher with half a million. That’s why we analyzed 52 million Facebook posts across 213,000 accounts with over 6.9 billion engagements collectively, to see how engagement rates shift by follower tier. The result was a clear picture of what “good” looks like — from under 1,000 followers all the way up to 1 million or more. ⚡ Want to explore more metrics like reach, posting frequency, and growth rate? Check out our Facebook benchmarks tool. 🔢 The a…

I deleted my 7K LinkedIn account and five months later, I was back to 4.5K followers and 416K impressions. Deleting an account I’d spent months building felt reckless, but it ended up being the reset I didn’t know I needed. In January 2025, I started from zero. Five months later, my new account had multiple viral posts, over nearly half a million impressions, and a growing network that finally felt aligned with the kind of work I wanted to do. My LinkedIn analytics This is the story of how I rebuilt my presence from scratch — and the systems that helped me grow faster, with more clarity, the second time around. Let’s go! My first LinkedIn account and why I deleted itI joi…

If there were any app that was ✨ not like other social media apps ✨ it’d be TikTok. Its casual, fun, and off-the-cuff nature makes it one of the best places to find your tribe and build a community. And it’s also great for monetization. TikTok offers various ways to earn money, whether you’re a creator or a small business. The app has crossed $15 billion (yes, that’s a B!) in lifetime global consumer spending across the Google Play and iOS App Store. But as great as TikTok is, it can also be overwhelming. Determining a niche, staying on top of trends, understanding the algorithm, experimenting with various content types…there’s a lot to do. How do you string all of these…

Having a strong LinkedIn game is no longer an option. What we’re witnessing in today’s tough economy is the inevitable rise of social selling. This trend leverages social media platforms to build connections and establish meaningful relationships with potential business prospects — and when it comes to social selling, LinkedIn is the MVP. The reality is that the best LinkedIn users are marketing machines. They use the platform as a content distribution system, not a resume builder. This is your street credibility and personal brand all rolled into one. It’s the first impression you’ll make on prospective employers, clients, partners, or investors — so make it count. My ow…

Every few months, we take stock of the quiet progress happening across Buffer. These aren’t flashy features or full-on launches — but they’re the kinds of updates that make everything feel smoother. Lately, the Buffer team has been doubling down on quality (alongside all the headline-grabbing stuff). Here's a look at all the small changes and quality-of-life improvements you'll now find in your Buffer dashboard. How we’ve been improving quality at BufferBug fixes and small improvements have always been part of the job. But we're a small team, and in the past, they sometimes had to compete with bigger feature projects. Recently, two teammates — Adam, our Senior Escalation…

I recently wrote about hitting 20,000 followers on LinkedIn and what comes next. In that article, I shared that Threads would be my next frontier, and now, I want to share why and how I plan to make it so. After years of posting within a structured framework on LinkedIn, I started wondering what would happen if I loosened the rules. I’ve tested formats, frequency, and monetization, but always through the lens of performance. I didn’t want to move into a new phase of growth using the same tactics. What if I treated content less like a system to optimize and more like a sandbox to play in? And so, the Proof of Concept series was born, and with it, my first experiment: growi…

For years, creators have shared the same warning: “Don’t post links — they’ll harm your reach.” But numbers to back it up have been hard to come by. That’s what we set out to test, this time on X, formerly known as Twitter. With the help of our data scientist Julian Winternheimer, we dug into 18.8 million posts from 71,000 X accounts, and the results are clear: links really do hurt performance. For creators and brands who rely on sharing links as part of their content strategy, the data points to something bigger than a small algorithm tweak. Let’s get into the numbers. 💡If you’re interested in seeing Julian’s analysis, check out his blog for a deep dive.Do posts with lin…

After almost a decade of creating and a few years of working remotely, becoming a mom in mid-2024 made consistency and work-life balance my biggest challenges. Before I knew it, I was burnt out, questioning myself, and barely staying productive. TL;DR: I found myself spiralling, and it felt like the walls were closing in on me. If you’re a creator, small business owner, or marketer juggling remote work and parenting, you know exactly what I mean. Thankfully, this season didn’t last too long. After a few messy months, I found a simple system—including some smart outsourcing—that now helps me: Post 2-5 times a week across LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTubeGrow my au…

Spend five minutes on the “how to grow” side of TikTok, and you’ll quickly learn one thing: if you’re not posting multiple times a day, you’re doing it wrong. Or so the algorithm experts say. As a fledgling TikTok creator, I’ve always been a bit sceptical of this advice. I managed to build a small audience within about a year by posting a couple of times a month, rather than daily. But… would I have been able to get more views on TikTok if I had? I put the question to Buffer’s data scientist, Julian Winternheimer. And because he never does anything by halves, Julian analyzed a massive dataset to find the answer: 11.4 million TikTok posts from over 150,000 accounts. We (b…

If you're on the hunt for a social media management tool, chances are that Buffer and Hootsuite are some of the first names that pop up — with good reason. These two options are among the best, and both come packed with features to make social media management easy and help you grow your following. So, which one is best? It's an interesting question without a straightforward answer. Perhaps a better question would be: Which social media management tool is right for you? While both Buffer and Hootsuite offer similar core features — social media management, scheduling, and analytics — they were built with pretty different users in mind. Generally speaking, Buffer serves sm…

At Buffer, security has always been a balance: keeping our customers’ accounts safe while making login as seamless as possible for our global user base. A few months ago, we made a decision that might sound surprising — we removed SMS-based two-factor authentication (2FA) and moved fully to email-based verification. It wasn’t a change we took lightly. SMS has long been seen as the standard for 2FA. But over time, the drawbacks began to outweigh the benefits. Here’s the story of how we got there, what the transition looked like, and what we’ve seen since. Why we moved away from SMSSMS-based 2FA has long been considered a security standard, but our team discovered several c…

The social media management tool you choose can set the tone for how you grow your presence. You want it to be easy and flexible — without stretching your budget. Buffer and Later are two names you’ll see often, each offering different ways to help you schedule posts, connect with your audience, and analyze performance. If you’re weighing your options between Buffer and Later, you’re in the right place. The key differences and similarities to look for between them are: Jump to a section: Buffer vs. Later features overview Plans and pricing Social media scheduling and planning Capturing ideas and planning content Social media engagement Soci…

As a marketer, you might have heard that Gen Z prefers TikTok, Instagram is trendier and so on. But Facebook is far from flailing. It’s the biggest social network in the world — by a large margin. Gen Z prefers TikTok, Instagram is trendier, and new platforms are emerging to capture attention. But the data says different: Facebook isn’t merely hanging on, it’s the biggest social network in the world. With over 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook sits at the center of Meta’s ecosystem and is one of the most important channels for marketers thanks to its highly effective ads. Its user base spans nearly every demographic and region, making it a platform that businesses …