Tools for Marketing and Content Creation

A statement that definitely won’t surprise you: TikTok’s algorithm seems to prioritize videos that keep users on the platform for longer. But here’s a follow-up that might: That means videos longer than a minute tend to get more views and watch time than their shorter counterparts. When we set out to uncover what TikTok video length performed the best, I certainly didn’t expect it to be longer videos. Because when you think TikTok success, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Fast-paced, snappy, short and sweet videos, right? Turns out the TikTok algorithm might be flipping the script a little. According to our analysis of more than 1 million TikToks (1.1 million, t…

Meta has announced a new mobile video editing app called Edits, which will be available in app stores in February 2025. The announcement comes hot on the heels of ByteDance's CapCut temporary removal from major app stores as part of the TikTok ban, leaving creators scrambling for alternatives. The timing is no coincidence, of course. Meta has a history of making strategic moves to fill market gaps. Remember when they launched Instagram Reels right after TikTok's ban in India? Or how Threads emerged as X (formerly Twitter) was going through changes? Still, the news will be a welcome surprise to Instagram Reels creators — particularly since it looks like it’s going to be a …

With each new year, come new possibilities. You’ve probably already set goals to tap into that fresh energy that comes with a change of the calendar. If one of those goals is to grow on social media in 2025, you’re in the right place. We believe new habits take work — and content creation is no exception. It’s not as easy as picking up a phone, despite what some success stories might have you believe. You need systems and structures to build something sustainable. That’s where Creator Camp comes in. Creator Camp is a free 30-day community challenge to help you build consistent social media habits while developing your brand and connecting with fellow creators. We had over…

Great experiences rarely come from one big moment. They’re built through hundreds of small details that add up over time. That idea guided how we spent some time this year focusing on customer experience at Buffer. Customer Experience Week was our first dedicated, cross-functional sprint centered entirely on how Buffer feels to use. We took advantage of the natural slowdown at the end of the year to form small teams, each focused on one improvement they believed they could meaningfully ship in a short window. This wasn’t our first experiment with focused building time. We’ve run initiatives like Build Week in 2022 and 2023, where teams explored new ideas and shipped exper…

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…

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…

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 …

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 …

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…

At Buffer, we recently embarked on an ambitious project: uncovering the best time to post on social media in 2025 — across all major platforms. We pored over millions of posts, reels, TikToks, shorts, videos, and more to pinpoint when the best-performing content was published. We analyzed the data here in one of two ways: To predict the best time to post on Facebook, LinkedIn, and X, we looked at the timeslots with the highest median social media engagement on each platform. To predict the best times to post on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, we looked at median reach and video views. In both cases, we found some clear patterns — and can make some clear recommendations on…

If you’ve been around here a while, you’ll know that crunching the numbers to figure out the best time to post on all major social media platforms is basically our love language. And now we have enough data to add Threads to our roster, too! Because even though Threads uses an algorithm to decide what you (and your target audience) sees in the feed, when you post still has an impact. And now we have the data to prove it. We analyzed hundreds of thousands of Threads posts sent through Buffer — 730K posts, to be precise — to figure out if some time slots stood out in terms of post performance. (Spoiler: there were a few.) Our primary metric for this study was median engagem…