Tools for Marketing and Content Creation

If you create content regularly, you understand the pressure to always be “on”. To be a conveyor belt of ideas. To be writing, filming, editing, posting, and engaging. It’s a lot! And then start the cycle all over again with each new post. Being a creator can sound like a dream job from the outside, but in reality, it can be exhausting. So it’s really not surprising to me that 52% of creators admit to experiencing burnout — I’m definitely one of them. If you're reading this, I’m guessing you get it too. What weighed down my brain wasn’t even the ‘creation’ part. It was the pressure to remember every single good idea (and the constant fear of losing one) that gave me crea…

Instagram has officially launched the feature folks have been clamoring for for years. Hello, shiny new repost button. 👋 Users have been reposting content on Instagram since the app's release, but with this new feature, they’ll no longer have to rely on screenshots and third-party tools to share the content they love. Even better: This new mechanic will ensure the original creator will get credit for their work. I’m pretty excited that Instagram took the time to perfect this. Because when done right, sharing Instagram content from your community, customers, or collaborators can help you celebrate them and stay consistent on the platform. Talk about a win-win. Whether you'…

“Work smarter, not harder” has always been one of my favorite phrases. But now that I’ve entered my working-mom-of-a-toddler era, it’s taken on a whole new meaning. I only have so many hours in a day, and if I want to have any semblance of free time, I need to make the most of them. Enter: these AI productivity tools, all of which help me streamline, automate, and optimize as much as possible. Some of them help me save hours of work, others a few minutes, while some just help me maintain my sanity — it all counts. Every second I save goes toward that glorious hour or two when my work is done, my daughter is snuggled up in bed, and I can cozy up with (read: pass out on) a…

Link sharing on social media is always an adventure. Some social media platforms make it easier than others — Instagram allows you to link directly from your Stories and in your bio — but adding a link to your TikTok bio is still a fiddly process. In this article, I’ll walk you through exactly how to add a link to your TikTok bio step by step, why it might not be working for you (and what you’ll need to do to overcome that), plus a way to direct your followers to multiple links with Buffer’s free link-in-bio tool. ⚡Plan, create, and schedule content to grow an engaged following with Buffer's TikTok scheduling and analytics tools. Jump to a section: Why a website link m…

Remember when social media content was limited to Facebook statuses and, er, “pokes?” Even a few years later, cutting-edge content was limited to a blurry photo with an oversaturated filter on Instagram. It seems bizarre now, given how much you can do with social media today. With the ever-growing list of platforms releasing new features daily, it's an exciting time to build a following online — but it's not an easy one. With the plethora of social media content options available every time you open your favorite app, it can be difficult to know what type of content your audience most wants to see. Short-form video? A carousel? A good old-fashioned selfie? Well, that all…

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…

LinkedIn used to be the place you'd dust off your resume and hunt for your next job. Today, that’s just a sliver of how people are using the social platform. A quick scroll now throws up founders building in public, creators sharing their wins, and hot takes on everything from positioning to pricing to — of course — AI. And while businesses are still hiring on LinkedIn, many are also pulling back the curtain to show what life inside their company really looks like. This evolution has opened up serious opportunities for both brands and creators. With over 1 billion users, LinkedIn has grown into a place where B2B professionals, creators, and businesses alike can grow thei…

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’ve been fortunate that we've closed down for the last week of the year for the last eight years that I’ve been at Buffer. We kicked off this at the end of 2016 and have kept up every year since then. Closing down for the last week of the year is an opportunity to pause and recharge. It’s like a reset, except across the whole company. I love telling people about this practice at Buffer because they have so many questions about how we continue to operate while closing down for a week. As we work with many small businesses and creators who can sometimes struggle with working over the holidays, it feels especially important to share how we’re going about this. So in thi…

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…

As a freelancer, I always wondered, “What would happen if I needed to take an extended medical leave?” I’m not the kind of person to take a month-long trip, and I’ve never taken more than 7-10 days off at a time (which requires meticulous planning ahead of time!). If I don’t work, my revenue is $0. I run a solo business, so my income is 100% dependent on me. So what would happen if I couldn’t work? Would my clients understand? Would my social media engagement take a nosedive? Would my business crumble? I found out this year when I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Not exactly what I was expecting. I needed brain surgery, and recovery was expected to take a minimum of six…

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…

You open Instagram to grab a trending audio for a reel. Just one quick thing. Two hours later, you're still scrolling. You haven't created anything. You haven't even saved the audio you meant to find. And now it's 10 p.m., and you're mentally exhausted — and a little sad, tbh — from consuming content instead of making it. (Seriously, why is Instagram's search function on the Explore page?) Oh, wait, that was me. Hi. 👋 High up on the list of Things I Do Not Have Time For (along with low-carb diets, marathons, and the new season of Stranger Things) is doomscrolling. I'm a mom with a full-time job, and I'm an active creator. I also have ADHD. For what it's worth, I actually …

If you’ve ever gotten lost in the rabbit hole of swiping through Instagram Stories, you know how compelling (and dare I say addictive) they can be. I’ve broken down their main benefits below: Increased engagementSimple setup and quick sharingFlexible creative toolsThe good news is that stories are incredibly easy to use. The challenge: that same ease-of-use means that you need to grab the attention of your viewer quickly because, as easy as it is to reach people, it’s just as easy to lose them. Thanks to Instagram Story Highlights (which are at the top of every profile), you can turn your temporary stories into evergreen content. Here are some genius story ideas (with ex…

TikTok LIVE is a blank canvas that creators and brands have adopted in different ways. Some creators stream games as they would on Twitch. Others perform or create content in real-time on the platform. Going live on TikTok can help you increase your engagement, reach new audiences, and grow your following. It’s also a great way to start monetizing your TikTok presence through TikTok Gifts. If you're curious about how to go live on TikTok, you'll need to meet some requirements for TikTok LIVE access: Have 1,000 followers, andBe older than 16 (18 if you want to monetize)Once you're there, you’re ready to start streaming! In this article, I’ll explain how to go live on TikT…

Social media shifts every year — with new features, algorithm changes, and more competition for attention. And a lot of it is beyond your control not what the algorithm prioritizes, nor what goes viral, nor how people respond to your content. However, you’re in luck: even with so much outside your influence, two actions you can do, remain reliable for growth: showing up consistently and engaging with the people who show up for you. In this guide, we’ll break down why these two actions matter, how to strengthen each aspect, and the additional layers, like how often to post, when to post, and what formats to prioritize, that can help you accelerate your results in 2026. Eng…

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…

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…

Landing paid partnerships as a creator doesn’t necessarily require a huge following — but it does require a professional influencer media kit. Many brands and companies are happy to work with creators and influencers with smaller followings, but they’ll likely want to see some proof of your metrics and professionalism before sending you a contract or products. Enter: a media kit. Media kits are essential for social media influencers looking to monetize their work, no matter their audience size, says Ayomi Samaraweera, former TikTok employee turned creator, now the founder of Canopy, an online community for creators. Ayomi would know — she landed her first deal with only …

I don’t need to harp on how amazing Instagram can be for your business. Of its 2 billion monthly active users ( 🤯), 44% purchase products on the platform weekly. That’s a lot of potential for brand awareness and revenue. The problem is that using Instagram for business can be a tad overwhelming — especially if you’re starting today. With its plenty of (very useful and interesting) features and rapid updates, you have to juggle many moving parts to be successful on this social media platform. That’s why you need this comprehensive guide on how to use Instagram for business. We’ll cover: How to set up your Instagram business account (skip if you’ve got one already)How to op…

I joined LinkedIn in 2020 as an eager freelance writer, but I didn’t get the hype. Everyone looked so polished, and I felt like I had nothing valuable to add. So I left, convinced the platform wasn’t for me. When I later niched down into SaaS writing, something shifted. My ideal clients — marketers, founders, content leads — were all active on LinkedIn. If I wanted to reach them, I had to show up here. At first, I wasn’t sure what to post or how to stay consistent. But five years after that first attempt, I’ve: Done a 90-day posting streak from January 1 to March 31, 2025Posted every weekday since thenRecently landed a freelance writing gig with Userpilot, through a refe…

Trends, launches, algorithm shifts, new platforms... As a social media manager or creator, there's a lot beyond your control. But there are some things you can plan for. And doing that makes creating space for the many spur-of-the-moment posts you’ll need to create in 2026 just a smidge easier. Enter: This comprehensive list of all major dates you might need to create content about, from January to December. Everything from key national holidays, culturally important dates, headline-making events, and tongue-in-cheek holidays. Superbowl LX? Dress Up Your Pet Day? Mother’s Day? It’s all here. Use this comprehensive list to mark what matters for your audience, pause during …

Most creators use Buffer to schedule posts. I turned it into a creativity lab — and in 90 days, my impressions tripled and my newsletter passed 1,700 subscribers. After 12 years of working at Netflix, I assumed I knew how to handle content systems. But stepping into the creator economy was a different game. I needed more than a scheduling tool — I needed a way to capture ideas as fast as they came to me. That’s when Buffer shifted from a scheduler into the missing piece of my creative process. With it, I built a system that turned scattered thoughts into consistent content. In 90 days, I went from 3,500 followers posting sporadically to reaching 100K+ people every month. …

LinkedIn’s algorithm has always been a bit of a mystery — until now. The LinkedIn team has been pulling back the curtain on the algorithm in interviews with Entrepreneur, talking about how it works and why going viral isn't the goal. We've looked at two: On the website, with Editor-in-Chief and VP of Content Development, Dan Roth, and Alice Xiong, Director of Product Management.On the podcast, with Senior Director and Executive Editor at LinkedIn News Laura Lorenzetti.In this article, we’ll highlight the key points from the team’s interviews about the LinkedIn algorithm and share practical tips for applying this knowledge to your content. Jump to a section: …

How do you really know if your likes, comments, and shares are “good enough”? It’s easy to stare at your own numbers in isolation and feel unsure. Sometimes, your social performance only makes sense when you can stack it up against businesses similar to yours. In this article, I’ll walk you through the latest social media benchmarks across five major platforms, giving you a clear, grounded sense of where you stand and where you can grow. I’ve used data from the following Buffer reports: Buffer’s best times to post on social media — which analyzed one million posts sent through BufferBuffer’s Instagram benchmarks — calculated using aggregated data from over 27 million post…