What is Bufferapp?

What is Bufferapp?

According to the makers of Bufferapp it empowers you to be “Awesome on social media. Easily add great articles, pictures and videos to your Buffer and we automagically share them for you through the day!”

Bufferapp is a social media management, automation and measurement tool that can be used with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.


How does it work?

You create an account that’s linked to all your social networks you wish to update.
Next, create social media updates, at a time convenient for you.  Add them all to your buffer and then these are sent at at pre-set times throughout the day, week and month.

What does it look like?

Bufferapp Dashboard - Add your updates

Benefits of Bufferapp

1. More control - You choose when you’d like to create your updates

For example, if you only have one admin day per week, you could do all your updates on that day.

2. Don’t bombard your followers - Your updates are posted at regular times throughout the day – not all at once

For example, sometimes if you have half an hour free to read and research your industry – you may find lots of possible content.  You can save these to your buffer out then have the posts spread out evenly

3. Optimum response – you can choose when your updates go out – these can be different for each social network.

For example, the optimal time that people read and share updates in LinkedIn could be between 9.00 – 10.00am.  The optimal time people read, reply and share on twitter might be 7 – 8pm in the evening.

How do I get started?

If you would like to give Bufferapp.com a whirl simply create your account with one of your existing Social Media Accounts and start adding helpful, relevant information with your social media audience.

• Perhaps you've got a social media management tool or app that you've found really useful?  If so I would love to hear about it and how it helped you in your business.
  
• Do you need help creating a social media strategy for your business which will enable your staff to use Social Media effectively?  Yes? Check out my flexible social media training courses...

Connecting With Journalists on Twitter

Introducing our first guest blogger Belinda Bull, owner of the increasingly successful Net2Nana online gift shop for mums, grandmas or any lady who deserves a fabulous treat.

Just 12 months ago Belinda started using Twitter and one of her main objectives was she wanted magazine articles about her new online business published in a selection of relevant, targeted publications.

12 months on she reflects on what worked well and shares these tops tips with you.

The recently published 4th Annual Digital Journalism Study showed that 47% of journalists used Twitter “as a source”. With this information to hand we really can’t afford not to build relationships with journalists and let them help us promote our businesses.

So here are my top 10 tips to make sure you are using Twitter to it’s full advantage.

1. Make sure your Twitter profile reflects what you want your business to be known for and what your area of expertise is.
2. Raise your Twitter profile, become known as an expert in your field and make it easy for journalists to find you as well as you finding them.
3. It’s never too soon to start building relationships with journalists on Twitter, plenty of companies start tweeting weeks before they even officially launch. Even once you have a built up a rapport with a journalist they can be working several months ahead so the time to start working on having your product/company featured in a publication may be up to 12 months in advance.
4. Use and love hashtags – #journorequest, #mediarequest etc. but add one to any tweet that you want journalists searching for info on a particular subject to find.
5. Be prepared to do some unpaid, uncredited work for a journalist before they run a great feature on you! I supplied one writer with a couple of quotes before she pitched my story to an editor, my reward was a fab 500 word article about my company complete with photos and links to my website.
6. Follow all the journalists connected to your field, chat, tweet, retweet and communicate with them. Don’t be too upset if some don’t follow you back.
7. Everyone loves to be flattered so if they make any relevant tweets about your industry acknowledge this by retweeting (RT) them.
8. If you write a piece on a blog make sure you put a link to it on Twitter, it’s a great way to expose your writing to a wider audience and raise your profile as an expert.
9. Similarly, if you write a press release provide a link and tag it with #journorequest, ask journalists if they’d like you to email them a copy. This is so much better than sending unsolicited press releases.
10. Don’t forget it’s a two way deal, the journalists want plenty of new, lively, interesting, informative copy to fill their publications and you want publicity for your company!

I also feel I should mention media strategist Michelle Drapeau, Twitter name @Lexi_Pop, a lovely lady who’ve I’ve got to know through Twitter, her blog www.lexipop.co.uk provides free information to help businesses gain publicity in the press The Writing Shop.

Enjoy connecting on Twitter and you’ll be surprised what you can achieve with 140 characters! I’d love to know about your experiences too.

Belinda Bull - Net2Nana

Look out for Net2Nana in next months Best magazine July 2011 & Essentials August 2011.