Buffer in 2022: 51 Features To Help You Grow Your Audience

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Since I joined Buffer in 2015, the product has come a long ways. We’ve integrated TikTok and Canva with Buffer in the last twelve months. Buffer is more than just a social media scheduling tool.

This post will cover all the Buffer features and integrations that you can use to increase your audience on social media in 2022.

Let’s grab a cold beverage and get started!

What channels will Buffer support in 2022

Buffer allows you to create, plan, and schedule content for the following channels at present:

• Instagram.
• Facebook.
• Twitter.
• LinkedIn.
• TikTok.
• Google Business Profiles
• Pinterest.

To analyze your Shopify store data and your social data, you can connect your Shopify account with Buffer.

Buffer’s beauty is its ability to share and manage content across multiple channels.

Instagram

You can schedule posts, reels and stories for your Instagram business account.

Facebook

Scheduling is available on Facebook Groups and Pages.

Twitter

Schedule tweets, retweets and quote tweets (QTs), to your Twitter profile.

LinkedIn

Schedule content for LinkedIn Pages (company pages), or personal profiles.

TikTok

TikTok business accounts can be scheduled with videos.

Google

Google Business Profiles allows you to schedule updates, offers, or events.

Pinterest

Pins can be scheduled to your pinboards.

Buffer allows auto-publishing on all channels except Instagram Stories. Buffer’s mobile app allows you to schedule stories. Buffer will also send push notifications when it is time to add to your story. This will allow you to finish the post in Instagram.

Content planning

Marketing without a plan can be likened to cooking without a recipe. While you might be able to create content quickly and it will work, for most people knowing what to post when and where is key to success.

These are the features that Buffer offers to help you plan your content and feed your audience quality content.

Queue view

You can visualize all content that you have planned for a channel by using the queue. It’s like a conveyor belt for all your posts. This is a great way to schedule evergreen content that doesn’t have to be shared at a particular time or date. You can pause or shuffle your queue and move content into and out of your queue.

View the calendar

The calendar allows you to see all your content in either a weekly view or a monthly view. This calendar is useful for managing time-sensitive content and spotting gaps in your schedule. Filter your calendar to display drafts, scheduled posts and sent posts as well as posts that are still awaiting approval.

Campaigns

Campaign tags can be used to group content. If you have multiple pieces of content for a holiday promotion, you can create a Buffer campaign and add that tag to each of them.

Posting schedules

For every channel that you connect to Buffer, you can create pre-determined posting times. You might, for example, want to share to TikTok every other week but to Twitter at a specific time each day.

Content creation

What is the most difficult part of social media? Nine out of ten people will say that content creation is the hardest part of social media. This is where Buffer comes in.

Drafts

Have an idea you want to share but aren’t ready? You can save it as a draft to return to later.

Integration of content

Buffer allows you to import existing content from many places such as:

• Canva.
• Giphy.
• Google Drive
• Dropbox.
• OneDrive.
• Unsplash.

Other quick ways to add content quickly to Buffer

• Drag and drop files to your computer.
• To add content to your smartphone, use the Buffer mobile application
• You can add images and texts from any location on the internet using the Buffer browser extension
• Remix and Pablo are two of the free tools that Buffer offers to create images.
• To import content from spreadsheets, or any other app that saves content, use an automation tool such as Zapier or IFTTT
• To add content to your Buffer blog, use the WordPress plugin

Image editing

You can edit images created outside of Buffer with Canva or other integrations using the Buffer editor. You can crop, rotate and blur images, as well as enhance them.

Hashtag Manager

Buffer’s hashtag manager allows you to save and insert groups with your favourite hashtags when you post to Instagram. These can be added to your first comment.

Analytics

It goes without saying that if you don’t know how to measure it, it’s impossible to manage it. All paid plans include Buffer’s analytics suite.

Get in-depth insight on these channels that you have connected to Buffer.

• Facebook.
• Instagram.
• Twitter.
• LinkedIn.

Connect your Shopify store to Buffer and you will get insights into your customers and sales through social media.

Dashboard

The analytics home screen will display the top-level metrics for each of your channels. You can see your total audience, impressions and total engagement. This will also include:

• The most recent posts, as well as the reach and engagement rates for each post.
• Followers, impressions and engagement rates for each channel.
• These are links to your most recent reports

Analytics overview

Each channel offers its own set analytics that you can explore. Overview analytics charts your channel’s performance over a specified time period. It is possible to compare performance week-to-week, month-to month, or any other date range. You can also analyze performance using different metrics, such as followers, reach and comments.

Analytics after

Post analytics provides deeper insight into individual posts’ performance. This is a great way of evaluating the effectiveness of specific pieces. This includes analysis of the performance of your hashtags.

Posts Boosted

Buffer can help you track your Facebook and Instagram results if you are boosting them with ad spending.

Audience insights

Buffer can provide demographic data about your Facebook and Instagram audiences, including age, gender, and location. This data can be used to tailor your message and strategy to these people.

Answers

Are you wondering when is the best time to post? How often should you post? In the Answers section, Buffer offers quick and actionable insights for each channel.

Reports

Any chart can be added to an exportable report. This is great if you have interested clients or colleagues and need to share your results. If you want, you can add a summary and logo to your reports and export them as PDFs.

Shopify

You can connect Shopify to Buffer to see key statistics like top social referrals, customer lifetime values, and top-selling products.

Engagement

Social media is often called “social media” for a reason. Engaging in conversations is as important as publishing content when it comes to growing your brand. Buffer allows you to view all your unanswered Instagram and Facebook comments on one dashboard. The most important comments are highlighted so you can respond first.

Toggle between channels

A dropdown menu will appear for any Instagram or Facebook account you have connected with Buffer. Switching between accounts is easy.

Grid view

You will see your posts as thumbnail images in a grid view. This makes it easy for you to quickly review all of your past posts.

Summary of unanswered comments

You’ll find the total number and order of unanswered comment for this account above the grid.

Sentiment labels

Buffer uses machine-learning to identify the types of comments that need your attention. These include negative comments, orders/sales comments and questions. You’ll be notified if a comment is made on a post that matches any one of these sentiments in the grid view.

Hotkeys

Buffer offers a number of hotkeys that can be used to manage comments. This is particularly useful if there are a lot of replies.

• To mark comments as disregarded, use ‘Control + D’
• Use the Up key to return to the previous comment.
• To go to the next comment, press down key

Smart emojis

Buffer automatically offers a list of emojis that you can use when replying to comments. These are determined based on the number of replies you have made. If you use the Emoji a lot, it will be your default option. Buffer also allows you to reply quickly to comments.

Start Page

The term “link in your bio” is probably something you’re familiar with. A landing page that contains all your important links and the most recent content will make it easier for your audience to reach you beyond your social media accounts. Start Page allows you to quickly create a page that can be added to your bio.

Templates

Are you unsure where to start with page design? Buffer offers a variety of templates you can use to build your Start Page.

Select a URL to your page

The URL structure is what makes Start Page stand out from other link in-bio tools. Start Page places your brand first. For example, if your company is called Betty’s Burgers, your URL could be bettysburgers.start.page. Other tools typically relegate your brand to a page path; something like “manylinks.com/bettysburgers”.

Appearance

To make your page stand apart from the rest, choose your favorite theme, colors, or font packs.

Layout

Drag-and-drop is a simple way to change the layout of your webpage.

Blocks

To build a Start Page, you need to add “blocks of content”. You have a variety of options for blocks, from simple text blocks to embedded Spotify tracks. There are many types of blocks:

• Text.
• Link.
• Button.
• Image.
• Subheading.
• Social links
• Youtube video
• Spotify track
• Image gallery.

Statistic

Buffer keeps track of page views and clicks. These statistics can be found in the Statistics section of the page builder. Statistics include page views per day, week, and all-time, as well as links with the highest clicks and social link clicks.

Multiple pages

Buffer allows you to create multiple Start Pages. This is useful if your brand or side projects are multiple. Each will be counted as a channel in your subscription.

Mobile Apps

Buffer offers an iOS and Android app that allows you to publish and analyze content anywhere. These apps offer all of the core publishing features, as well as some exclusive mobile options. Siri shortcuts, queue count widgets and integration with Unsplash are just a few examples.

Buffer for iOS.

Buffer for Android.

There’s more to come! The roadmap

You can see all that is being explored right now on our transparent roadmap.

These are some of the new features coming soon.

Ideas

This is a new way to save content and work together on ideas.

Twitter Threads

Watch your engagement rise by scheduling Twitter threads

Start Page scheduling

Keep your page current with the most recent campaigns and content.

Start now for nothing

Buffer is now a great opportunity to give it a second spin if it’s been awhile since your last use.

Find out more about the subscription options available here.