Buffer Reviews | Clutch.co

Reviews

4.4

17 reviews

Submit Review

the review

Client Interview

Oct 20 2016

Time Saving and More Impressions with Buffer

"Buffer is a time saver, and puts our old content in front of more people. It's a simple tool, in a good way."

Oct 20, 2016

Recommendations

A digital marketing agency uses Buffer to save time in automating social media marketing and to identify top performing posts to repost and get more impressions out of them. They really like its simplicity and ease of use.

5.0

Features:

3.0

Ease of use:

5.0

Support:

n/a

Willing to refer:

5.0

the reviewer

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Chicago Metro Area

Digital Marketing Strategist, Marketing Agency

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Chicago Metro Area

Verified

Digital Marketing Strategist, Marketing Agency

Verified

Recommendations

Background

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an SEO [search engine optimization] and inbound PPC [pay-per-click] digital marketing agency in Chicago. We work with clients that want better visibility online either through SEO or PPC and/or want to increase their visibility as well as increasing their web conversions and leads.

As our Digital Marketing Strategist, I work on both the client side and our company marketing, anything from SEO clients and inbound clients.

What was the business challenge your company was facing that initiated the need for Buffer?

We use it as a time saver for social media marketing. We use Hootsuite internally as well because SharpSpring doesn't have a social component to it. Then for my clients, if they're using HubSpot, I always recommend Buffer because Hootsuite is very good at scheduling things but they're not great at automating that scheduling.

Solution

How does your company implement this platform or software?

There's a lot of marketing out there about putting out and exposing your content a lot more but there is a tipping point to that. We use Buffer to regenerate posts that we know are winners. We're going to take our best content, take our best posts to go along with that content and schedule it out every other week, every two weeks, every month even and it has the capability to lighten the load and continue to expose content that maybe would have seen its way out of your promotion cycle otherwise.

We have Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn attached to it.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why Buffer?

We did, and we use Hootsuite as well. I think Hootsuite's support, even if you pay for them, is not the best. Whereas Buffer, their analytics are simple but I think they're intuitive and their helpful. They show you what's working and what isn't. Again, if my job is to just take the new content and promote it initially, get it out there through one promotion cycle, I'd rather take that time away from my client's plate and just have them schedule 10 posts in Buffer that we know are winners and get more eyes on that content over the next few months. That way, you're only updating it once every month or so as opposed to keeping a lot of content, what did I post when, what content works, do I need to post again.

I just think they make your life a little bit easier as a marketer, to continue to re-share content that you've created.

Results

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I have one client that ran one of the blogs that we wrote, and it was the best e-book to date that we had done for them. I think it had 50 downloads in a month. When running that blog and continuing to put that in front of new eyes, it got more downloads than even organic search on that blog. That was a nice win for us.

Whereas everyone who's working on SEO campaigns for our clients and trying to send traffic to them through organic search, a large content piece is through your owned media, again, promotion cycle. Organic is the only thing you have left to rely on as far as getting eyes on that old content. Surprisingly, it ended up getting them more downloads and more eyes on the content than the organic campaign that we're running.

Features

What would you say is the best thing about Buffer?

Buffer is a time saver and puts our old content in front of more people. It's a simple tool, in a good way.

Looking back, are there any areas you feel could be added to or improved?

No. I feel it being simple and easy to use is a win for Buffer. I wouldn't want to see it decluttered or added in any complexity. It works for me!

Have you had to interact with their support team or reference their support resources?

I haven't so I can't comment on their support.

5.0

Overall Score

3.0 Features

5.0 Ease of Use

N/A Support

5.0 Willing to Refer

the review

Client Interview

Aug 23 2016

Social Media Automation with Buffer

"The design is the fundamental thing that makes Buffer so simple and useful."

Aug 23, 2016

Recommendations

A marketing agency uses Buffer to manage their social media accounts, as well as their clients'. They like that Buffer has a very simple design, which makes it easy to use. While it is an adequate platform for them now, Buffer's analytics could be more complex.

4.5

Features:

4.0

Ease of use:

5.0

Support:

n/a

Willing to refer:

5.0

the reviewer

$0 - $50/mo. spend

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Greater Chicago Area

Senior Copywriter, BatesMeron Sweet Design

Josh Ferguson

$0 - $50/mo. spend

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Greater Chicago Area

Verified

Senior Copywriter, BatesMeron Sweet Design

Josh Ferguson

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Background
Solution
Features
Ratings

Background

Introduce your business and what you do there.

BatesMeron is a design, marketing, and branding agency. We’re basically a full-service creative agency.

I am the Senior Copywriter here and also the person in charge of content for our personal social media properties.

What was the business challenge your clients were facing that initiated the need for this platform?

Before I came on, there was an existing social media strategy here, and it was working for some platforms, but not for all. Things like Twitter were getting left by the wayside because of the frequency with which you need to be trying to populate content. Part of that was because we were using Hootsuite at the time, which I feel is certainly not the most user-friendly platform for aggregating your social media management. I suggested that we move away from Hootsuite and transfer over to Buffer because it’s a cleaner interface and easier to program without having to also do an additional offline content calendar.

Solution

How does your company implement this platform or software?

We keep it very straightforward. Basically, the way that it works from start to finish for us, is that we maintain both an ongoing blog and a digital portfolio on our own website and then we use our social media channels to share that content. We have Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn connected to Buffer. We also do Instagram, but we still do that manually. We do have a business account with them, but we’ve got the most basic one, which allows us to schedule out posts for at least up to 30 days; I can’t remember what the difference between the two is.

We monitor analytics, but really we are just hoping to stay active and maintain a consistent presence. That’s the baseline goal. If we’re going to be on these platforms, we just want to make sure that our presence is consistent. For us, especially, it’s never something that we would recommend to our brands or our customers: that if they were going to enter into the social media sphere, that they sign up for all of the different platforms and then only manage to keep one or two of them consistently up to date, in order to avoid having a potential customer show up at your Twitter account that you haven’t Tweeted since 2013. That looks worse than you not being there at all. We, of course, apply that same philosophy to ourselves. When I took over, the decision was: “do we eliminate platforms?” or “do we manage to keep them all consistent and just in a very straightforward fashion?”. Buffer is what allows us to do that most manageably.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

There was another option that we looked at, but I was familiar with Buffer already. Again, I think that the others are offering a lot of bells and whistles, which is probably great for some people.

Features

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?

For me, the ease of using it. qThe design is the fundamental thing that makes Buffer so simple and useful. Their user interface is just beyond Hootsuite. Just for the simplicity of what we’re trying to do, your feed looks like a calendar, it’s just dates and spaces. I am able to go in and use the scheduling function to basically say: “I want to post three times a day on Twitter, I want to post twice a day on Facebook, and I want to post once a day on LinkedIn.” I can pick times for that based on research on when the best times to post are per platform, and then that’s going to spit out a content calendar for me that basically has blanks that I need to fill in. I can scroll through, and I can fill in the blanks with a mix of our blog posts, our portfolio pieces, and relevant content from around the web, or from people that we are connected with on these platforms that we can retweet or re-share or whatever the case may be. That creates the mix of the content that we provide.

Obviously, the streamline simplification is the main reason why we got it for, and that’s what it’s doing. It’s achieving that. That’s perfect. We definitely notice it, especially in Twitter where the fluctuation of gaining followers is so consistent when you’re actually posting content. On Facebook, you can have a profile and your profile will always have basic information and pictures about you. If someone is looking for you on social media, they can find you on Facebook and find out about you. Twitter is really only relevant to someone who’s looking for you if you keep up with it, and so we have seen a spike in our Twitter followers. Just in terms of feedback from clients, from the management structure here at BatesMeron, there’s definitely been a noticeable increase in interactions on all three platforms, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I think Twitter, especially since that was the trouble area, has seen the most improvement.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

I really think that at this point for us, there’s nothing glaring that comes to mind. It’s more a personal training on our end. I have no doubt that there are features that we are probably already paying for that we are not utilizing to the best of their potential, analytics being a big one of those. As we expand our social media capabilities and start offering those to our clients, we will focus more on analytics. That’s something that I feel is probably a deficiency for us as the users.

In the future, I may be able to speak more to the analytics power that Buffer offers and if that’s useful to measuring interactions for our client content. For us, like I was saying, it’s really just to maintain this presence. We use the base level business account because it suits our needs pretty perfectly actually. I battled with Hootsuite for about two weeks and was finally like: “you know what? There’s got to be a better way to do this”.

Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

I have not, but part of that may be because I did start using Buffer prior to coming in and implementing it here at the agency.

4.5

Overall Score

4.0 Features

I think the only reason that I don’t give them a 5 goes back to what I was saying before, and that’s that I have not fully explored all of the features that are available to us yet.

5.0 Ease of Use

Their interface is clean. It’s really stripped down. It feels more like a modern user interface in the way that Google is pushing things to go. Obviously, following Google’s lead is not a bad thing.

N/A Support

5.0 Willing to Refer

the review

Client Interview

Aug 22 2016

Efficient Social Media Management

"Buffer is definitely the cheapest and provides the best functionality for us."

Aug 22, 2016

Recommendations

A digital agency uses Buffer to manage all their social media accounts from one tool. They like that it is simple to use and that it shows them their top performing posts that they can easily share again, but Buffer's analytics are not very in-depth.

4.5

Features:

5.0

Ease of use:

5.0

Support:

n/a

Willing to refer:

5.0

the reviewer

$0 - $50/mo. spend

Internet

51-200 Employees

Falls Church, Virginia

Marketing Manager, Viget

Ben Travis

$0 - $50/mo. spend

Internet

51-200 Employees

Falls Church, Virginia

Verified

Marketing Manager, Viget

Ben Travis

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Background
Solution
Results
Features
Ratings

Background

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a digital agency. My role is marketing manager.

What was the business challenge your clients were facing that initiated the need for this platform?

Managing social media across different channels was the biggest thing and being able to do that in an efficient way.

Solution

How does your company implement this platform or software?

We use it to schedule all of our Twitter posts, our Facebook posts, all of our Linked In posts from our main account, and then we have a few different associated accounts. It's useful to have it all in one place. Then, we identify specific times throughout the week when we would like content to go out. If it's three times a day or three times a week, we have those set times. You're able to basically create a queue of content that goes out at specific times. You can keep loading posts into the queue.

I don't use the analytics very often. There is a feature that shows the posts that were engaged with the most, so that's cool. They call it re-buffering posts, but essentially reusing old posts that have performed well in the past. You're able to do that. With most of the analytics, I tend to use the native analytics platforms when I want to dive in a little bit deeper. I wouldn't say they particularly stand out, but that one feature of identifying the top posts that we could basically reuse is helpful.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

We were considering other ones. Buffer is definitely the cheapest and provides the best functionality for us. We're not a huge corporation, but we have a few different social channels that we need to keep pushing content on. For that, Buffer is a very good tool for us. We don't really need much more.

On an annual or monthly basis, how much does your company spend to utilize the platform?

I think we spend $10 a month or something pretty minimal.

Results

Do you have any results that you can share that came out of your use of Buffer?

I don't know if it contributed directly to the tool, but all of that has happened. We've been able to elevate and extend our reach. The biggest advantage is just basically saving me time.

Features

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?

rI like the ability to what they call re-buffer, but essentially reuse posts. That's helpful. The integration with the different platforms is pretty comprehensive in the sense that you can upload photos and videos, and tag people. Those are all added pluses and just having everything in one place saves me a lot of time every week.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

I'd love to be able to see more in terms of the analytics. I'd like to know what times of day are the best for posts. I'd like to know what kind of content gets the most engagement without having to mine through the data myself. I think those are areas of opportunity for Buffer.

Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

No.

4.5

Overall Score

5.0 Features

It does everything.

5.0 Ease of Use

N/A Support

I really haven't used any of their support or resources. I don't know if I could give a good answer on that one.

5.0 Willing to Refer

the review

Client Interview

Jul 15 2016

Time-Saving Social Tool

" I would say that by using Buffer and studying the analytics that tell you when people are on different networks, it's helped us know when to post to get more effective results."

Jul 15, 2016

Recommendations

The user is a design company that uses Buffer to simplify their social media marketing. They like that Buffer allows them to schedule posts on various channels ahead of time and that their analytics show the best time to post on each channel based on your audience. They recommend it to small businesses looking for a simple tool to manage few social accounts.

5.0

Features:

4.0

Ease of use:

5.0

Support:

5.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the reviewer

Design

1-10 Employees

Eugene, Oregon

Creative Director at JVM Design

Sherry Holub

Design

1-10 Employees

Eugene, Oregon

Verified

Creative Director at JVM Design

Sherry Holub

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Details
Ratings

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

JVM Design is a custom design company. We do graphic design and web design, but we also offer marketing services such as email marketing, social media marketing, and content marketing.

I am the Creative Director, and I founded the company back in 1995.

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge your clients were facing that initiated the need for this platform?

We were looking to advance-schedule content posts to social media networks.

SOLUTION

How does your company implement this platform or software?

We’ve plugged it into Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google. They just added Instagram, but you can only use it through their app because Instagram is just phone related. We haven’t really tried that, but they do now offer that. I use it to schedule, and then I also look at the analytics of it.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

We looked at Hootsuite, and we found that it was just overcomplicated and more suitable for maybe a company that specializes in running social media for their clients or something like that. We only have a couple of clients that we do that for, and then we use it ourselves for our own social media. We liked Buffer because it was simpler. It had the basic functions we needed. It had analytics and it had a way to schedule posts at certain days and times. That’s really all we needed, so that’s why we went with them.

FEATURES

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?

I love the simplicity of Buffer. They made it really easy to manage our social media.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

The only problem I’ve had with it personally is that sometimes you’ll go and try to post something and you’ll get an error message. That had instances where it just kept happening a lot, and I contacted their support. Their support recommended that we reconnect our connections, for example, if it was happening with Facebook, to just reconnect with Facebook and then it would stop. I don’t know if that’s a bug in their system or what, but that’s one small issue we’ve had with that. Other than that, it’s pretty smooth.

Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

Yes, and they got right back to me. Their support is pretty good.

RESULTS

Do you have any results that you can share of your use of Buffer?

For ourselves, it's a huge time-saver. Especially when I have different sources for the content I share, using Buffer saves me hours a week in just content marketing for our own business. That's the biggest benefit. For clients, I would say that by using Buffer and studying the analytics that tell you when people are on different networks, it's helped us know when to post to get more effective results.

Do you have any recommendations in using the tool?

Definitely do a little research about the times you post because you can get pretty specific with posting times for the different networks, which is cool. I would definitely make sure you set up times and dates and then pay attention to the analytics and see what's the best times are to post. Then you can change those to possibly get better results.

Who would you recommend Buffer to?

I would say if you're a marketing company that runs client’s social media campaigns, it might be better to go with something like Hootsuite than Buffer just because it's got more stuff to it and you can run more campaigns easily. I think Buffer is really more set up to just run one or two or just a handful of different clients' campaigns or different companies in there because I think it would get complicated if you wanted to keep adding more and more to it. I think we're on a plan where you can have three or four. I'm not sure if they have a plan that you can add a whole lot to, so I'd say it's more for small businesses that just have a single business or that are just running a few campaigns.

OVERVIEW

We ask you to rate the software on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best.

What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?

4 – They have everything we need, but I would think that a lot of people would think it might be a little stripped down for them.

What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

5 – As long as they’re not a company that’s running dozens of campaigns.

For overall satisfaction with the platform?

5.0

Overall Score

4.0 Features

5.0 Ease of Use

5.0 Support

5.0 Willing to Refer

the review

Client Interview

Jul 01 2016

Social Media Scheduling with Buffer

"It's intuitive from my perspective. I haven't had any issues with it, any downtime or posts gone missing, so I feel it's relatively stable."

Jul 01, 2016

Recommendations

The user is Sunlight Media, a digital agency. They use Buffer's free version to manage their social media and ensure that they always have content scheduled on their social queues. They like that it is easy to use and is very reliable, but would like it to offer more reminders to schedule content when it is running low. They highly recommend it as an intuitive and free way to manage social media.

4.0

Features:

5.0

Ease of use:

4.0

Support:

5.0

Willing to refer:

4.0

the reviewer

$0 - $50/mo. spend

Marketing and Advertising

1-10 Employees

Los Angeles, CA

CEO at Sunlight Media LLC

Angelo Frisina

$0 - $50/mo. spend

Marketing and Advertising

1-10 Employees

Los Angeles, CA

Verified

CEO at Sunlight Media LLC

Angelo Frisina

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Details
Ratings

BACKGROUND

Can you provide a brief description of your company?

I work for Sunlight Media LLC in Los Angeles. We do web design, development, Internet marketing services, mobile app development, and a little graphic design.

What role do you play there?

I'm the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge your clients were facing that initiated the need for this platform?

We were looking for an easy way to manage social media accounts, and make sure they were loaded up with content.

SOLUTION

How does your company implement this platform or software?

I use the free version, so it does come with some limitations in how many posts you can schedule. I think sometimes it can be limiting in the number of characters as well as syncing up with the various different platforms.

I sync it up with LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus. We schedule posts to go out a week or two in advance depending on how many we post. We try to add images to each post. I did at one point use the Pinterest feature, but was not interested in upgrading to include that. The free version at this point is good for us.

We use the analytics a little bit. I look through it and see how many clicks and comments there are. I don't use it a great deal, but I scan through it on occasion just to see what posts are getting the most reactions.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

It was recommended by my marketing team quite a while ago, and I used it and messed around with it a bit. I thought it was good, so I've stuck with it. I haven't tested any other platforms at this point, but this one does everything that we need.

How much does your company spend to utilize the platform?

I use the free version.

Do you have any results to share?

We've had a slight increase in page likes on Facebook. I haven't really seen any growth in the other channels, but I think it works best with Facebook. We've noticed a slight increase in the last three or four months.

FEATURES

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?

It's easy to sync up your accounts. It's just a point-and-click step, and you get the pop-up windows and log into your social platforms. I think that's a good feature. It's simple. It's intuitive from my perspective. I haven't had any issues with it, any downtime or posts gone missing, so I feel it's relatively stable.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

Perhaps they could add some reminders. I know if you don't post for a while, you get some kind of reminder saying you haven't scheduled any posts. I think they recently made some changes to their scheduling tool, which is better than in the past. It was a little difficult to try and figure out how to schedule posts in advance, but they've made some updates recently, which has made that a little bit more intuitive. It's a good thing.

Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

I haven't, not at this point. I haven't needed to, so I can't comment on that unfortunately.

4.0

Overall Score

5.0 Features

4.0 Ease of Use

5.0 Support

4.0 Willing to Refer

the review

Client Interview

May 24 2016

Optimized Scheduling and Timing with Buffer

"It’s not too often you find the level of transparency that Buffer offers. It develops a lot of trust, and we know that we are in good hands."

May 24, 2016

Recommendations

The user is Sachs Marketing Group, a digital marketing firm specializing in SEO [search engine optimization] and SEM [social media marketing]. They use Buffer to manage their clients' social media accounts by scheduling posts at optimal times suggested by Buffer and analyzing the campaigns. The user likes Buffer's transparency about their product, and their company and has had great experiences with their responsive support team. The user highly recommends Buffer to others.

5.0

Features:

5.0

Ease of use:

5.0

Support:

5.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the reviewer

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Los Angeles, CA

SEO Specialist at Sachs Marketing Group

Chris Rice

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Los Angeles, CA

Verified

SEO Specialist at Sachs Marketing Group

Chris Rice

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Details
Ratings

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your role there.

Sachs Marketing Group is a digital marketing firm specializing in SEO and SEM.

What is your position?

I am an SEO specialist.

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Buffer?

We like Buffer because it centralizes how we approach a campaign. It’s packed with a lot of functionality, which is pretty helpful between the optimal timing tool, time zone optimization, and all the analytics you can dig into. Our goal for our clients is to help them reach success online, especially in terms of extending their online reach. We find that Buffer provides us with the tools we need to track progress and develop growth for their brand online.

SOLUTION

How does your company implement this platform or software?

It depends on the client. For example, if it’s a local business, we sync their social channels and optimize the time zones. What’s nice about Buffer is that you can switch up the time zone, which ensures that your posts are shared at the optimal time. If it was all just one time zone or if you were just doing it from your specific time zone, but you have a client across the country, that could be a big mistake. Then you won’t be reaching their local customers when they’re most active.

That’s one thing that we’ll do, optimize the timing and also the frequency using the scheduling feature with Buffer. It allows you to set up how often you want to post during the day, the time zones, and you can even set up multiple, weekly schedules. As we develop content, we’ll add the content into Buffer and schedule it. Then from that point, it’s just about continuing to develop content and then tracking the analytics and optimizing what’s contributing to the overall reach. What’s nice about it is that you can jump into the analytics and see what’s most popular, what people are re-tweeting, liking, or replying to. You can even look into less popular content and try and take a second approach, not quite like A/B testing, but just revising a headline and scheduling it again, seeing if you can reach more people the second time around.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

We’ve been using Buffer for a long time. One of the biggest things about Buffer is their transparency. They’re an industry leader in digital marketing. They have a super popular blog, and they’re very transparent about not only their company, but how their tool works. It may not offer some of the functionalities that Hootsuite, or the other competitors, offer like having dozens of social channels you can connect to or tracking overall content, not just the content you share within Buffer. Still, it’s been fundamental in how we’ve developed success for our clients.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Going back to testing headlines, there’s one, for example – one of our clients is in the pest control industry. We test a lot of different content. There’s one tweet in particular that I’d been testing, and it seemed like it had potential. It would have a few clicks in there. By testing different headlines, I’ve seen some pretty interesting ups and downs.

I noticed that the last version that I ran received five re-tweets and the reach totaled out at 92,000 people. When I first started testing this, it didn’t really have that much reach, but it did have potential. For a local pest control company, that’s reaching 92,000 people, it may not result in a lot of business, but we’ve been hearing good things from the client. It contributes to the online brand awareness and development.

FEATURES

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?

Buffer offers an optimal timing tool. That would be the main thing that sets them apart from others.

It’s not too often you find the level of transparency that Buffer offers. It develops a lot of trust, and we know that we are in good hands. The team behind the tools are very transparent about their development as a company, their tools, and even their struggles. If you read the blog, it’s very inspiring.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

The only thing would be the number of social channels you can connect. It does allow you to connect to the most popular channels, but it is limited compared to some of the others. I would say one feature I’d really like to see is an area where you can create evergreen content for your marketing efforts. There are certain things that you talk about regularly. It would be helpful if you could create a stream of content that would actually save within Buffer, which you could include into your stream. At this point, you have to add it manually. When it’s the same message you want to send out there, it would just be a little more efficient.

Have you had to interact with the platform’s support team or reference their support resources?

Their support team is awesome. It feels like they have a huge team over there, and they’re all on the same page, and are very generous. I haven’t run into any problems in regard to lack of response or problems going unresolved. I was very happy about that.

RATINGS

We ask that you rate the software on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best score.

What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?

What would you give the software for ease of use of implementation into your business?

For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

5 - They’re very responsive.

For overall satisfaction with the platform?

How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

5.0

Overall Score

5.0 Features

5.0 Ease of Use

5.0 Support

5.0 Willing to Refer

the review

Client Interview

May 12 2016

Easy and Accurate Scheduling with Buffer

"Buffer is a very simple tool that works very well. Buffer allows us to create social media campaigns without having to post on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook manually. If we do it through Buffer, it allows us to reach our target audience more efficiently."

May 12, 2016

Recommendations

The user is Viral in Nature, a social media marketing agency. They used Buffer to manage many of their clients' Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ pages. Buffer allows users to reach their target audience at specific times efficiently. The user highly recommends Buffer to anyone looking for a simple social media scheduling and analytics tools.

5.0

Features:

5.0

Ease of use:

5.0

Support:

5.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the reviewer

Advertising and Marketing

11-50 Employees

Calgary, Canada

President at Viral In Nature

Shawn Alain

Advertising and Marketing

11-50 Employees

Calgary, Canada

Verified

President at Viral In Nature

Shawn Alain

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Details
Ratings

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company is a social media marketing agency in Canada. We also build websites and do reputation management.

What is your position?

I am the president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Buffer?

We used Buffer for our clients. Their goals were increasing sales and being part of the online conversation with their industry.

SOLUTION

How do you use Buffer for your clients?

We used it to schedule posts for Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ pages. Buffer is a very simple tool that works very well. Buffer allows us to create social media campaigns without having to post on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook manually. If we do it through Buffer, it allows us to reach our target audience more efficiently.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What distinguishes Buffer from other tools?

It allows you to plug in your Bitly, which is a great feature because you can then buy your own custom shortened URL. Then, you also get a bunch of analytics on their dashboard, too.

The team that runs Buffer is top notch. When Buffer was hacked, their team was constantly updating everyone on their page exactly what was happening and walking everyone through it. The way they handled that crisis, which could initially look bad for a company, made them look really good in the eyes of their consumers, especially their paying ones.

Is there anything that would make Buffer more useful?

Buffer is a very simple tool. It doesn't have complex analytics or functionality, but it does what it does very well.

Do you have any advice for anyone using Buffer?

Make sure you fill out all the settings on it, such as the time zones on each of the platforms. Users should also switch around their posting times.

OVERVIEW

We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask you to rate the software on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best. What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?

What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

For overall satisfaction with the platform?

5 - It's a great little tool for what it does.

5.0

Overall Score

5.0 Features

5.0 Ease of Use

5.0 Support

5.0 Willing to Refer

the review

Client Interview

Sep 10 2015

Inbound Marketing Agency Implementation of Buffer

"The Buffer extension for Chrome saves us a lot of time and effort. It's easy to install and is able to make a quick link to the pages or content that we would like to share."
— Social Media Specialist, Hop Online (Inbound Marketing Agency)

Sep 10, 2015

Recommendations

The client is Hop Online, a full-service inbound and digital marketing agency located in Bulgaria. As part of their service offering, Hop Online provides social media management to their clients. Hop Online was in need of a tool that could help them to manage a large number of their clients' social media accounts in one place. Hop Online now uses Buffer to aggregate, curate, and schedule social media posts for their clients. Hop Online highlights Buffer's Google Chrome extension. This user recommends Buffer because of its ease of use and the time it saves their social media team.

4.0

Features:

4.0

Ease of use:

4.0

Support:

5.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the reviewer

$1,001 - $10,000/yr. spend

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Bulgaria

Social Media Specialist, Hop Online

Valeri Veselinski

$1,001 - $10,000/yr. spend

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 Employees

Bulgaria

Verified

Social Media Specialist, Hop Online

Valeri Veselinski

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Details
Ratings

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Hop Online is a full-service inbound marketing agency specializing in SEM [search engine marketing], SEO [search engine optimization], and content marketing.

What is your position?

I'm a social media specialist.

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge your company was facing that initiated the need for this platform?

We manage many of our clients' social media accounts as part of our larger digital marketing service offering. We share content in large quantities on a daily basis and needed a tool that would easily help us to do that.

SOLUTION

How does your company implement this platform or software?

Buffer has proven to be an ideal tool for managing our client's social media accounts. Largely, we use Buffer to curate information for our clients' profiles as well as schedule posts up to weeks in the future.

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

No. Buffer is the most suitable platform for our purposes due to its ease of use.

On an annual or monthly basis, how much does your company spend to utilize the platform?

$1,000 per year in total, but this is due to the large amount of client accounts that we manage and the necessary amount of posts that we need to make every day and have in our queue.

RESULTS

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?

The Buffer extension for Chrome saves us a lot of time and effort. It's easy to install and is able to make a quick link to the pages or content that we would like to share.

Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

Occasionally, there are some bugs with the app refreshing. We aren't always sure whether the post loaded and made it in to the correct queue.

OVERVIEW

We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask you to rate the software on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?

Four.

What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

Four.

For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

Five.

For overall satisfaction with the platform?

Four.

How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

Five.

4.0

Overall Score

4.0 Features

4.0 Ease of Use

5.0 Support

5.0 Willing to Refer

the review

Client Interview

Jun 10 2015

Clutch's Implementation of Buffer

"I love the scheduling tool because you can put in five or 10 tweets quickly. I also love the Google Chrome add-in. It makes Buffer a really easy tool to use."
— Research Manager, Clutch (Research and Review Startup)

Jun 10, 2015

Recommendations

The client is Clutch, a Washington, D.C.-based research and review startup. Clutch was in need of a tool that would help to grow their social media presence, was affordable and easy to use. The Clutch team was not looking for a complex social media management platform, but a tool that could easily help target a presence on Twitter. Through a recommendation of a social media marketing agency, Clutch implemented the free version of Buffer and saw initial success. As the Clutch team has grown, they have recently upgraded their Buffer subscription to account for the increase in tweets their team is producing. This client highly recommends Buffer for its ease of use, simplicity, and the integrated Google add-in.

4.5

Features:

4.0

Ease of use:

4.5

Support:

4.0

Willing to refer:

4.5

the reviewer

$250 - $1,000/yr. spend

Business Services

11-50 Employees

Washington, DC

Research Manager, Clutch

Tim Clarke

$250 - $1,000/yr. spend

Business Services

11-50 Employees

Washington, DC

Verified

Research Manager, Clutch

Tim Clarke

Verified

Recommendations

the review

Details
Ratings

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization. What is your role and responsibilities?

Clutch is a Washington, D.C., research and review firm that works to combine the best elements of Gartner with the review elements of a company like Yelp. We use a hybrid model. I'm the research manager of a growing team.

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge your company was facing that incited the need for a social media marketing platform?

Our team wanted to post our verified client references and testimonials via social media. The main site we use for this is Twitter. We were wasting a lot of time having analysts write detailed tweets. People didn't allot time to do a little tweeting every day, so we often had a mass of tweets go out at one time and then have nothing for days. We needed a system to help us get those tweets out in regular intervals, save time, and smooth our Twitter feed.

Give a broad overview of how your team has used Buffer.

We started out with the free version because we were so small. We originally weren't doing more than five or 10 tweets a day. Now, every analyst goes in a couple of times a week and adds five or 10 tweets and schedules them out at regular intervals. Our team is growing, so there's more people using Buffer, adding more tweets to our queue.

SOLUTION

Did Clutch have a formal selection process for deciding on a social media management platform? Was your company considering other platforms or possibly contracting a social media management agency?

Our marketing lead found Buffer through a reference and decided to sign us up. This reference worked for social media marketing agency, so we felt like we had an expert recommendation.

What is your annual spend on the platform? Did you start using the platform's free trial prior to purchasing the platform's subscription plan?

We started with the free version and have moved to their "Awesome" plan, which costs about $10 a month.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any success, metrics, or overall results of your content marketing campaign since initial implementation of the platform?

Our marketing lead has kept tabs on the raw number of tweets, plus the percentage of reviews tweeted and they have gone way up. I think we were conducting 80 to 100 reviews per month, and we were only tweeting 50 percent of those testimonials. Now, we're conducting closer to 180 reviews per month. I think we're able to tweeting more than 80 percent of the reviews. The other metrics that leads from that is engagement. We track how many visitors to our website we get via Twitter, and that's gone way up from basically nothing to more than 1,000 visits a month. The next big thing is time saved for our team. We're getting more tweets, a higher percentage of tweets, and saving analysts time.

FEATURES

Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you and of which potential buyers should be aware?

I love the scheduling tool because you can put in five or 10 tweets quickly. We don't want to tweet the same company three days in a row so, this way, I can schedule the tweets weeks out in advance. You get a calendar. There's one drop-down for the day and one for the time. I also love the Google Chrome add-in. It makes Buffer a really easy tool to use. The add-in takes the website you are on makes a shortened linked, and allows you to tweet from any window.

Are there any areas of the platform that you feel are not intuitive or upon which you feel could be improved?

Initially, some analysts on our team stopped using Buffer because we ran out of our 20-tweet limit often. This was largely our fault for not upgrading our plan faster. However, the biggest area improvement is for the Google Chrome add-in. Many times, Buffer from the add-in will not recognize company names that we would like to tweet at. It can be really annoying trying to find the right company. In those cases, we often have to go straight to Twitter to search for the company so that we can be sure we use the correct Twitter handle.

OVERVIEW

We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask you to rate the software on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. What would you give the platform for ease of use and implementation?

Four and a half. I learned how to use it quick. It is a simple tool. If the company tagging was more accurate, I would give it a five.

What would you give the platform's features for desired functionality?

Four. It seems to do everything we need for Twitter especially now that we pay for extra tweets, but we would love to see better integration into other social media platforms.

For support, as in responsiveness and resources available?

Four. We don't have much experience with their support team, but the one time a team member reached out to them, the response wasn't quick.

For overall usability and satisfaction with the platform?

Four and a half. It's not perfect, but the fact that we got a free tool that is also really easy to use is great. I went from dreading tweeting to doing 10 a week – no problem.

How likely are you to recommend the platform to a similar business?

Four and a half. It really just depends on the company and their business needs. It's a great tool, but won't be a fit for every company.

4.5

Overall Score

4.0 Features

4.5 Ease of Use

4.0 Support

4.5 Willing to Refer

the review

Survey Response

Apr 28 2016

Precise social scheduling with Buffer

"The scheduling feature is fantastic! The posts have always gone out exactly when scheduled, and the options are flexible enough to work for us."

Apr 28, 2016

Recommendations:

Take the plunge and try it. The great part is that you can start for free, so there's really no risk. If you love it, you can keep it and upgrade later.

Experience:

Buffer is great for scheduling. We were having problems staffing after hours and weekends to stay consistent and relevant, and so our channel would be silent when most people are using social media (nights and weekends). Buffer was a huge help. We chose it over Hootsuite mostly because of their excellent customer service and beautiful design.

The scheduling feature is fantastic! The posts have always gone out exactly when scheduled, and the options are flexible enough to work for us. I love that their customer service team is so quick to help too.

Pros:

The scheduling and flexibility of the tool are great.

Cons:

I can't think of much at this time. They've made great improvements and have been a great asset to us.

5.0

Features:

5.0

Ease of use:

5.0

Support:

5.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the reviewer

Health Care & Life Sciences

501-1000 Employees

Cleveland, OH

Associate, Human Resources

Health Care & Life Sciences

501-1000 Employees

Cleveland, OH

Associate, Human Resources

Recommendations:

Take the plunge and try it. The great part is that you can start for free, so there's really no risk. If you love it, you can keep it and upgrade later.

Experience:

Pros:

The scheduling and flexibility of the tool are great.

Cons:

I can't think of much at this time. They've made great improvements and have been a great asset to us.

Product Demo & Screenshots

Features

Content creation

Support

Integration

Collaboration

Automation

Analytics and Tracking

Monitoring

Pricing

Basic info

Reviews

Reviews

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

Oct 20 2016

"Buffer is a time saver, and puts our old content in front of more people. It's a simple tool, in a good way."

Oct 20, 2016

the reviewer

the review

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

Aug 23 2016

"The design is the fundamental thing that makes Buffer so simple and useful."

Aug 23, 2016

the reviewer

the review

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

Aug 22 2016

"Buffer is definitely the cheapest and provides the best functionality for us."

Aug 22, 2016

the reviewer

the review

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

Jul 15 2016

" I would say that by using Buffer and studying the analytics that tell you when people are on different networks, it's helped us know when to post to get more effective results."

Jul 15, 2016

the reviewer

the review

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

Jul 01 2016

"It's intuitive from my perspective. I haven't had any issues with it, any downtime or posts gone missing, so I feel it's relatively stable."

Jul 01, 2016

the reviewer

the review

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

May 24 2016

"It’s not too often you find the level of transparency that Buffer offers. It develops a lot of trust, and we know that we are in good hands."

May 24, 2016

the reviewer

the review

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

May 12 2016

"Buffer is a very simple tool that works very well. Buffer allows us to create social media campaigns without having to post on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook manually. If we do it through Buffer, it allows us to reach our target audience more efficiently."

May 12, 2016

the reviewer

the review

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

Sep 10 2015

"The Buffer extension for Chrome saves us a lot of time and effort. It's easy to install and is able to make a quick link to the pages or content that we would like to share."— Social Media Specialist, Hop Online (Inbound Marketing Agency)

Sep 10, 2015

the reviewer

the review

the review

Client Interview

Client Interview

"The Buffer extension for Chrome saves us a lot of time and effort. It's easy to install and is able to make a quick link to the pages or content that we would like to share."
— Social Media Specialist, Hop Online (Inbound Marketing Agency)

"I love the scheduling tool because you can put in five or 10 tweets quickly. I also love the Google Chrome add-in. It makes Buffer a really easy tool to use."
— Research Manager, Clutch (Research and Review Startup)