What is Buffer?
Since its launch in 2010, it has been Buffer's flagship feature and today, it still stands out as a social media management tool streamlined. It has great tools for posting on all major social networks and has a user-friendly interface.
Anyone can become an experienced Buffer user with a bit of practice, which sets them apart from their feature-rich rivals that can overwhelm users with their glut of choices.
However, Buffer wants to be much more than that. It now consists of three products, each requiring its own subscription.
Classic Buffer tools are included in the Publish product; Reply helps manage social media conversations; and Analyze is designed for creating reports.
Buffer contains three distinct products. Users can combine them to create their own social media management package. Image Source: Author
Are Buffer's new features enough to merit a redefinition of the meaning of “to Buffer”?
Who is Buffer for?
Buffer will have maximum positive impact for small social media teams and small businesses. Anyone looking for an accessible and effective platform to create and publish better performing social media content will find a lot to like here. Everything you need to get started is on a single screen.
In addition, Buffer continued to build on its strengths and added tools like Pablo to make it even easier to create unique content within the platform.
The free account connects to three social accounts and allows you to schedule ten messages, making it a real option for independent business owners.
The entry-level plans are also reasonably priced, if you want to switch from a free account to a more flexible account.
Larger teams will need to invest in Buffer's business plans, as the entry-level plans only cover one user.
At this end of the price spectrum, there are more comprehensive solutions. For example, Buffer doesn't have cloud integration with tools like Google Drive to import content for social media posts. It also doesn't have the conversion tracking and social payment features found on Hootsuite or Sprout Social.
You can find a more detailed review of my Comparison of Hootsuite and Buffer
So, larger businesses may want to use Buffer for its fantastic publishing tools, but may feel the need to complement that subscription with other content management and social listening tools.
For some, Buffer will be a streamlined and refreshing experience, while for others, it will feel a bit light in the face of feature-rich competition.
Features
As mentioned above, Buffer is divided into three products: Post, Reply, and Analyze.
This corresponds well to three of the main actions that a social media professional should take every day.
Therefore, our characteristic analysis will follow this structure, highlighting the main characteristics of each of the three products.
Buffer Publish
Buffer Publish is fantastic for planning and publishing content. The layout is clean and easy to navigate, with plenty of options for shortening links.
The process of publishing new content is simple, but still comes with some handy additional features.
For example, when you enter a link that you want to share, Buffer shows you an overview of what it will look like once posted on each of the social networks you've chosen. For Instagram, you can include an initial comment with your post, if you want to add more hashtags to extend the reach of the content.
Many businesses will find it useful to manage all of this just as quickly, in one screen.
It's also easy to set up a schedule for specific display times across multiple dates, as shown in the screenshot below:
This makes it easy to drag and drop specific content items into your content calendar, but it's also easy to look at your strategy from a broader perspective.
Buffer's publishing options are available for Twitter, Facebook, Facebook, Instagram, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, covering the main social networks for most businesses.
It's also worth noting that Buffer can integrate with a wide variety of other apps and extensions, including IFTTT, Feedly, and WordPress.
Based on my personal experience, Buffer Publish is very reliable when it comes to scheduled posts. Businesses need to be confident that their social media management tool will handle these tasks so they can focus on other tasks. Buffer has you covered in that regard.
It's also possible to collaborate with other members of your team on posts in Buffer Publish, but you'll need to opt for the Premium (two users) or Business (six users) plan to access these tools. Both the free plan and the Pro plan are limited to a single user, so collaboration opportunities are limited.
Buffer Reply
Buffer Reply is one of Buffer's new products, which aims to help businesses manage their social media conversations.
One of the main features is the social inbox, which combines incoming messages from all of your social networks into a single feed. There is no doubt that this will save time for many businesses.
Buffer Reply also contains reports on the response times of your company's messages, which can be segmented to highlight the performance of each member of the social media team.
As with Publish, you'll need to upgrade to a Business Account Plan to use these features.
If you opt for this solution, you will also have access to very useful automation tools. For example, you can set up a rule to identify keywords in comments and assign them to specific team members. It's not the most prestigious automation tool on the market today, but it's certainly useful.
Social listening is also part of the “Buffer Reply” category, although it is still in the early stages of development. For now, it works well for following trends on Twitter, but doesn't have the impressive capabilities of Hootsuite or Sprout Social on other social networks.
Buffer Analyze
Buffer's analysis service has undergone a radical transformation and is reappearing under the name Analyze. While Buffer Publish contains a few rudimentary marketing analytics options, all of the platform's advanced analytics options are now in the Analyze product.
In Analyze, Buffer's main dashboard shows a set of recent performance updates, as well as specific metrics for your latest posts.
Setting up new templates is very easy and you can click “Add to Report” on any chart in Buffer to add it to one of your dashboards.
This simplicity will appeal to businesses that need to report on key metrics like reach, engagement, and followers.
The “Replies” tab is also very informative, as it provides tips on when to post content, what types of media assets to use, and how often to post on each channel.
That said, for those who need additional details about the performance of their social media ads, Buffer Analyze may not have the depth they need.
Additionally, while Analyze is an effective reporting tool for Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, it lacks the features of its competitors for Pinterest and LinkedIn.
Ease of use - Buffer
Buffer dwarfs its rivals when it comes to ease of use. Its interface is pleasantly consistent and simple, devoid of superfluous functions so that the user can focus on their work.
The setup process guides the user through the important steps and makes it possible to connect to social media accounts almost instantly.
The Buffer application is in line with this trend, as it is fast, clear, and intuitive. Additionally, the Buffer Chrome extension is one of the best on the market, allowing users to post web pages directly to their social media accounts.
Overall, the Buffer user experience is nearly effortless. It is an affordable social media management tool for novice users who can get to work quickly.
The Buffer Marketing Library is also worth mentioning here. This knowledge base contains in-depth articles on everything you need to know about social media strategy, and it's free to access.
Pricing
At first glance, Buffer offers the clearest price of any social media management tool.
The 14-day free trial requires no credit card information and the home page is dotted with big blue buttons inviting you to get started.
There is a free account option, which is always welcome, and allows you to connect to three social media accounts. For individual users, this means that the free account is a viable option for managing multiple social networks from a single dashboard. It is also possible to program up to ten messages in the free account, which will be enough to cover a large number of small businesses.
The fact that Publish, Reply, and Analyze products can be combined together can appeal to businesses that are tired of paying for a large number of features that they will never use.
Buffer Publish offers three subscription options, all of which can be paid monthly or annually. As with other similar tools, there is a discount for paying for an annual subscription in advance.
The Pro account, at $12 per month for one user, allows you to connect to eight social media accounts, which should be enough for individual users and small businesses.
The Premium plan, at $56/month for two users, introduces some collaboration tools and allows you to schedule up to 2,000 messages.
The Business subscription, at $85 per month for six users, allows you to connect to up to 25 social media accounts and is competitively priced.
It's also possible to add users at a rate of $25/month per user, or contact Buffer to negotiate a subscription for larger social media teams.
Buffer Publish offers three subscription plans, starting with the Pro option, which is very accessible, at only $12 per month. Image Source: Author
As mentioned earlier, to access Buffer's conversation management tools, you need to add a Buffer Reply subscription.
Reply offers two options: Pro at $42/month, and Business at $188/month, both of which cover a single user. Again, there's an additional $25/month per user for any additional team members, and those who need a Business account will almost certainly need to opt for this option.
It should be added that in the Pro account, account data is only available for the last 30 days and the reports are limited to the main numbers. To get detailed reports on your social media conversations, you should opt for the Business account.
Buffer Reply offers two account options, both of which cover one user. It costs $25/month for each additional user on top of the basic subscription plan. Image Source: Author
Next, Buffer Analyze.
There are two options in Analyze: the Pro account at $28/month and the Premium account at $40/month.
The main differences between them are that Premium connects to ten social media accounts (compared to eight in the Pro plan), Premium integrates with Shopify, and the most expensive account also provides access to Instagram Stories analytics.
Buffer Analyze offers a pro account and a premium account. You will have to opt for the latter if you want to have access to Instagram Story analytics. Image Source: Author
So while this pricing approach is easy to digest at first glance, it also requires closer examination.
The categories of distinction between plans differ significantly within each product. In the Publish product, when you upgrade each time, additional users are added to your account. For Reply, the upgrade does not add additional users, but some customers might be inclined to think that this is the case. Instead, they have to pay an additional $25 per user to access Reply, even though they're already included in Publish's Business Plan.
Overall, this blended approach will only benefit some businesses. For many, the bill adds up quickly, and if they have to shell out for the more expensive options, there are better options for their marketing technology budget.
Customer Support
Buffer's support options are surprisingly limited, considering its huge customer list and heritage in the social media management software industry.
Telephone support is not available and training opportunities are limited.
Certainly, the platform is simple to use and there are a lot of useful tips available in each of its features. Plus, Buffer's knowledge base covers just about any problem you can think of, with comprehensive solutions.
Support is available via email as well as Buffer's Facebook and Twitter channels. I used Buffer's email and Facebook account to ask questions; the response time was slightly faster via email, but I received a comprehensive response with suggested actions through both channels within 24 hours.
Analytical Data
Basic
As we mentioned at the start of this review, deep analytics is now a part of Buffer Analyze.
In Buffer Publish, the current Pro dashboard only shows a list of your posts from the last 30 days. In my opinion, that is not enough. I would have liked to see more basic information about message performance. You need to upgrade to Buffer Premium or Buffer Business to get an unlimited history of posts and useful analytics.
Enterprise
When you upgrade, instead of having a single analytics dashboard for all social networking sites, you should click on each social site to see content analytics for that platform. So it's impossible to get a complete overview of content performance in a single dashboard, as is the case with tools like Hootsuite.
One good thing, though, is that once you look at the data, it's as easy to use and understand as the rest of Buffer.
But if you're really looking for detailed analytics that can provide you with information to help you grow your customer base or build detailed customer reports, you should consider investing in Buffer Analyze.
External content report
With Buffer Publish, if you're using Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, you'll see basic analytics - even on content that wasn't shared through Buffer. Again, this feature is only available for Premium and Business accounts.
At a glance, you can check the performance of recently published content. You can also click on the buttons on the spot to see what was the most popular or the least popular, and what had the most engagement in terms of clicks, tweets, likes, or shares.
Apps and integrations
Buffer's analytics feature integrates with your connected social media accounts.
Additionally, if you have a paid plan, you can track your social media data in your Google Analytics account. This may be enough for you, but overall, it seems like a poor substitute for a robust analytics solution built into the app.
FAQs
How does Buffer pricing work?
Buffer offers a free plan and a few paid plans (which changed at the time of writing) that can be paid monthly or annually.
If you're only interested in publishing features, there are the following plans: Essentials (great for those just starting out), Team (great for growing brands), and Agency (great for larger teams).
Why use Buffer social media?
Buffer is a reliable and fast way to manage multiple social media accounts from a user-friendly dashboard.
Can I use Buffer for free?
Buffer offers a 14-day free trial with all of its paid plans.
At the end of the trial period, you can also upgrade to the free plan. That said, the free plan is very basic and only offers 3 social channels, 10 scheduled posts, and 1 user.
If you need more features, you can opt for annual billing instead of monthly billing, which can save you up to 20%.
Final verdict
Many marketing technology companies lament the fact that their customers aren't using their platform to its full potential. A lot of development time and company resources are spent creating new, sophisticated features, and so they want to make sure that customers see the benefits.
Of course, the costs associated with these new features are generally passed on to the customer. Perhaps marketing technology companies should instead focus their investments on products that they know their customers will want.
Buffer takes a pragmatic and refreshing approach to this reality.
It removed some features, such as content recommendations, because they weren't at the core of the company's purpose.
However, simplicity often comes at a cost.
Buffer's feature list seems a bit patchy at the upper end of the scale, compared to social media management tools for businesses.
