There are over 200 million Tweets being posted every day on Twitter. Another 4 billion items are shared on Facebook daily. But what about LinkedIn? The 3rd largest Social Networking behemoth recently unveiled their latest numbers, which weren’t any less impressive. Over 150 million people have joined the service, as was recently announced.
In perfect timing, Buffer, a new and smarter way to publish your Social Media posts, has now also added LinkedIn to their sharing facilities. The service, which was built to make anyone “awesome on Social Media” has gone a long way since its launch 1 year ago.
In short, Buffer allows you to add Social Media posts to a queue. From there, they will be published for you at optimal times, well spaced out over the day. Different to other Social Media apps, there is no need to specify the date and time, Buffer does that for you. All you have to do is “add to Buffer” and the Facebook post, Tweet or LinkedIn update will be scheduled and posted for you.
Getting Started with Buffer
The app conveniently allows you to sign up with your Social Networking accounts. No password or email address is needed. Once you are signed in, you are already set to start “Buffering”. Of course you can immediately add your Twitter, Facebook or as of today also your LinkedIn account.
Once you decide to connect an account, you will always be given the choice which Social Network to add next. What’s worth mentioning here is that you can connect both your Facebook Pages or Facebook profile to Buffer. Depending on where you are in need of more optimal posting.
Also, note there is one slot left. Co-Founder Leo Widrich mentioned to me, that there will be some other Social Networks added in the near future, especially Google+ and Pinterest have received tremendous interest.
Efficient and Optimal Posting of Your Buffered Updates
Once you are set and have all the accounts connected, you can just start Buffering all those great articles you find up. The two things I found most efficient to post with are the browser extensions for Buffer and the Buffer button for blogs, that you have most likely seen around already.
With the browser extension, you will be able to add any page you are reading, straight into your Buffer with one click of a button. With the new LinkedIn integration, you will also conveniently get a preview of link alongside a thumbnail that you can choose.
As mentioned above, at the same time you can install the Buffer button for your website. Over 5,000 blogs have already done so, told me Widrich, which has proven to increase shares on an overall basis. Another interesting fact, was that the Buffer button is outperforming the Google+1 button on each of those websites in terms of usage.
Once your Buffered update for LinkedIn hits your stream, it will look exactly like a handcrafted post. Especially as feeding Tweets through to LinkedIn is a popular option, but formats these posts rather poorly, this might be an interesting option to get more engagement on your LinkedIn updates:
Who will find Buffer for LinkedIn useful?
Upon asking Buffer Co-Founder Leo Widrich, who might find Buffer for LinkedIn most useful, he responded
“I believe there are 2 types of people. The first one is people, who haven’t really posted on LinkedIn regularly. Or as mentioned in the comments on our launch post, who have fed Tweets through to LinkedIn, but never really engaged with it. This is an opportunity to provide value more selectively and with more impact I believe.
There are also some very engaged LinkedIn users we worked with and have been speaking to a lot to. They will hopefully now just have a more efficient way to publish their posts.”
Buffering LinkedIn posts over feeding your Tweets to it?
A very popular way to update your LinkedIn status is via Twitter, which unfortunately causes a poor formatting and often also information overload for streams on there. By Buffering instead, there seems to be a much more selective process of posting to LinkedIn which can potentially create a lot more value for connections on there I believe. Of course, this will become more evident over time. What has been your experience with posting to LinkedIn?
In Conclusion
By adding LinkedIn to the posting options, Buffer has certainly expanded its offering to a new level. Buffer now allows you to update your Social Networks efficiently and all from one place. You can spend a few minutes every morning, while you are going through your favorite blogs, and add everything you find worth sharing to your Buffer.
One thing you might also want to check out is the analytics section. It shows you exactly how many people have clicked and reshared your articles, all in one place.
I have been playing with Buffer for the last 2 weeks and have found it to be extremely helpful because I am running multiple accounts for multiple companies at the same time. The ability to schedule and not info-bomb my followers is fantastic for me. What are your thoughts on Buffer for your Social Media posting?
