How A Strategic Marketer Uses the Buffer Social Media Sharing Tool

We all love to Tweet, Like & Share. It’s the modern meaning of SOCIALism, and today we can connect with just about anybody. Hell, I could send President Obama a Tweet right now and feel special. Sure, he wouldn’t read it, and I’m under no illusion that an employee takes ‘care’ of things.

That doesn’t matter, though. The means of connection is still there.

So it makes sense that I hold Social Media in high regard. As a modern day Strategic Marketer, I live by the rule of Creative Thinking + Strategic Thinking = 21st Century Success. I live by this notion so much that I wrote a Free, and very short Ebook called What Is Strategic Marketing.

I love this balance of flair and rationale, but there are so many pitfalls that come with it. This is where the Buffer app (which is a tool that automatically publishes tweets at the best time of the day to reach the largest audience)comes to save the day. This is a story about how a Strategic Marketer uses Buffer to make his life easier…

The Problem

The biggest issue I face, like so many, is time…or should I say, lack of.

I love Twitter, but I can’t spend all day on it. I also love sharing content I come across, but again, I haven’t hour after hour to search the web and read. I have work to do, actual things that pay the bills and allow me to buy food.

So I spend 30 minutes here and there. On an average day I share about 20 articles and Tweet a few dozen times. The only issue is, all this will occur in short bursts.

I’ll have 20 Tweets come up in the space of 20 minutes, and then nothing for six hours. This is a terrible way to communicate.

Why This Is Bad

It’s all about impact.

First of all, having 20 Tweets show up in the space of five minutes makes me look like a spammer. This isn’t an image I wish to get and is very important to me.

Secondly, I only reach a small percentage of my followers. I live in England, but many of my followers live in America and Australia and Asia. There are time differences, and therefore a good time in Europe might be a terrible in China.

If a woman has 10,000 followers, she may only reach a few hundred of them at any given time. If she Tweets everything in one go, her reach is small. If she spreads them out instead, her reach grows.

This isn’t Rocket Science!

How A Strategic Marketer Uses Buffer

This is where the value of Buffer comes in. Lets face it, I don’t have to tell you as you’re already a Buffer fan. You know the value it brings. You know it saves time and offers impact.

However, you might not use it like a Strategic Marketer. If not, you may learn a thing or two:

To Spread My Shares

As I say, I love to share links on Twitter. One of my Core Values is Here To Share, and Twitter plays a large part in this. Buffer, an even greater one.

My Buffer schedule is set to share Tweets every hour, and during peak times (3pm – 6pm GMT) this increase to five times per hour. Therefore every time I add a new link to Buffer, I know it’s going to reach new people. It spreads my reach and gives my followers an incentive to check my news feed.

They know the shares are there, and just because they missed it once, doesn’t mean they won’t get a reminder soon.

To Improve My Impact

As well as sharing other peoples content, I create my own. If I was to Tweet it just once, my impact would be low. This isn’t good. Not good at all.

However, if I place my own messages in the middle of all the other messages I send, well, my reach increases.

As a general rule I share 3 or 4 links, then head to my own site and add one of my own posts. All of a sudden I increase my chances of being seen by people, but do it in a way that doesn’t come across as needy. I hate it when people only Tweet about themselves, as I’m sure you do too, but the occasional selfish act is fine.

Buffer allows me to be selfless and selfish all at the same time. How great is that?

To Maximise Measurement

As a Strategic Marketer, measuring things is important. I not only want to know my Tweets are going out, but whats happening to them afterwards. Buffer offers some simple analytics to show me how many clicks a particular message gets, and if it gets Retweeted, etc.

This isn’t what really interests me, though. Oh no, it’s the ability to link Buffer with other services…in my case, with Bitly

First of all, using Buffer means any links I share get shortened. This means more space to write great content. This is called WINNING.

Secondly, Bitly follows the bigger picture. It tells me how many shares a particular links gets, not just showing the reach from me, but the larger population, too. This is great for monitoring trends and taking your communications to new levels.

Buffer Is Awesome

This how a Strategic Marketer uses Buffer. This is why Buffer is awesome. It lets me be the best Marketer I can be.

How do you use Buffer?

Does it save your life like it does mine?

I’d love to hear your story…

Guest Author: Matthew Turner (aka @turndog_million) is a Strategic Marketing Consultant & Author. With a variety of services to help Businesses create and manage Brand Positioning. With a passion to balance Strategic & Creative Thinking, his Free Ebook What Is Strategic Marketing can help Businesses embrace the modern world. You can download this Ebook here 

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