Often when I’m using the internet, checking emails, reading my RSS feeds, browsing Google+ and Twitter, I find a lot of web pages that I find interesting or useful. Naturally, I want to share them on my social networks.
But wait… that’s a lot tweets that I’ll be making all in one go! My shares will be all grouped together, and followers could potentially miss those awesome links. I don’t want to overwhelm them by mass-posting at one time, and then be idle for the rest of the day.
To the rescue is Buffer, an online service that can automagically distribute your posts and shares throughout the day over your social networks. As they rather succinctly put it on their website: Buffer is a smarter way to share posts to your social networks.
You can add items to your Buffer, just as you would directly share them to social networks such as Twitter or Facebook. You can fill up your Buffer at one time in the day, and Buffer will automagically post them for you throughout the day. Keeping your Buffer topped-up will grant you a complete social media presence all day round, all week-long.
The best thing of all is the wide integration of Buffer. You can bring Buffer to your browser by installing the extensions for Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Safari.
For webmasters there is the Buffer button, and WordPress-powered blogs can use the Post to Buffer plugin and the Digg Digg sharing plugin.
You can find a complete list of apps and extras with Buffer integration (including Pocket, Reeder, Instapaper, IFTTT, Mr. Reader) featured on their website.
But wait, there’s more! As well as spacing out your posts over the day, Buffer is also great for sharing across multiple social networks. Buffer was originally built for Twitter, but they now have Facebook (profiles and pages), LinkedIn (profiles and groups), and App.net integration. They’re planning to add Google+ support as soon as Google releases their API.
While using Buffer, I’ve been very happy with their service. You can drop them a message at [email]hello@bufferapp.com[/email] or tweet to them @bufferapp, whether it’s to suggest an enhancement to their service, or to share your favorite knock-knock joke. After all, Buffer is all about being social.
Buffer is free for up to 10 items in your Buffer. For more powerful tools, more posts, a larger Buffer or items stored, you can “go awesome” and sign up for the $10/month pro account or $30/month premium account.
You can earn bonus space for an extra post in your Buffer by using this link to sign up: Sign up to Buffer.