Recently it struck me: With every blog post we are writing, we try to create a great and original piece of content.
What about Tweets though?
I realized most of my tweets are not original at all: they are either post titles with links or quotes.
Some are questions or general statements, yet I wouldn’t count that as providing content.
Something is not right I thought.
As Twitter is growing insanely fast, bringing in more opportunities for providing great content, I decided I HAVE to change that.
Create amazing Tweets that are yours
Of course, I understand, we can’t dedicate hours and hours towards writing tweets, yet recently I started using a tool that turns this task into an effortless experience.
Buffer allows you to make every tweet a unique one that is truly yours.
How does Buffer work?
With Buffer, all you do is throw tweets into your Buffer and the App then schedules these tweets for you well spaced out over the day.
How can I make my Tweets stand out then?
Buffer comes with a nifty feature that makes it truly “Killer” for me and useful every day. It is a browser extension for Safari, Chrome or Firefox that allows you to add tweets into your Buffer from any page.
On top of that you can go ahead and highlight a certain line in an article and then hit the Buffer icon. Automatically Buffer will turn this into your tweet, here is an awesome quote form Ana I used:
Buffered Tweets – When are they sent?
The thing I like about throwing tweets in your Buffer is that you can put a lot of them in at one point, yet you won’t flood your followers with too much info. Teaming it up with Ana’s advice on sending a group of 3-4 tweets you can easily set these time blocks as fixed times and then forget about them.
By default Buffer sends your tweets well spaced out during the day and you can always go back to your home account at www.bufferapp.com and change your timing, add more or adjust them to your needs. Here are my fixed daily tweeting times:
Does that really change anything?
In order for you to know whether your Buffered tweets actually make an impact, you receive detailed analytics for them.
This means Clicks, Retweets and Reach of your Tweets. Here is a set of data from my past tweets:
Add from inside Google Reader
What I particularly like about Buffer is that it does one thing, yet it does this one thing very well. You can add tweets to your Buffer even from inside Google Reader.
Also, by default if you just hit the Buffer icon whilst reading an article you conveniently get the title of the page and the shortened link, here is another example of Ana’s post:
Are your tweets standing out?
Making use of Buffer has helped me a great deal to really leave my own fingerprint on all of my tweets by picking out the lines I liked the most and then tweeting those.
How about you? Do you have any techniques to make your tweets stand out?
Do you think Buffer can help with that?
On Relationship Marketing, Fake Twitter Profiles, and Being Painfully Honest with Yourself
How to Make Your Tweets More Visible [Twitter Traffic Hack]
How to Manage Twitter Like a Pro [Your Daily Twitter Routine]
Hi! I realize this is sort of off-topic but I needed to ask. Does operating a well-established blog such as yours require a massive amount work? I am completely new to blogging however I do write in my diary every day. I’d like to start a blog so I can share my experience and thoughts online. Please let me know if you have any kind of ideas or tips for brand new aspiring blog owners. Thankyou!
Well, this is the only business that I run, Beverly.
It does take time, but it doesn’t overwhelm me by any means.
Started a blog to share your thoughts might be difficult in terms of finding anyone to actually read it. We all want to be heard, but hard time listening - you know what I mean?
Unless there’s a clear benefit to the reader, finding your audience will be your biggest challenge.
Also, are you planning on running it as a business and making money off it at some point? Making money off a blog is not an easy task and may take a while to start producing any decent income from it.
Hope this helps.
I’m actually writing about Buffer for a friend’s website, because I keep telling so many of them about it already!
I love this app, it’s such a useful Twitter tool and I use it constantly. A couple of notes, though:
You didn’t say anything about being able add more than one Twitter account! You can add up to three if you use a Pro account!
Also - integrate your Bit.ly information into the settings feature and track your URLs that way as well!
And lastly - my newest Twitter tool and it is already integrated with Buffer-Strawberry Jam. If you like to recommend a lot of articles (not all your own!) about a given subject, you can use this site to not only find the content to read for yourself, but build up your buffer with great recommendations as well!
this is great news about buffer. i’ve been using hootsuite & MMS but the scheduling with Hoot is time consuming…and MMS can only schedule posts to FB profile..limiting..as i was doing my follow up research here to get more info on Buffer, guess who i find here already? my good friend Katrina! from Kat’s Cafe. Hi!..i was about to send her this article but she has already replied! You are always a more than a step ahead. good work Katrina! always in the loop!
Thank you Leo for the article. great content!
i am looking forward to giving Buffer a try.
Thanks Ana for inviting Leo!
I’ve been using Buffer for a while now and I love it! However the buffering from within Google Reader is a feature I didn’t know about until now, so thanks Leo for highlighting that!
Thanks Leo and thanks Nate for stopping by.
Hey!
You have indeed come out with a wonderful post regarding tweets. Tweets have become an important tool now a days in the traffic generation process and the concept of buffer that you have brought into play is really nice.Its definitely worth a shot!
Regards
Thank you for the kind words, James. Let me know how it goes if you decide to implement it.
Well I have decided to get along with the buffer idea, but its on hault right now since I would like it to be synchronized with my blog posts, so its going to take a while. But once, implemented, be sure I am gonna share the story.
Hi Leo,
Writing original and interesting tweets is close to impossible these days.
Buffer helps a lot, but not on the creative part. It saves time in some areas, but not in all.
But sure, we don’t want to write a book here, how hard can it be to get two rows of interesting text? Harder than it seems, because everybody’s trying to do the same thing and the competition’s a killer.
Hi Tomothy,
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, I totally understand what you are saying here. You are competing against so many other tweets out there it is really difficult. I believe creating a genuine appearance helps a great deal, so doing it in the long run will prove more effective then working quickly on a few headlines.
Is there a way to set Buffer to send out two tweets at a time?
Do you have in iPhone app?
Hi ML, thanks a lot for your comment.
Yes, there is a way to do that. You can simply set 2 timeslots at the same time. Do you think that would be good to do?
I have a feeling it might lead to flooding your followers, not sure if it does, would love your views on this.
Hey Leo,
Buffer seems like a pretty awesome tool. It will be the next add-on I put on my firefox browser. This is the first I have heard of it.
Thanks for sharing this Leo and have a great day!
Ian, thanks a lot for your comment.
Wow, it’s really great to hear that you like Buffer. Yep, definitely put the bookmarklet on your browser and test it out.
No worries, I am glad the infos were useful, have a great day too! 🙂
Hey Leo,
Thanks for sharing your insights. I read about Buffer for the first time at another blog two days ago.
It’s a nifty little tool indeed. I’m off to start playing around with it 🙂
All the best,
Mavis
Hi Mavis, thanks a lot for your comment.
That’s great to hear you already came across Buffer.
Awesome, definitely go ahead and give it a go, would love to hear what you think about it! 🙂
Ahhh I know without a DOUBT I don’t utilize my Twitter account enough. I don’t even know half of what the darn thing can do or what I should be doing with it. This is priceless info- thank you!!
Chere, thanks a lot for your kind words.
Yep, I think the great thing is that there is always more we can do isn’t there! 🙂
Really glad you found the article useful, let me know if you have any questions about Buffer, if not, happy Buffering! 🙂
Hmm, you know, I really don’t agree with this method. I think it defeats the entire purpose of Twitter, which is real time interaction/connection. I unfollow people pretty much immediately when I detect anything “inorganic” about their tweeting habits. It’s just a waste of my time.
Jonathan,
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Yes, I think you are absolutely right, in case we turn ourselves into auto-bots tweeting things all the time whilst we are not there it can be a real showstopper just like you say. Unfollowing is definitely something to be considered.
I feel with Buffer you can strike up a healthy balance between the two things as there is a “tweet now” and an “add to Buffer” function.
Sometimes I felt that I am reading a lot of great posts in a row in a short space of time. Instead of posting them all at once and overwhelming my followers with too many tweets I add them into Buffer, which will space them out a little, and delay them for a few hours.
What do you think about that? Would love to hear your thoughts on this Jonathan 🙂
Aha - I’ve been thinking that a tool to do this MUST exist for a few weeks now - and it does! Thanks for sharing!
Dean, that is so great to hear! Really glad it is helpful for you and the tool you have been looking for. Definitely give it a spin and see if it works for you! 🙂
Thanks for the heads up!
No worries at all, glad it helped. If you have any more questions, just let me know! Have a great day Daniel! 🙂
Hi Leo,
That’s an amazing feature, I didn’t know that I can highlight a certain line in an article and turn it into a tweet with Buffer. Awesome!
I’m still very happy with Buffer, and recommend it to all the people I talk to. I especially like the new feature where I can tweet directly from Google Reader.
Jens! It’s so great to see you here.
Oh, really happy you found out something new here. Yep, the quotes feature really gives you an ability to make your tweets unique, doesn’t it?
Thanks for the support here and the kind recommendation, really appreciated that! 🙂
What a superb post! I’ve been trying to use twitter properly for ages. having Buffer on my browser makes all the difference. Just Buffered this post - thought it was a good start!
Hi Sandy,
Wow, thanks so much for the kind words. You are absolutely right, keeping up with the latest Twitter can be a real hassle sometimes.
Yep, the browser extension helps a lot, just like you say, Buffer all your favourite posts and that’s it, you will be tweeting consistently.
Really glad you like it! 🙂
Leo,
I have not used Buffer to this extent. i think it was a matter of getting in and finding out what it is all about. Thanks for this great overview. Now I can already see how to use it more effectively. I really like the fact that your can capture a quote from the post you want to tweet and the tracking capabilities.
Sheila, it’s so good to see you here.
Yes, I think we always have to dig a little in order to get to the full usage, haven’t we? Glad the quotes features is a winner for you, really comes in handy with the browser extension I believe!
Thanks for the comment Sheila, if you have any questions with Buffer, just let me know :).
Yet another example of the old saying that you learn something new every day. I didn’t know about Buffer, but I certainly want to look into it. No one has the time to manually tweet at the optimum times throughout the day, so this feature would come in handy.
Leo, thanks for a nifty idea, and thank you Ana for hosting him.
Matty
Matty, haha, yes you are absolutely right, we really have to learn new things every day! 🙂
Absolutely, throwing tweets in your Buffer and forgetting about it is a super simple way to keep on tweeting consistently, just like you say.
No worries at all, glad I could help you Matt, let me know if you have any questions! 🙂
Oh, i’ve read about Buffer on another blog some time ago. I wasn’t really convinced then, but you make a strong case.
I’ll give it a try and see where it gets me.
Maria,
Good to see you here! 🙂
Awesome, really great to hear that this one is compelling to you. Yep, definitely go ahead and give it a go, hope you will like it.
Let me know if you have any questions, always happy to help! 🙂
Will check it out. Hoping you can prioritize (i.e. designate some tweets to go out sooner than others…even right away).
Hi ML,
Yep you can absolutely prioritise and move your tweets around with dead simple drag and drop, hope that helps! : )
Hey Leo,
Yes, Buffer would be a great tool to increase the potential of our tweets. Buffer will certainly allow us to post in the best times (twitter peaks) which is equal to more exposure. I haven’t really tried Buffer (although I have read about it in many blogs). I will surely try it (I tend to be a procrastinator when it comes to trying out new tools).
Anyway, thank you for the great post, Leo !
By the way, You have a great title 😉
Jeevan Jacob John
Jeevan Jacob John,
Thanks for your comment! Yep, absolutely, it is just like you say, it will help a great deal to post at Twitter peak times and get more exposure, especially as your tweets are also tracked and you get analytics for it.
Hope you will give it a go, would love to hear your views on it once used.
No worries, glad you enjoyed reading it!
Hi Anna and Leo,
Buffer seems to be something that’s going to be very useful. I think I’m going to like it because it’s different than all the other auto programs out there.
Here’s a way to be more personable with your Tweets on auto pilot as you come across good content on the web. I think it’s a no brainier for Twitter.
Thanks for sharing Leo,
Terry Conti
Terry, thanks a lot for the kind words.
It is just like you say, someone once called it “The Human Way to Schedule Tweets” which is very much in line with your description I believe.
Awesome, hope you will give it a go, would love to hear how it integrates with your workflow.
It all about the headlines my friends..if you can write a killer title..then your ready to spread the word..
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
Antonio, it’s so great to see you here buddy.
Yep, you are absolutely right, if you can master writing killer titles you have stepped up your twitter game a big deal.
Glad the article helped with that! 🙂
I recently heard about Buffer and it’s a great tool. It’s very easy to use and it remove all your headaches about twitter presence. Just schedule once your tweets and it manage everything.
Riya, really glad to hear you have already come across Buffer.
Exactly, just like you say, it helps to maintain a consistent presence on Twitter, throwing in a few tweets and that’s it! 🙂
Thanks for the comment.
Leo,
Another great article. I have been thinking about a way to increase the impact of my tweets, getting retweeted and such. I am going to check out this app. Traffic Generation always gives such good advice, it is just so hard to keep up and implement all the good advice, but I do my best. Please don’t stop providing all the wonderful advice you give.
Thanks,
Jenn
Jenn,
Thanks a lot for taking the time to write another comment, I really appreciated that!
Yep, that’s excatly what it is all about, to increase traffic by remaining a genuine personality :).
Totally agree, Ana, is providing a ton of powerful resources here, glad you find it all useful! 🙂
I have just started to use Buffer, and it seems to be a decent application. Nothing too fancy, as it is mainly used for scheduling tweets. I haven’t fully explored what it can probably do, but it is handy if you need to schedule a tweet.
Paul, wow, glad to hear you have already started to use Buffer!
Yes, you are absolutely right, it is mainly used for Tweet scheduling. Yep, there are a few more handy add-ons you can use with Buffer, I hope you get a chance to explore them, would love to hear your views on them! 🙂
Thanks for your comment Paul! 🙂
Oh wait. Buffer allows us to add the Tweet box into our blog posts? Gotta try that!
Hi Daniel, yep that’s exactly how it works! 🙂
No need to be redirected to some other page, but you can do it conveniently on any page you are on! 🙂