Why There’s No Perfect Time to Post on Facebook

There probably isn’t a single best time to share to social media.

There’s a long tradition of studies that have attempted to uncover a ‘best time’ to post to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and almost every other social media marketing channel, with each study finding a wide range of results (we’ve even created our own studies here at Buffer).

Here are just some recommendations on the best time to post to Facebook to get you started:

• Thursdays and Fridays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. [Hubspot]
• Thursday at 8 p.m.  [TrackMaven]
• 1–4 p.m. late into the week and on weekends [CoSchedule]
• Early afternoon during the week and Saturdays [Buffer]
• Off-peak times are best [Buzzsum0]

All of these studies are based on sound logic and can potentially be helpful to point marketers in the right direction. But almost every study reveals a different ‘best time to post’ and I believe there’s no perfect time to post to Facebook (or any social channel for that matter). 

The best time to post depends on a number of factors that are specific to every business: What’s your industry? What location is audience based? When are they online? Are you sponsoring your post?

I’d love to flip the conversation and say that instead of looking for a universal ‘best time to post’, maybe we should be focusing specifically on when is the best time for your brand to post.

Why there’s no universal best time to post on Facebook

The content crush is truly upon us. There’s more content shared to Facebook than any of us could ever consume, and as such, Facebook’s News Feed algorithm helps to determine what is shown to us every time we open up Facebook.

On their Business blog, Facebook’s VP of Advertising Technology, Brian Boland explains:

On average, there are 1,500 stories that could appear in a person’s News Feed each time they log onto Facebook. For people with lots of friends and Page likes, as many as 15,000 potential stories could appear any time they log on.

As a result, competition in News Feed — the place on Facebook where people view content from their family and friends, as well as businesses — is increasing, and it’s becoming harder for any story to gain exposure in News Feed.

Whenever you post to Facebook, you’re essentially competing against at least 1,500 others post for a place in the News Feed and timing is only one of a number of factors that determines which content appears.

With this in mind, it’s also possible that the best time to post could also be the worst time. Let’s say a study found the best time to publish is 6pm on a Friday, and every brand was to try and push content to their audience at that time, it’s likely that very few of those posts would be seen due to such high competition. The same is true for saying off-peak times are best to publish – if all brands post off-peak then there will be more competition, and so they should go back to posting at peak time.

It’s all very muddled and there’s no clear answer. As such, I’d argue that there’s no specific time that’s best to post to Facebook.

So, when should you post to Facebook? A couple of strategies you can try

If there’s no ‘best’ time to post, how do you decide when to share your content to Facebook?

To answer this question, I feel like there are two approaches we could use:

1. When your data tells you
2. When it’s relevant

1. When your data tells you

When it comes to marketing and digital strategy, the best data is always your own. And, thankfully, Facebook has a ton of data available for all page owners and admins. A comprehensive understanding of your own audience on Facebook and how your content is performing will bring more success, than generic insights drawn from studies on a wide variety of Pages from a range of industries and brands.

2. When it’s relevant

This one is a little less scientific. But some content will work best in-the-moment or at a time when it’s most relevant. A great example of this is the content many sports teams share to Facebook to update fans on the scores or breaking news.

For your business, the same can also be true. Some pieces of content will perform best when they’re relevant. For example, the best time to share content related to the launch of your new product tends to be directly following the announcement. Or if you had an advert on a local TV station, it’s best to create and share social content around the same time that it’s broadcast.

How to use Facebook Insights to find your best time to post

If you’re looking to find the best time to post on Facebook, the first best place to start is Facebook Insights.

To see your Page Insights, click Insights at the top of your Page:

Once you’re in the Page Insights dashboard, there’s a wealth of data available to you. For this post, though, we’re going to dive into a couple of specific areas to help you discover when to post your content.

How to find out when your fans are online

From the Insights dashboard, select Posts in the left-hand column menu. This will take you to a detailed breakdown of the days and time your fans are most active on Facebook: 

This chart shows the average times across the week. You can hover over each individual day to see an overlay of how that day looks vs the averages. Here’s an example of how Sunday’s tend to look for our Page (the dark blue line is data for Sunday):

What does this data tell us?

Here at Buffer, we can see our audience is online 7 days per week and that there’s no specific day where we see a spike. We can also see that from around 9 am in the morning the number of people online is gradually increasing up until around 4 pm where the number begins to decline slightly.

There are plenty of ways to interpret this data. But, to me, this would suggest our best times to post are during the work day between the hours of 9 am – 5 pm when our audience are most active on Facebook. I’d recommend testing a variation of times between those hours to see what works and if there’s a best time at all.

Another experiment we’ve been trying off the back of this data is posting at off-peak times. Brian, our social media manager, has recently been posting when less of our audience is online and we’ve been seeing some success between 3 am – 5 am.

How to find posting times of successful posts

Facebook Insights records reach and engagement figures for every post you share to your Facebook Page. This data can be found in the same place as the data for when your fans are online. Head to your Page Insights, click Posts and below the graph showing times your fans are online, you’ll see ‘All Posts Published’.

Here, in the ‘Published’ column, you can see the date and time when each post was published to your Facebook Page. With this data you’re looking out for any trends regarding the times. For example, do posts published around a specific time tend to receive more reach or engagement.

Note: If your posts are Sponsored or Boosted (like many of ours in the above screenshot), this could also skew your data a little as these posts are likely to gain significantly more reach than organic posts regardless or the time they’re published.

What does this data tell us?

Personally, I think our data on the Buffer Facebook Page is pretty inconclusive at the moment. It’s clear that posts published between around 10 am – 12 pm seem to do well, as do posts at around 5 pm. But I’d love to test a bunch more variables before making any clear conclusions.

Using Buffer’s Optimal Scheduling tool

Another way to find some potentially great times to post to your Facebook Page is with our Optimal Scheduling tool.

When you optimize your schedule, we look at the past 5,000 interactions (e.g. likes, favorites, clicks, etc.) you’ve had on the Page you’re optimizing as well as similar profiles in the same timezone. We then plot these according to your timezone in a 24 hour period, to see when most interactions have happened.

We also include an ‘experimental’ element, that picks some timeslots outside your top engaged times to find unexplored, new optimal timing areas for you to post.

How to use the Optimal Scheduling tool

Step 1: Connect your Facebook Page to Buffer

To use our Optimal Scheduling tool, you’ll first need to connect a Facebook Page to Buffer. To do this, login to your Buffer and then click on the + icon next to Accounts in the top left of the dashboard. Then, select Facebook Page:

Step 2: Head over to your Schedule tab

From your Buffer dashboard, select your Facebook Page in the left-hand column and then click on the ‘Schedule’ tab:

Now, click on the ‘Try our Optimal Timing Tool’ link underneath your schedule. Alternatively, you can also follow this link: https://buffer.com/optimal-scheduling/calculate

Step 3: Select your Page

Next, simply the select the Page you’d like the tool to identify posting times for, how many times you’d like to post each day and click ‘Calculate Times’:

Step 3: Check your suggested times

The Optimal Scheduling tool will now display some times for your to post based on recent engagement for your Page and other similar Pages in your timezone. If you wish, you can also replace your current Buffer schedule with these times in one click:

Note: As this tool takes data from your Page and similar profiles in the same timezone, I tend to use the recommended times as a test to see how content performs at each time, rather than a set of ‘best times to post’.

Businesses will win because of the content, not the timing

When one of your Facebook friends gets married, the chances are you’ll see their wedding photos stuck to the top of your News Feed all day, regardless of the time they’re posted. This happens because wedding photos, whether you like them or not, are great content and as soon as they’re posted, a bunch of people rush to like, share and comment on them.

If you want to succeed on Facebook, your content will be the most important factor. Not the time it’s posted. Of course, timing can have an effect on performance if the post is timely or more relevant at set time – such as content aimed at reaching sports fans at the time when games are happening. But largely, your social media success relies on the strength of your content.

Over to you

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic: Do you think there’s a best time to post to Facebook? How do you decide when to publish your posts? Let me know in the comments, I’m excited to join the conversation.

 

source http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bufferapp/~3/WMS65T8qWJU/time-to-post-on-facebook

Snapchat Marketing Strategy 101: Getting Started, Building a Community, and Generating ROI – Carlos Gil [SSM027]

What started as a simple app to send disappearing videos to friends, Snapchat now attracts some of the biggest brands and influencers in the world.

More than 300 million people use the app every month – generating an astounding 10 billion videos views per day!

Which is why Snapchat presents a huge opportunity for businesses and brands to get in on a platform that is growing exponentially by the day.

But how?

Carlos Gil has been helping brands and businesses successfully develop and implement their Snapchat marketing strategy for years. And he’s really, really good at it, too. In 2016, Carlos was listed as one of the world’s top Snapchat marketing influencers by Inc. and a host of other publications.

We had the pleasure of chatting with Carlos all about how marketers can get started with Snapchat and how they can tie their Snapchat marketing efforts into overall business ROI. A huge thank you to Carlos for jam-packing this episode with actionable wisdom and takeaways for social media managers and marketers alike looking to create winning habits and goals that will take their skills to the next level.

How to listen: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud | Stitcher | RSS

This episode is available on:

• iTunes
• Google Play
• Stitcher
• Sound Cloud

In this episode, here’s what you’ll learn:

Carlos Gil shares his expert insights on what it takes to get started on Snapchat and how marketers can use this platform to build a engaged community as well as drive real ROI for their business.

• Carlos’ story of becoming a Snapchat influencer
• Answering the question: Is it too late to join Snapchat for brands?
• How to get started on Snapchat and provide value to your audience
• Tying Snapchat marketing efforts to business ROI
• How to run an influencer marketing campaign on Snapchat

3 Key Takeaways for Marketers Looking to Expand and Go All-In on Snapchat in 2017

In Carlos’ words…

1. Be real

I often look to DJ Khaled for inspiration (keys to success) – he’s one of the most watched people online today. They key to DJ Khaled’s success has been just being real and he’s set the model of consistency for every brand marketer should aspire to be. What people really want is to be entertained, engaged, and inspired. Think of Snapchat as product storytelling.

2. Take risks

Snapchat is not Facebook, it’s not LinkedIn, and it’s not YouTube – it’s Snapchat. Take risks and tell short, engaging stories on the platform.

3. Develop a long-term strategy

You’re not going to get on Snapchat and see success overnight. There’s no such thing as overnight on social media, but especially on Snapchat. Really start building your strategy over the next 12-18  months. How are you going to first grow your audience? How are you going to keep them engaged long-term? And then, most importantly, how are you going to take that growth and engagement and convert that into sales?

Mentionable Quotes and Shareable Snippets

“If you do anything at all on Snapchat different from your other social media channels, make the focus around storytelling. And if you want to take it one step further, allow others to tell that story for you.”

– Carlos Gil

Show Notes and Other Memorable Moments

Thanks a million for checking out this episode! Below are the websites and other tidbits that were mentioned in today’s podcast about creating incredible Facebook communities using groups. If you have any questions for us, feel free to drop us a line in the comments and we’ll respond right away!

Awesome People, Things, & Articles Mentioned in the Show

• Buffer on Snapchat
• Social Media Masterminds Group – Facebook
• 5 Top Snapchat Tips for Marketers – The Buffer Blog
• Getting to Know the Ghost: A Complete Guide to Snapchat – The Buffer Blog
• 24 Hours with Snapchat Spectacles and My Excitement has Disappeared – Carlos Gil
• A Video Marketing Guide on Creating Content for Snapchat – The Buffer Blog
• The Easy Way to Create a Snapchat Geofilter – The Buffer Blog
• DJ Khaled on Snapchat
• Carlos Gil on Snapchat
• Snapchat Spectacles: Our Full Review and 5 Tips to Create Better Snaps – The Buffer Blog

Great Quotes

• “My perspective of social media is completely different than your textbook version of how these channels work. For me, this was a lifeline for me to grow a business and feed my family.”
• “It’s definitely not too late to join Snapchat. Even though the train has already left the station, there’s still time for brands and businesses to get on board.”
• “We see a lot of ‘rinse and repeat’ across social media channels. You have to ask yourself: How is my content going to be different on Snapchat than my other social media channels?”
• “Reach out to influencers directly if they align with your brand and if everything checks out, run a campaign with them on Snapchat.”

How to Say Hello to Carlos (and us)

Carlos Gil is a fantastic person to follow across social media for daily marketing tips, tricks, and motivation. You can find Carlos on Snapchat here, Twitter here, Facebook here, and read more about Carlos’ journey at carlosgil.biz.

Thanks for listening! We’d love to connect with you at @buffer on Twitter or with the hashtag #bufferpodcast.

Enjoy the show? It’d mean the world to us if you’d be up for giving us a rating and review on iTunes!

—

About the Show

The Science of Social Media is a podcast for marketers and social media managers looking for inspiration, ideas, and results for their social media strategies. Each week, we interview one of the very best in social media marketing from brands in every industry. You will learn the latest tactics on social media, the best tools to use, the smartest workflows, and the best goal-setting advice. It is our hope that each episode you’ll find one or two gems to use with your social media marketing!

The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback.

source http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bufferapp/~3/0u-WW8UDQnE/carlos-gil-show-notes-snapchat-marketing

How to Use Buffer for Social Media Teams: The Complete Guide

Having a team of people helping with your social media strategy can be a crucial asset in achieving your social media goals.

Not only can it help you tap into multiple points of view and perspectives to bring a fresh take to your social media content – having a team of people contributing content to your social accounts can help you save a ton of time with content curation. Oh, and having a second set of eyes for proofreading always help too

So how do you go about working with a team to execute your social media strategy?

There are so many things to consider: How do you divvy up responsibilities and track progress? What workflows do you need to keep things running smoothly? And what tool should you use?

In this post, I’d love to guide you through how Buffer can help your social media team save your team time, boost productivity and drive fantastic results.

Once you’ve researched all your options, we’d love to help you schedule, publish and analyze your posts on social media!

How to use Buffer to manage your social media team

If you’re thinking about exploring new social media tools for your team – or if you’re actively testing out potential solutions – then I think you’ll find this post interesting.

We’ll walk through how you can use Buffer step-by-step to streamline collaboration with your social media team and keep your profiles scheduled with great content.

If you have any questions or want to chat about potentially using Buffer for your team, feel free to reach out on in the comments below or on Twitter.

Now, let’s jump in!

To make it easier to find the answers you’re looking for, here’s where to find any info you might need: 

Inviting new team members to Buffer

At Buffer, we have a team of people who share content on our social media profiles. In order to give everyone access to the profiles, as well as prevent over-sharing, we’ve added them as team members. And you can do the same thing! Here’s how:

Step 1: Go to ‘Admin’ → ‘Team Members’

When you’re ready to add a team member to your Buffer account, start by clicking the Admin link at the top of your Buffer dashboard, and then selecting Team Members.

Step 2: Click the ‘Invite a New Team Member’ button

From here, click on the blue Invite a New Team Member button on the top right-hand side of the screen.

Step 3: Enter their name and email address

Now you’ll need to type in your new team member’s name as well as the email address you’d like to send their invite to.

On this page, you’ll also notice there are three other fields to fill out and options to choose:

1. Assigning which social accounts this team member has access to
2. Setting the access level for each social account
3. Granting admin access

We’ll dive into the details of each of these options in the following three steps

Step 4: Assign a social account

At this point, you’re able to decide which social media profiles your team member should have access to.

Just type in the name and select each social account to assign the team member to each of the profiles you’d like to give them access to.

Step 5: Set the access level for that account

Once you’ve selected a profile, you can set the level of access you’d like this team member to have:

• Full Posting Access – If a team member is invited with Full Posting Access, they’ll be able to post directly to the queue, as well as help you with approvals and managing your posting schedule – saving you a ton of time in the process
• Approval Required – If a team member is invited with the Approval Required access level, they’ll be able to suggest new content, which you (or anyone else with Full Posting Access) can then review and edit if needed, before approving it to be added to your queue of posts

You can then continue assigning your team member to as many social profiles as you’d like. And you can set a different access level for each account.

So for example, you can give someone full posting access to Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, while also requiring their posts to be approved before posting to Instagram.

Step 6: Set Admin Access

If you’d like this team member to be able to connect social media profiles and manage other team members on your Buffer account, you can provide them with full Admin Access.

To do this, just flip the toggle to turn this option on or off.

Note: Be careful with the Admin Access option and only grant it if your team member is familiar with Buffer. As an admin, they’ll have full control over all the profiles you’ve already connected.

Step 7: Click the ‘Invite Team Member’ button

Once you’ve entered your team member’s name and email, given them access to all the appropriate social media accounts, and decided whether to make them an admin – click on the blue Invite Team Member button at the bottom of the page.

Step 8: Your team member will receive an invite email

Finally, once you’ve sent the invite, your team member will immediately receive an email prompting them to create a new Buffer account, get set up, and start posting.

Here’s what they’ll see:

And there you have it! Once they create their account they’ll be fully ready to start creating content for the social accounts you give them access to.

Note: Feel free to share this “Getting Started as  Team Member” guide with the folks you invite! It will walk them through everything they need to know to get started using Buffer.

Inviting your clients to Buffer

If you’re at an agency managing clients’ social accounts, did you know you can actually invite your clients to Buffer as team members? This can be amazing for transparency and ensures your clients feel part of the process.

When you invite a client, they’ll be able to:

• Login and see their own social accounts
• See what content is coming up in the queue
• Suggest their own posts that you can review, edit and approve
• See the social media calendar
• And see how well their posts are performing in analytics

The beauty of Buffer is that you can pick and choose which social accounts you’d like to invite them to, and what level of access they should have.

Inviting clients to Buffer is the same as the process for inviting team members we outlined in the previous section. Click here to jump to the step-by-step instructions. 

Here’s a quick, high-level overview of how to invite your clients to Buffer:

1. Click the ‘Admin’ link at the top of your Buffer dashboard, then click the ‘Team Members’ dropdown
2. Click the ‘Invite a New Team Member’ button
3. Enter the name and email address of your client
4. Assign a social account you’d like to give them access to
5. Set the access level they should have for that account
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each social account you want to give them access to
7. Decide whether you want to give them admin access or not (be careful about providing admin access to folks outside your agency, as admins will have access to every social profile connected to your Buffer account)
8. Click the ‘Invite Team Member’ button
9. Your client will receive an email inviting them to create a Buffer account

And like I mentioned above, for a thorough, step-by-step walkthrough for how to invite people to your Buffer account, click here to jump to the previous section.

 

Managing permission levels and account access

If you ever want to change which social profiles your team members can post to, or edit their access levels, this is a super handy feature. Here’s how to use it:

Step 1: Go to ‘Admin’ → ‘Team Members’

If you’d like to manage permission levels for any of your team members or update which social profiles they have access to, click on the Admin link at the top of your dashboard, and then select Team Members.

Step 2: Select a team member

Now select the team member you’d like to manage permissions or account access for. If you have a large team, you may find it easiest to search for their name.

Step 3: Edit permissions and assign accounts

Once you’ve selected a team member, you can do a few things:

1. Edit the Access Level for the social media accounts this team member is currently assigned to
2. Assign additional social accounts to them, and edit the access levels
3. Remove social media accounts, so they no longer have access

Step 4: Edit admin access

If you’d like to edit their admin status, click the Edit Team Member button on the top right. From here you’ll be able to toggle their Admin Access on or off.

Note: Be careful with this option and only grant Admin Access if your team member is familiar with Buffer. As an admin, they’ll have full control over all the profiles you’ve already connected.

 

Scheduling your content in Buffer

Scheduling your content in Buffer is simple. Just add updates to your Buffer queue and it will be posted for you, well spaced out over the day – according to a posting schedule that you determine.

It’s like your social media assistant who’s ready to help anytime. Just drop off the content for your social media posts and you never have to worry about when it will be posted, it’s all taken care of by Buffer for you.

Once you’ve invited a team member to Buffer, they can start scheduling content right away. Here’s how:

Step 1: Creating your post

To add a post to the queue, all you have to do is click inside the “what do you want to share?” box at the top of one of the profiles you have access to and either type in or copy/paste your post.

You can also upload an image or video to accompany your post as well.

Step 2: Select which profiles to share the post to

Then choose which profiles you’d like to share the post to by selecting the avatars at the top.

Step 3: Add your post to the Buffer queue

Once your post is ready, the next step is to click Add to Queue at the bottom right of the composer.

Note: If you set up a team member’s account with “Approval Required” access, any posts they submit will appear in the ‘For Review’ tab within the ‘Content’ tab until you (or another team member with full posting access) approves them.

And if you’ve granted a team member “Full Posting” access, any posts they add will go straight into the queue at the next available time slot according to the posting schedule.

Additional scheduling options:

As you and your team members start adding posts to the queue, you’ll spot a few other options, including:

• Share Next: This will bump the post to the top of the queue and it will be the next one to be shared. (Only available to team members with full posting access.)
• Share Now: This will share your post on the selected social profiles right away. (Only available to team members with full posting access.)
• Schedule Post: This allows you to choose a custom date and time for the post to be shared. (If a team member whose posts require approval chooses this option, their post will go into the ‘For Review’ tab pending approval. If the post is approved before the date and time they picked, it will be moved into the queue and sent accordingly. However, if the post gets approved after the date and time they’ve chosen, it will be placed into the queue at the next available time slot according to the posting schedule).

 

Reviewing and approving posts

Once you’ve invited your team to Buffer and your teammates start contributing posts, any posts from people who’ve been added with “Approval Required” access will show up in a review queue.

Anyone on your team with full posting access can review, edit, approve, or delete them before sharing to your social profiles.

Here’s how each option works:

1. Reviewing posts

Any posts submitted by your team members that require approval will appear in the ‘For Review’ tab under ‘Content.’

You and any team members who have full posting access will have the option to edit and approve posts before publishing – as well as delete those which you’d prefer not to share on your social media profiles. More on this below…

2. Approving posts

If you’d like to approve a post right away, click Approve. The post will be moved into the next available time slot in the queue.

Tip: If you’ve like to receive an email notification when a new contribution is submitted, click My Account at the top of your dashboard and select Email Settings from the drop down list. You’ll see a list of reminders that you can enable/disable. All you have to do is flip on the New Contributions option.

3. Editing posts

If you’d like adjustments to the post before adding it to the queue, hover over it and click Edit. From here you can change the text, link, or image – and then when you’re done, click Save and Approve.

4. Deleting posts

You also have the option to remove a post if it’s not one that you’d like to share to social media. Just click Delete to remove it from the list of suggested posts.

 

Customizing your posting schedules

Like we’ve talked about in previous sections, when you add posts to your Buffer queue, they’ll be sent out automatically – according to the posting schedule that you put in place for each social profile.

So how do you customize the dates and times for that posting schedule?

Step 1: Select a social media profile and click the ‘Schedule’ tab

Select the social account you’d like to customize the posting schedule for on the left-hand side of your dashboard.

Then select the Schedule tab at the top of the page.

Step 2: Customize the days and times your posts should go out

From here, you can do a few different things:

1. Choose which timezone is best for this profile
2. Customize the days and times you’d like your content to be shared
3. Create a new posting schedule

Note: On our Awesome and Business Plans you’re able to create multiple posting schedules. This is handy if you want to be sharing posts at different time on different days of the week.

Bonus: Check out the ‘Optimal Timing Tool’

Feel free to check out the Optimal Timing Tool, by clicking the link at the bottom of the Schedule page.

As you post via Buffer more and more, the tool will gradually learn what the optimal posting times are for each profile.

We’ve found timing to have a great impact on engagement so we recommend you revisit it every few weeks, especially while you’re starting out with Buffer.

 

Analyzing how well your posts are performing

An important part of your social media strategy is analyzing how well your posts are performing. And Buffer offers analytics features that allow you to do just that!

Under the Analytics tab in your Buffer dashboard, you’ll find three options:

• Posts
• Analysis
• Influencers

Here are the kinds of insights you’ll get from each of them:

1. Posts

Here you’ll find a history of all of the posts that have already been published via Buffer.

In addition to the date and time the posts were shared, you’ll also be able to see which team member shared the post and all of the key engagement metrics (e.g. clicks, likes, retweets, reach, and more).

You can also do a few other neat things on in the Posts tab:

• Sorting and filtering – Sort your posts by most and least popular, filter them by type (images, videos, links, texts, retweets), and customize the time frame
• Re-share popular posts – Posts can easily be re-shared by dragging them onto any profile on the left hand side of your dashboard, or by using the “Re-Buffer” option, which allows you to modify the post before sharing it again
• Export your data – And, of course, you’re able to download unlimited CSV reports of all of your post performance data

2. Overview

Here you’ll find all of your engagement metrics, growth rates, and a great customizable chart where you can see the performance of your content over time.

You might also find it helpful to look at the past 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, or any custom timeframe.

3. Influencers (available for Twitter)

The Influencers report will show your most influential and engaged followers on Twitter.

You’ll be able to see who’s sharing your content, as well as searching for top influencers on the topics you care about.

And you can download this report as a PDF and share it with your team or other stakeholders.

 

Setting up 2-step login for your team

Your account’s security is a top priority. And to help keep your account even more secure, we provide a two-step verification option for every Buffer user

Here’s how it works: whenever you log into your Buffer account, after entering your username and password, you’ll be asked for a second authentication code that we send to your mobile phone via text.

Here’s how you can get this feature set up for your account:

Step 1: Go to ‘My Account’ → ‘Access & Password’

You can activate 2-step login on your account by heading over to the My Account link at the top right of your Buffer dashboard and selecting Access & Password from the drop-down menu.

Step 2: Click the ‘Enable’ button in the 2-Step Login section

From there, find the 2-Step Login section and click Enable.

Step 3: Complete the confirmation process

Enter your mobile number, complete the confirmation process, and you should be good to go!

Tip: On the Buffer marketing team, we ask all of our team members to set up 2-step login on their accounts – just to make sure our account is as safe and secure as possible! And we highly recommend having your team members do the same, if possible

Removing a team member from your Buffer account

Whether someone is leaving your team, changing roles, or switching up their responsibilities – there are a number of reasons why you might find yourself needed to remove a team member from your Buffer account.

Whatever the reason, here’s the quick and easy way to do it:

Step 1: Go to ‘Admin’ → ‘Team Members’

To remove a team member from your Buffer account, click on the Admin link at the top of your dashboard and then click on Team Members.

Step 2: Select the team member you’d like to remove → click ‘Edit Team Member’

Now that you’re looking at the list of team members on your Buffer account:

• Click on the team member you’d like to remove
• And then click on Edit Team Member

Step 3: Click the ‘Remove’ link

You should then see the option to Remove the team member from your Buffer account.

Now this team member will no longer have access to your company’s Buffer account or social profiles.

 

Transferring ownership of your Buffer account to someone else

If you’re the owner of your company’s Buffer account, you might end up needing to transfer ownership to another person on your team. And you can easily do this by changing the email address connected to the account.

Step 1: Go to ‘My Account’ → ‘Email Settings’

To do this, click My Account at the top right of your Buffer dashboard and then click on Email Settings from the drop down menu.

Step 2: Click the ‘Change Email’ button

Once you’re on the Email Settings page, click on the Change Email button.

Step 3: Enter your password

You’ll need to enter your password before you’re able to continue

Step 4: Enter a new email address

Then enter the email address of the team member you’d like to transfer ownership of your Buffer account to.

Note: Once you’ve changed the email address, let the new account owner know that they can reset the password at this link. Once this has been done, you’ll no longer have access to the Buffer account.

Over to you!

Phew! That was a long one. If you made it this far, thank you for reading I really hope this guide was helpful in learning a bit more about how to use Buffer with your social media team.

Once you’ve had a chance to research your options, if you feel like Buffer might be a good fit for your team, we’d love to help you schedule, publish and analyze your posts on social media!

source http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bufferapp/~3/sOnfFZK56i0/how-to-use-buffer-for-your-social-media-team

10 Important Skills and Traits Your Social Media Manager Will Need in 2017

A decade ago, the role of a social media manager might not have even existed. Today, however, almost every company is involved in social media one way or another.

A quick look at Google Trends shows the rise in interest in the term “social media manager” over the years and it seems that people have never been as interested in the term as they are today.

But what does it take to be a great social media manager? What are the skills to master and traits to have? How can you work on those areas?

In this post, we’ll try our best to answer all those questions. We’ll share 10 skills and traits that are crucial to being a great social media manager and relevant resources to help you improve in those areas.

Skills vs Traits

Throughout this post, we’ll discuss the various skills and traits we feel are most important for social media managers. But before we dive in, I quickly wanted to share some of my learnings about the difference between skills and traits.

Here’s a great explanation of skills vs traits from Red Letter Resumes:

Skills are tangible factors that you actually bring to the table. Things such as HTML, PowerPoint, Tax Preparation, Medication Compounding, Social Media Management, Lesson Planning, Accounts Receivable, Contract negotiations, etc. They are things that require you to develop a certain level of understanding, productivity or efficiency to claim expertise.

A trait is therefore defined as, “a quality that makes one person or thing different from another”. These are the things that make you who you are, that are part of your personality: the things that make you different from other people. The difference is that these are subjective. One person’s definition of being hard-working is not the same as another’s. Traits come without a quantifiable or standard measure. They are often, but not always, amplifiers of how you do or complete something that is a skill.

When it comes to finding your ideal social media manager, I feel you may be looking for the right mix of tangible skills (things like copywriting and analytics) and traits (such as curiosity).

7 skills top social media managers share

1. Copywriting

Copywriting is a fundamental skill for social media marketing (and probably all areas of marketing). Writing good copy is required in many areas of a social media manager’s role, from filling up your social media profile description to crafting tweets and Facebook posts. To

To drive engagement and clicks, you have to fit a captivating story into your social media post and without great copywriting skills that can be difficult.

To enhance your copywriting skills, I’d highly recommend studying a few copywriting formulas to help you craft inspiring copy. Finding a copywriting formula (or two) that works for you can be a great productivity boost and also improve the quality of the social media content you publish.

One of our favorite copywriting techniques here at Buffer is the ‘Before – After – Bridge’  – you may recognize it from a few of our blog posts and social posts. Here’s how it works:

Before – After – Bridge

Before – Here’s your world …

After – Imagine what it’d be like, having Problem A solved …

Bridge – Here’s how to get there.

Example:

For more great tips on copywriting, be sure to check out Kevan’s great post: If Don Draper Tweeted: The 27 Copywriting Formulas That Will Drive Clicks and Engagement on Social Media

Resources

• Copyblogger (Blog)
• 75 Resources for Writing Incredible Copy that Converts (Blog post by KISSmetrics)

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2. Design (Graphics and Videos)

Research has found that social media posts with images receive more engagement and 43 percent of consumers want to see more videos content in the future.

Social media evolved a great deal over recent years and we have moved away from mostly plain text based updates towards visual content such as images and videos. Designing and creating visual content is becoming an essential skill for social media managers.

Resources

• Canva’s Design School (Courses and articles)
• Why Every Marketer in 2016 Needs to Be a (Part-Time) Designer: 53 Design Terms and Tips to Level-Up (Blog post by Buffer)
• How to Create Social Media Videos on a Budget (Blog post by Social Media Examiner)
• A Video Marketing Guide On Creating Epic Content for Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and More (Blog post by Buffer)

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3. Public Speaking (confidence in front of an audience)

With features and apps like Facebook Live, Instagram Live, and Periscope, live videos are becoming more and more important on social platforms. And marketers have noted this change, with 42 percent of marketers saying they want to create more live videos.

Why are marketers excited about live video? I believe the answer is two-fold: reach and engagement. Facebook Live videos are more likely to appear higher in the News Feed when those videos are live than after they are no longer live. From an engagement perspective, live content also provides opportunity for high-engagement and 1:1 interactions with audiences.

To tap into the live video trend, social media managers have to be confident enough to go live on social media to connect with their audience. Having public speaking skills will help you to present your ideas, interview guests, answer impromptu questions, and chat with your followers in real-time.

If you want to see our awesome Social Media Manager, Brian Peters, in action, you can find his live videos here. And below is a short clip of Brian discussing viral content:

Resources

• Toastmasters (Resources and community)
• 11 Places to Learn Public Speaking Skills for Free (Blog post by Inc.)
• 15 essential tips for mastering Facebook Live (Blog post by Mashable)

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4. Customer Service / Community Engagement

Social media is the top channel people go to for customer care, but only 21 percent of businesses use social media for customer support. This means there’s a huge opportunity here to provide remarkable customer service experiences.

As the face of your company on social media and the person who is likely to be responding to at least some of the messages your brand receives on platforms like Twitter and Facebook, it’s important for social media managers to have conversational skills and empathy to help you customers on social media.

Community engagement is quite similar in many ways. A great social media community manager is able to ask the right questions to facilitate engagement and answer questions about the product, company, or industry.

Resources

• Support Ops (Podcast)
• The power of vulnerability (Video by Brené Brown)
• Customer Support Academy (Blog by Respond)
• Social Media Examiner (Blog)

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5. Behavioral Psychology

With data and analytics, you know what type of social media posts do well. Behavioral psychology tells you the why — for example, why are people attracted to certain posts? Why do people share certain posts?

Knowing the what allows you to spot trends and try to repeat past successes; knowing the why enables you to understand the underlying causes for those trends in order to try and create future successes.

For example, your data might tell you that your tweets with images are doing better than tweets with only text. Based on just that information, you might create more tweets with images. However, it could be that your followers prefer visual content. Without knowing the psychology behind trends, you might miss out on opportunities to create other types of visual content such as videos and GIFs.

You certainly don’t need a degree or high level of expertise in psychology to be a social media manager, but a keenness to learn and understand psychology at some level is an important skill.

Resources

• Nir and Far (Blog by Nir Eyal)
• 50 Must-Read Psychology Books (Blog post by Gregory Ciotti)
• An Introduction to Marketing Psychology: How to Use Human Behavior to Make More Informed Decisions (eBook by HubSpot)
• 15 Psychological Studies That Will Boost Your Social Media Marketing (Blog post by Buffer)

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6. Analytics

The term, ‘Analytics’, is used quite broadly here, referring to both social media metrics (e.g. likes, comments, shares, etc.) and business metrics (e.g. traffic, leads, conversions, revenue, etc.). A great social media manager is able to understand both types of metrics and tie them together to give an overall view of the company’s social media performance against business goals.

A social media manager should be the guiding light in your business when it comes to measuring your performance across various social channels. As such, learning the ins and outs of social media metrics and judging which ones are meaningful for your business is essential for a social media manager.

For example, if your goal is to drive traffic from social media channels to your website and drive sales, being able to attribute traffic and conversions back to channels and even certain posts will help your team to understand what content is helping you to achieve your goals.

Knowing how to read and intrepert data is now an important skill for social media managers.

Resources

• Free Social Media Analytics Course (Course by quintly)
• Google Analytics Academy (Resource by Google)
• Startup Marketing Metrics for Pirates (Video by Dave McClure)
• HubSpot (Blog)

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7. Budgeting

As a social media manager, you might be allocated a budget to work with. Apart from paid advertising, you might have to pay for things like a social media management tool, designs, images, or courses to improve yourself. Having some basic financial and budgeting knowledge can make you better on the job.

While you might not need to be an Excel expert, understanding Excel and knowing what you can do with it can be very valuable.

(Image from HubSpot)

Resources

• How to Spend a Social Media Budget (Blog post by Buffer)
• Social Media Marketing Budget Template (Template by Demand Metrics)
• How to Manage Your Entire Marketing Budget [Free Budget Planner Templates] (Blog post and templates by HubSpot)
• Microsoft Excel – From Beginner to Expert in 6 Hours (Udemy course)

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3 personality traits great social media managers exhibit

8. Curiosity

A curious social media manager would immerse herself in the social media world, staying up-to-date with the latest development and experimenting with new social media marketing strategies.

Brian Peters is an epitome of this quality. When we discovered that videos, especially live videos, are becoming popular on social media, Brian immediately started making more videos on Facebook and Twitter. When Snap Inc. launched Spectacle, Brian got it as soon as he could to try it out and figure out how marketers can use it in their social media strategy.

HubSpot VP of Marketing Meghan Keaney Anderson said this really well when she described her ideal social media hire:

“We really look for people who have their finger on the pulse of how social is changing. It is one of the most rapidly changing industries right now, and I want someone who is paying attention to it, who is enthralled by it and fascinated by it. … Things shift so fast. If you think about the social media channels that were dominant two years ago and the social media channels that are dominant today, it’s just a totally different world.”

Resources

• How to Be a More Curious Person: 7 Tips for Becoming a Lifelong Learner (Blog post by HubSpot)
• 8 Habits of Curious People (Blog post by Fast Company)

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9. Adaptability

Adaptability complements curiosity. When you discover something new or spot a trend, being able to quickly adapt to it can keep you ahead of the curve.

For example, the most engaging type of social media content has shifted from texts to images to videos. In a Fast Company article, Mark Zuckerberg was reported to have said,

“Most of the content 10 years ago was text, and then photos, and now it’s quickly becoming videos,” Zuckerberg said, justifying Facebook’s aggressive push into the area. “I just think that we’re going to be in a world a few years from now where the vast majority of the content that people consume online will be video.”

A great social media manager is able to keep up with such changes and pick up the necessary skills (e.g. graphic design, video making, etc.). (Imagine when virtual reality becomes the most popular type of content!)

Resources

• 4 Steps To Becoming More Adaptable To Change (Blog post by Fast Company)
• How can you learn faster? (Quora thread)
• Four-Hour Workweek (Blog by Tim Ferriss)
• Make It Stick (Book by Peter C. Brown)

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10. Business Savviness

Being able to generate likes and shares is great; knowing how social media fits in with the entire business strategy is even better! A business-savvy social media manager sees the bigger picture and understands the role of social media in the company.

They understand which metrics are most relevant and crucial to the business and how social media can help to push them higher. For example, a B2B social media manager might focus on generating leads for her sales team while a B2C social media manager might focus on increasing customer purchases directly. This way, her impact goes beyond just social media but to the entire company.

Resources

• 11 Helpful Resources for Improving Your Business Skills (Blog post by HubSpot)
• How to Get Hired as a Social Media Manager (and Then Rock the Job Once You Have It) [SSM03] (Podcast by Buffer)

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Skills and traits others think are important

To give you an unbiased view on this topic, I’d love to share the skills and traits that other companies and individuals think are important:

What the Best Social Media Community Managers Actually Do in Their Jobs by HubSpot

• Content creation
• Marketing analytics
• News junkie
• Customer service
• Community management
• Funnel marketing
• Project management

Lindsay Kolowich of HubSpot also mentioned the necessary skills for each of these areas in this article.

10 Essential Skills a Social Media Manager Needs To Have on Their Resume by Jeff Bullas

• Strategy planning
• Tactics and execution
• Community management
• Understand how content works on a social web
• Optimizing content and technology
• Creative mindset
• Writing skills
• Be on top of the latest digital marketing trends
• Analytical skills
• Leadership and communication skills

How to Build A Social Media Strategy Dream Team by HubSpot and Sprout Social

• Patience
• Technical aptitude
• Proactive
• Daring
• Passion
• Level of Experience
• Customer-first mentality

Over to you

While you might not need to be proficient in every single area mentioned above, being good at a few of them would make you a great social media manager and a valuable asset to your company.

What other skills do you think is important for a social media manager to have? Would you be up for sharing some resources for improving those skills, too?

Thank you!

source http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bufferapp/~3/XrGRO9AXbcE/social-media-manager-job-description