How to be even smarter when using the online service Buffer to share stuff on social networks and media, in five easy steps.

 

1. Listen do you want to buffer a secret?
You can buffer WordPress posts which are only scheduled but not yet published. How? by using the ?p=number url that WordPress assigns to any post.
While the “semantic” url (the one with words from the title of the post) can change, the one with the numbers will not, and it will ensure that the link will always work. It’s a nice trick if you’re scheduling stuff (posts, books, music, any product) that has to remain hidden for now.
 

2. If it’s gettin’ cold, rebuffer it
It’s one of the most useful features of Buffer, and probably one of the lesser known, since it’s a bit hidden.
By going into Analytics, choosing Posts and then delving into Recent you can browse the bulk of messages you’ve already sent, in reverse chronological order. To republish any of them just use the “rebuffer this post” button. Handy, isn’t it?
 

3. Come on, let’s buffer it short and simple
Twitter has a 140 characters limit. So when buffering a post, do it first on Facebook / Google+ / Linkedin but exclude Twitter. Copy the text and later pare it down for Twitter, also changing those artist/brand/service/partner names into @mentions (which Buffer automatically recognizes and suggests).
 

4. You’ve buffered the look, you’ve got the hook
Everybody knows a good image grabs the reader’s attention. It works particularly well on Twitter, where “common” urls don’t have glitzy previews as YouTube, Spotify or App Store links do. So, keep it short AND spruce it up with a cool image.
 

5. Careful with that buff.ly shortening, Eugene!
Buffer’s in-built shortening service is handy, particularly if you’re interested in stats, but it breaks some social networks’ ability to recognize content and offer an automatic preview/player. Also: sometimes you want your audience to actually see the full url, for recognition value. You can disable the shortening in the settings or just clicking on the shortened buff.ly url (another click will reshorten it).
 

The Buffer logo is (C) Buffer and is taken from the Press section.
With apologies to The Beatles, Magic, The Pink Floyd, Prince and Weird Al Yankowic. ;-)