Buffer App – you may have heard about it over the past few months. Lots of people have been talking about how they use the Buffer App to Tweet more effectively.

You may be wondering – What Is Buffer App. In this article I’ll explain what it is and why you may (or may not) want to use it.

What Is Buffer?

The Buffer App website says it best:

Buffer makes your life easier with a smarter way to schedule tweets. Work out all your tweets at one point in time during the day. Then fill up your Buffer with your tweets and Buffer schedules them for you. Simply keep that Buffer topped up and you will then be tweeting consistently all day round, all week long.

Buffer App is really very simple. It works on the premise that a lot of the time, the Tweets that we send aren’t seen by our followers. This is because of the way that Twitter is. Twitter, like Facebook (well at least, like Facebook used to be) is based on a timeline. So your tweets appear as they happen in someone’s Twitter stream. If they have a lot of friends, then they may not notice your tweet, particularly if they aren’t looking at Twitter around the time that you make your tweet.

So if we accept that a lot of our tweets aren’t getting the biggest audience that they could, we need to figure out how to change that.

And this is where Buffer App comes in.

Buffer lets you schedule your tweets at a time that your followers are more likely to see them. I’ve written before about how I live in Australia and most of my followers are in America and Europe. So I’m asleep for a lot of the time that they’re active on Twitter.

The way I get around this is that I automate some of my tweets, using TweetAdder. But whilst Tweetadder is good, it doesn’t give me as much control over the timing of my tweets as Buffer does.

How Do I Use Buffer App?

Buffer is very simple to use.

Firstly, you register on their site and enter the details of your Twitter account.

Next, you go into the ‘Settings’ tab and enter your preferred Tweet schedule.

I’ll add another blog post soon about how to determine your ideal tweeting schedule.

Next, you download the Buffer App browser extension. I use Firefox, so I downloaded the Buffer App extension for Firefox. Once the Buffer App extension is downloaded, you’ll see a little Buffer App icon sitting at the bottom of your FireFox window.

The rest is so simple. Whenever you’re on the web and reading something you want to share with your readers, you click on the Buffer App icon at the bottom of your Firefox window. This will open a pop up box that has the title and description from the web page.It also automatically shortens the URL. You can also add your Bit.ly details in the Buffer settings if you want to use Bit.ly as your URL shortener.

You’re able to change any of the text around to suit what you want to say (HINT: always try and add the Twitter ID of the person who’s content you’re tweeting. If you do this they’re more likely to see that you’ve re-tweeted their content).

When you’re happy with your Tweet, just click on the ‘Add To Buffer’ button at the bottom and the tweet is added to your buffer.  It’ll be sent sometime in the future, depending on how you’ve set up your Buffer account.

It’s that simple.

There are some other ways you can add content to your buffer – I’ll explain these in a later post or alternatively, head on over to the Buffer App site and see what else it can do.

What Is Buffer App – Is It For You?

I’ve blogged before about how some people are comfortable automating some aspects of their Twitter use, and others aren’t. That’s fine. Figure out what suits you and do it.

If you’re not comfortable with automating any aspects of your Twitter use, then Buffer App isn’t for you. But consider this – Buffer App isn’t just mindless automation with no quality control. You determine what goes into your buffer. The only bit of the automation is when the tweet is sent.

If you are happy to automate some of your Tweeting, Buffer App has its place.

Buffer App – Pricing Plans

I’ve been using the free version of Buffer App. It gives me the ability to add one Twitter account and one Facebook account. I can have a maximum of 10 tweets in my buffer.

There are two other paid plans that give you the ability to add more Twitter and Facebook accounts and have more space in your buffer. Whether you need these extra features depends on how you think you’ll use the Buffer App.

My advice is to start with the free version, get used to it and work out whether you need one of the premium versions.

And if you refer other uses to Buffer App, they give you one extra space in your buffer for each new user you refer. So use my link please!

Other Options

I mentioned earlier how I use TweetAdder for some of my automated tweets. It does the job, but doesn’t allow me to schedule specific times for the tweets to go out. It also does a bunch of things that Buffer doesn’t, so it’s not fair to compare the two.

Hootsuite is my main Twitter dashboard, and it gives me the ability to schedule tweets. The only problem is that it’s more complicated to do this than Buffer App. Buffer is set up to send tweets at the times I’ve pre-set. With Hootsuite I’ve got to enter the date and time in every time I want to schedule a tweet.

The concept of Buffer App is excellent. No-one wants to send out Tweets that don’t get seen, and Buffer App helps you increase the visibility and effectiveness of your tweets. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more companies copy the Buffer concept. I just mentioned Hootsuite – it’d be a relatively simple thing for them to add some customisable tweet schedules like buffer. Or alternatively, perhaps the Buffer App starts to talk directly with the other Twitter apps out there so the scheduling happens automatically.

My preference is to have all my tweeting done from one interface, so using Hootsuite, TweetAdder and Buffer App is not the ideal, but it gets the job done.

I’m convinced in the merits of using Twitter to connect with other bloggers and people who would be interested in the topics I write about. Buffer App is another tool that I can use to make sure I’m getting maximum leverage out of Twitter. Go ahead, sign up for the free plan and see what you think.