Are you a busy blogger?
Is that redundant? Aren’t all bloggers busy?
Fortunately, tools exist today which can help you expedite your blogging tasks.
Two of those tools are Buffer and Hootsuite. When I first started blogging, I recommended Hootsuite.
I have since changed my position. This post will explain why all bloggers should use Buffer to automate their blog promotion and for other blogging tasks as well.
Why Should You Use a Social Media Management Tool?
Consider this comment from a reader:
Twitter is one of the social media outlets that I don’t follow. I tried, but I work outside the home 6 hours a day and I can’t even look at Twitter during that time. It seems if you don’t post regularly and interact, it’s pretty much Twitter suicide.
Bloggers are not expected to be at their computers for six hours a day even if they don’t work outside the home.
Post schedulers like Hootsuite and Buffer automate your blog promotion for you, and not just on Twitter. You can choose from various social media to use to promote ahead of time.
The Benefits of Buffer and Hootsuite
You can use them to preschedule your Tweets when it is convenient for you to be at a computer.
They are both free services.
They both have a variety of social media threads for you to pick from.
They promote at times you prefer.
They both have analytics.
They both allow you to attach a graphic along with your blog post link.
The Benefits of Using Buffer
- Buffer has a link shortener. When you promote to Twitter, which allows only a finite number of characters, this can be especially helpful. According to Michael Grubbs, Hootsuite makes you buy a premium account in order to use a link shortener.
- Buffer offers an Optimal Timing Tool that allows your posts to be scheduled when your audience will be most engaged.
- Self-esteem is enhanced. After I schedule a Tweet, I get a complimentary message. For example, the message often says, “One more Tweet is in your Buffer. Keep it topped up.”
- When your queue is empty, you get sent a message, so you remember to schedule more posts for promotion.
- Your blog post graphics are displayed as soon as you paste your link. When I use Hootsuite, I have to attach my graphics from my desktop.
- Buffer has a browser extension. This is helpful if you want to retweet other people’s articles or share them on your other social media.
- There is flexibility in scheduling. You can choose to schedule your posts over a 12-hour time period or a 24-hour time period.
- The folks over at Buffer provide great customer service. When I had a question and Emailed them, they responded immediately.
- Buffer has a free app you can download to schedule not just your post links but your Pinterest graphics as well. That means you can use Buffer on your mobile device. The app works with both iPhone and Android.
- Other people recommend Buffer. Iag.me recommends Buffer as one of their 10 Must Have Social Media Tools for Small Businesses. At Inbound.org, when the community was asked how they manage their social media accounts, most answered, Buffer.
- Their blog provides great articles. While I realize this has nothing to do with automating blog post promotion, the value I find in their articles makes me feel like their other products, such as their post scheduler, will be valuable as well.
- You can make images within Buffer using Pablo.
- Serious bloggers use Buffer. When I interviewed influencers for my expert interviews, they assured me my post was in their Buffer queue.
- Buffer saves you time. When I want to send my Tweet to someone, their Twitter handle come up as soon as I enter a letter, and I don’t have to keep typing.
- Using Buffer also saves you time since it will default to Facebook when you first make your account. If you are fine with prescheduling to Facebook, there is nothing to set up.
- Buffer has a solid reputation. I had heard good things about Buffer long before I started using it to schedule my posts. Most of the people I knew were using Buffer when I was still using Hootsuite.
- Buffer has analytics. Just click and you can see your analytics. According to Iag.me, Hootsuite sends you your analytics once a week, but they are often inaccurate. Buffer’s analytics tell you the days and times your audience was most responsive to your posts.
This screenshot shows Buffer’s analytics. Just click the Analytics tab, and you can see how your posts performed.
This screenshot shows how my promotion of my article about my new Blogger Collaboration group performed. As can be seen, my post performed best at 9:05 am. I received 1 retweet, 2 likes, and three people clicked my article link which resulted in blog traffic for me. According to the analytics, this occurred on a Tuesday.
The Benefits of Using Hootsuite
Buffer’s queue seems limited in contrast to Hootsuite’s queue. For example, I tried to schedule more than nine posts, and I wasn’t able to schedule any more. You have to pay for a premium Buffer plan in order to schedule up to 200 posts.
Conclusion
In closing, there are other automated post schedulers. This article contrasted two of them, Buffer and Hootsuite. For all the reasons above, Buffer comes out the winner.
Readers, please share, so others know the advantages of each tool.
What do you think? Buffer or Hootsuite? Which do you prefer and why? Are you using a different scheduler you can recommend? I look forward to your views.
Related Posts:
How You Can Know When It’s Time to Blog
6 Ways You Can Save Time Blogging, Technology You Should Know
Author: Janice Wald
Janice Wald is twice nominated (2019 and 2021) for Best Internet Marketer by the Infinity Blog Awards. Wald has been teaching Internet Marketing for seven years.
