As I recently mentioned in my BlogWorld recap, I met Leo Widrich, one of the guys behind the Buffer App for Twitter sharing.
Now as many of you might know, I’m a huge fan of HootSuite for my Twitter management needs. For the longest time, I have heard people raving about Buffer, but I figured I didn’t need another app to schedule tweets since I could already schedule tweets in HootSuite.
What I didn’t realize is how much simpler Buffer really is. Let me demonstrate.
Before I begin, as a disclaimer, I didn’t get any freebies, payment, sponsorship, etc. from Buffer for writing this post. If you choose to use my referral URL to sign up for Buffer, I don’t get paid – I simply get extra Buffer scheduling space.
Tweet Scheduling in HootSuite
The simplest way to schedule tweets in HootSuite is by using the bookmarklet which you can find in your HootSuite dashboard when you hover over the Tools menu.
Once you drag the Hootlet to your bookmarks bar on any browser, you can click on it while viewing a page you want to share. Then you’ll see a popup allowing you to choose the social profile to share it with along with the option to send the tweet now or schedule it for later using the calendar.
If you need to remember what scheduled tweets you have in the system, you can go to your Publisher menu to see your scheduled tweets.
Now as you can see, I made an oops and scheduled two tweets to go out at the same time. To change that, edit the text, or reorganize the tweets, you have to edit them individually using the same scheduling calendar.
Faster Tweet Scheduling in Buffer
Now, let’s take a look at the Buffer difference. When you setup your account, you start by entering your preferred tweeting schedule. I like to send my posts at five minutes after the hour. This means that my tweet will come across someone’s feed after all of the automated Twitterfeeds that usually happen right at the top of the hour.
For easy Buffer sharing, you can grab the Buffer bookmarklet for any browser’s bookmarks bar or install the browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Then, when you’re reading an article you want to share, you click on the Buffer bookmarklet or button installed by the extension (I use the one for Chrome) and get the following scheduling popup.
Here you can select your preferred profiles to share the tweet with and edit it as you so choose. Then you can post now or add to Buffer. To see your pending tweets, you just go to your Buffer dashboard.
Since you set your preferred tweeting schedule, you can’t accidentally set two at the same time. To edit the text, simply click on the pencil to edit. If you do notice you want to rearrange, you can simply use the Drag to Reorder to move them around.
Additional Buffer Sharing Options
If the bookmarklet isn’t enough, you can also use Buffer directly in Twitter using the Chrome extension. This will put a Buffer call right in your Twitter stream when you’re looking at your home feed, someone’s profile, Twitter lists, or any other tweets.
When you click on it, you get your usual Buffer popup with the RT @username text with the option to edit the tweet, post now, or add to Buffer.
You can also follow these directions for adding Buffer to your Google Reader. Then you can share posts you are reading in Google Reader to your Buffer.
Considering the way I use Google Reader, this is a definite plus.
For mobile users, there is a Buffer Android app and a way to email to your Buffer using a customized email address from mobile apps on tablets and other smartphones.
The New Buffer Button
Last but not least, you might have noticed a new button in my social sharing strip at the top of the post.
The Buffer button allows users to easily add your post to Buffer. No more copying & pasting long URLs from the Twitter button to your Twitter management tool of choice (although it is still an option for those who directly tweet)!
Analytics in HootSuite vs. Buffer
For statistics junkies, here are your analytics options.
In HootSuite, you can create reports or see quick stats about any ow.ly shortened URLs.
Or you can see individual stats of your ow.ly shortened tweets.
In Buffer, you can see an overview of your sent tweets and their retweets, clicks, and overall estimated reach based on your audience plus the audience that retweeted the Buffered tweet.
Pricing for HootSuite vs. Buffer
Both HootSuite and Buffer are freemium applications meaning that there is a free structure vs. a paid structure. In HootSuite, if you have no more than five accounts to manage and don’t really care about enhanced analytics, you can use the free version. Otherwise, it is $5.99 per month, which is the plan I use because I have a ridiculous amount of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other accounts.
In Buffer, if you have only one persona to manage (one Twitter and one Facebook) and only need to store 10 scheduled posts at a time, you can use the free version. Otherwise, there are two plans – the pro plan for $10.00 per month (which is the plan I use) for up to 5 social media accounts and 50 posts in your Buffer. There’s also a super premium plan for $99.00 per month for unlimited social accounts and posts in buffer.
My Twitter Strategy
My Twitter strategy involves using HootSuite for monitoring all of my Twitter accounts’ mentions, direct messages, Twitter lists, and keyword searches in easy to follow streams. Then I use Buffer App for tweet scheduling. I also use Formulists for creating awesome, automatically updated Twitter lists (more on that in an upcoming post). Together, I can efficiently interact with my followers and find new followers while sharing great posts with everyone. So if you don’t use them already, try them out – even just using the free accounts with your priority social profiles could make a huge difference!
Your Favorite Time Saving Twitter Tools
Now it’s your turn. What are your favorite Twitter management applications and time saving tools? Do you use HootSuite and Buffer? Please share your thoughts, tips, and experiences in the comments, and happy tweeting!
About Kristi Hines
Kikolani covers blog marketing and blogging tips for personal, professional, and business bloggers to succeed in search and social media marketing. Kristi Hines is a 
I love the Buffer, really awesome tool if you are going to be away at a meeting all day or on vacation and cannot be on Twitter.
Lisa recently posted Will You Be Shopping Online For Christmas?
Very true! It’s nice that, depending on your schedule, it will just continue on adding tweets for the following days without having to think about it.
Hi,
Nice info for get many good ideas with time save tool. I am sure this tool will be help to attract to many readers.
sam @ goa carnival recently posted Goa Carnival 2012
Thanks Sam! Nothing like freeing up time for more important things!
Glad to see Buffer getting some love. I’ve been using it for a few months now with only one complaint.
When you use the Facebook scheduling feature, it seems unable to post using the picture you select. I inevitably end up with a post on my Facebook page with the image from an icon, instead of the picture I so lovingly sourced!
Andy Nattan @ SEO Copywriter recently posted Swords, Sorcery and Snow Trolls – The Skyrim Guide to Blogging
I haven’t tried the Facebook account yet Andy, but I think that part is still in Beta so they’re probably going to get it fixed soon.
I am a human case study for how NOT to use Twitter. I rarely tweet, am horrendous about retweeting posts, have not managed lists effectively. But I’m definitely going to check out buffer because it would reduce at least one aspect of my twitter lameness
Thanks for the great suggestion!
Alexis
Alexis@babysleep recently posted Safe Baby Sleep or Hatchet Job?
You’re welcome Alexis. It takes a lot of trial and effort to get good at Twitter. It’s taken me three years and I’m still not what I would consider great at it.
Thanks Kristi! I use Market Me Suite (as you use Hootsuite) and use Buffer sparingly (the free plan). I am inclined to think about the pro option now.
Jane @ google personalized search recently posted Alexa Links: 2 Ways To Easily Increase Yours
I have two accounts I need to manage pretty well which is why I went with Pro. Definitely no regrets with that!
Buffer is fantastic.
The analysis options are more limited than Hootsuite but I like the simplicity. And it’s not obvious but you can see who ReTweeted you.
If you want a more on the analytics, you can set Buffer to use bit.ly to shorten links.
One last addition I found recently is that if you’re using a feed reader than synchs with Google Reader you can star items and have them fed to Buffer via ifttt.
e.g. FeedDemon > Google Reader > ifttt > Buffer > Twitter
Giles Farrow recently posted Software Marketing Tweetables 21 November 2011
Great extra tips Giles!
Kristi – Thank you for the side by side comparison. I was never happy with the scheduling section of Hootsuite. It looks like a good feature in Buffer, so I’m going to give it a try.
michael@listbuildingsystem recently posted How Blog Backlinks Drive Traffic to Your Site
I never realized it could be simpler. I even tried their import feature, but that never worked right. Glad that Buffer came along!
I never got Hootsuite’s import feature to work right. I wasted 3+ hours on it and I have a programming background!
michael@listbuildingsystem recently posted How Blog Backlinks Drive Traffic to Your Site
Same here. I got it to work once, but after that there was always an issue.
Kristi, I’ve been a Hootsuite user for a year or so (probably at your suggestion). I can definitely see the advantages of Buffer over Hootsuite. I think Buffer would be most useful for people like you who are heavily involved in Twitter and other social media.
I’ll be evaluating my social media strategy in early 2012 — checking out Buffer is near the top of the list.
John Soares @ Freelance Writing recently posted All Your Writing Clips on One Site: Cuttings.me Review and Interview
I find using both makes everything simpler.
I started using Buffer about 3 weeks ago. I am just amazed to know about the functionalities of Buffer. I simply love the stats and the Tweet at peak times options. Seems so promising.
Hootsuite I loved.. but Buffer is good for those things you find online that you think your followers might be interested in but don’t want to bombard them link after link at one go.
Shamelle@Better Blogging Ways recently posted When Blogging Seems Like A Thankless Job 3 Important Things you MUST Remember (Thanksgiving edition)
Exactly. I usually read several articles at a time, and I’m sure it doesn’t help the blog owner or my audience if I’m tweeting 5 – 10 posts at a time. Buffer definitely solves that issue!
Still using the Buffer as a free app; I’m liking it and it has advantages vs. TweetDeck (my other scheduler). I too have the Chrome extension, nice to have. The other thing I like is how easily it is to move tweets around, if I want something to tweet sooner rather than later. I don’t consider myself a power tweeter, so not sure I need the full pro benefits yet, but they’re very appealing. FWIW.
Davina K. Brewer recently posted Do you know where your comments are?
Moving the tweets around is a life saver for me. I can add a ton of posts to Buffer, then go in and move them around based on the topic (business articles during business hours, more personal stuff for evenings and weekends).
Hey Kristi,
Great idea RE setting tweets for 5 mins after the hour – hadn’t thought of that!
*Goes off to adjust his timings*
Tom
Tom Ewer recently posted How To Make Money Online Now
I see so much come through my stream at the top of the hour and at half past, so I thought five minutes later would give my tweet a chance of being at the top of the stream.
I’m more of a MarketMeSuite person myself, but I love love Buffer. I tend to read posts at 4am, and who am I going to share with at 4am on twitter? Being able to click that little buffer icon in my browser (whether at my desk or from my android) is just wicked. I love this post. I never took notice of the Buffer pricing options and the $10/month sounds perfect. Thanks
Vanita@BlogPromotionTips recently posted Why not turn your blog into a business?
Thanks for sharing your strategy with us Kristi. I’m a huge fan of Buffer. I’ve never taken the time to learn HootSuite but I’m only managing a couple of Twitter accounts. I’ll definitely keep it in mind for the future.
Sherryl Perry recently posted Does Your Klout Score Fit Into Your Social Media Strategy?
I have been testing out the free buffer version for about a week or so now. One thing I like about it is it is simple and easy to figure out. You can start using it in a few minutes after signing up. So far I only use it with Twitter. I am not sure if I add Facebook if I can schedule 10 posts to Facebook and 10 to Twitter, or if it will split 5 and 5 with the free version or not. Never tried Hootsuite. It looks appealing too.
Ray@dolphin tutorials recently posted Adding an Email Subscription
I’ve been using buffer for last couple of months and really getting encouraging results. The best thing I like about buffer is that you can check which of your tweets are getting how many retweets and clicks. Plus you can manage your tweet timmings as per your followers.
Aanchal recently posted Web Design India
Great post about Buffer Kristi. Have you used Timely.is? I’ve used Buffer in the past and the one up on them I think Timely.is has is that it optimizes your posting schedule for you.
Robert Dempsey recently posted How Content Curation Changed Everything For Me
Hi Rob
thx for sharing.. will check Timely.is 
a tip from U is always GOOD
Robert, have you noticed that Timely has been down a lot lately? I’m using Google Chrome and I wonder if that has anything to do with it. Most days it never finishes loading.
Ileane recently posted Thesis Awesome Blogskin Black Friday Sale
Hi Kristi, comparing Buffer to HootSuite is a great idea because so many people are relying on HootSuite these days. I use both also, but I stopped looking at the stats in HootSuite a long time ago. Buffer’s stats are much easier and convenient to get at. I started posting to Facebook with Buffer this weekend and I can’t wait to compare the engagement levels against HootSuite and native Facebook posts. Either way, I’m sure I will continue to post with Buffer because using the Chrome extension is a breeze compared to cutting and pasting into HootSuite.
Chat soon!
Ileane recently posted Preview the New YouTube Design Now!
Great tip Ileane
excited to see how buffer work on FB as well 
Thanks Kristi,
I have used buffer on occasion but have not given it much thought past scheduling a few quick tweets when I don’t feel like opening up my marketmesuite (which schedules in a similar fashion to hootsuite). You make some good points about how much simpler this buffer can be. I may have to increase my usage of this app.
Steve@Affiliate Marketing Tips recently posted How to Monetize an Affiliate Niche Site [Niche Affiliate Income #3]
Loved the tutorial Kristi!
I do use the free version of buffer and also Timely, though prefer buffer more. Instead of HootSuite I went along with MarketMeSuite and it sure sounds a lot like HootSuite, though it is comparatively new. However, no complaints so far.
Thanks so much for sharing
Harleena Singh@Freelance Writer recently posted How to Instill Gratitude in Children
I am loving Buffer for helping to get my tweets out there in front of people during the time of day that I am typically at the office and have limited access/ability to push things out otherwise. I have been using it for a couple of three weeks and really could not be happier – good to see some love here.
PS – love you blog, good information and have added it to my list of regular visitations.
Ray recently posted IntenseDebate vs. Disqus
Hi Kristi,
I am a big fan of the great team and product at buffer
I use it to schedule my “marketing” tweets a week in advance and enable me to share content at a distributed time without “spamming” my followers
In addition the team at buffer are great, work from passion to create a great product
Thanks for sharing great tools
we can all learn from the way you use social media to better align our social media efforts.
Sharel
Thanks for the excellent article Kristi. I’ll admit I was struggling with Buffer when I first started to use it and then just abandoned it. But it didn’t hurt me too much since I’ve been a Hootsuite junkie for a while. But thanks to this article I’ll give Buffer another try and who knows – I might just LOVE it!! Cheers
Patricia Redsicker recently posted Why Book Reviews Matter and How to Write One
Saves your time indeed. And save the trouble of tweeting it manually.
Ricardus @WordPress Hosting recently posted Domain Name Promotion Only at $10.99/year
Nice article Kristi, I have found that Buffer can be very effective to manage your tweets but sometimes I don’t setup the tweets at proper times so its about managing the best time to engage with your audience and then its a good app to use. Will share this around.
Aman@seo company recently posted 4 Free must have SEO plugins for your wordpress site
Wow, I have never heard of Buffer until now. Headed over there to make some adjustments to my social media game. Thanks for the heads up and I see I have to start coming by here more often. You provide killer information!
Keep up the great work and I shared this on my FB page as well with my people. Thanks again!
Freddie @Think Taylor recently posted Building a VA Army
Buffer is by far the best Twitter scheduling tool. And I like the simple extension they have so I can choose to schedule or post something right away to my feed. Hootsuite for monitoring, Buffer for scheduling is the way to go.
Nishadha@Make Money Blogging recently posted How Companies Use Social Media Successfully
I love Buffer, I’ve been using it quite a while now and its simplicity makes it such a dream to use, specially with the chrome extension, I love the fact that you can set your times and then just fill your buffer, brilliant
Karen @ Blazing Minds recently posted Classic Film Friday – A Fistful Of Dollars From Director Sergio Leone
I have been looking for an alternative to Hootsuite for tweet scheduling. If Hootsuite would refine their scheduling tool, have the function to auto follow back and DM (like socialoomph) then it would be perfect. I will definitely have a look at Buffer.
Matt Kinsella recently posted How You Made Your Own Luck
Thanks for the comparison and review Kristi! I am fairly new to Twitter and been using Tweetdeck mobile mostly for monitoring. I will check out Buffer for scheduling tweets though. Anybody using the Buffer for Android app?
Tom Pinit recently posted The Power of Music: Play It Forward
I need to start taking more advantage of scheduled tweets and backlog more ahead of time… ;-O I remember what a revelation it was when the capability to time emails first came out, LOL! That was about 10 years ago.
Couldn’t agree more. I LOVE Buffer!
Hope you are doing well – when is the next album coming out???
Larry@Photography Blog recently posted Face The Music
What is point of the Buffer button, Kristi? To add that blog post to your list of scheduled tweets?
Ari Herzog @ New Media Explorer recently posted To the Future of My Blog
Exactly… I love using Buffer. Makes sharing posts on a schedule a lot simpler.
I’ve been using Buffer for about a week. I’ve added the Chrome extension and really like how simple it is to add a Tweet to my Buffer as I surf and share. I came across your site via google search for “twitter marketing buffer” to gauge the demand for such KW phrases. very nice job in reviewing Buffer. The only thing that might make this piece better would be to embed a video showing how you do what you do. Other than that, really well done piece.
Local SEO recently posted Geo-Press Plug-in
I am a hootsuite lover but I think buffer is a great alternative tool for scheduling tweets!
Noel Addison@Web Development Ventura recently posted 5 Things to Look for in a Web Dev Company
Kristi, came back for a 2nd visit. Not only coz your buffer review was top shelf stuff, but I needed to snatch the article URL since I plan to refer your piece in my video segment I’m going to do on how and why I use Buffer | ifttt | PostRank and Visibli to find and syndicate fresh relevant content using all of the above. Again, strong work kid!
Local SEO recently posted Geo-Press Plug-in
Thanks for the heads up on this…I have been using Co-Tweet, which is simple to use, but lacking in some areas. Signed up with HootSuite, but it seems that I’ll actually have to read the directions to be able to use it…LOL.
That being said, looks like HootSuite is a good tool, but I should also add Buffer, especially if it enables me to update my Facebook Page, rather than my personal profile.
I love when you write a review– I know I can always trust you to give the straight scoop on things, and if you recommend it I know I should look into it!
DeniseGabbard@WriteandGetPaid recently posted Jobs for Writers Today
Kristi – this is an indepth explanation of the various features of the two tools. I loved it.
I am using the free version of Hootsuite now, but I think I will give the Buffer a try and see how easy it is comparatively.
Since I have just one accounts of twitter and FB each, the free version should suffice for now. Loved the review.
Praveen Rajarao@DailyMorningCoffee recently posted Blog Editing: 4 Steps to Take Before Publishing Your Post
Some extra space for you, Kristi, glad to help out.
Dave Doolin recently posted Destroy Websites for Fun and Profit! (SEO backlinking, of course)