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How to be consistent on Twitter: Buffer

June 21, 2011 By Emily Leary 8 Comments

Do you ever worry that your activity on Twitter seems too sporadic? You’re quiet for half the day/week, then jump on and post a handful of great links/thoughts, have a quick chat, then disappear off again? A new service called Buffer has the answer, and I caught up with one of its founders, Leo Widrich, to find out more.

Let me tell you a story…

About 2.5 years ago, I was just starting out with a new consultancy. As such, I hadn’t filled my client roster, and had some free time to network, learn, and promote myself and my business. So I joined Twitter. I monitored it all day, chatted, posted regularly, and manually made sure I was consistent throughout the day.

But of course, as I got busier, this became more and more of a challenge. I began finding the articles I wanted to share during my ‘free’ time, either at the weekends, late evenings, or very early mornings. These are great time to catch up on reading, but probably not the best times to start a work conversation.

So what is Buffer?

Leo from Buffer

Buffer isn’t the first app to offer scheduled tweeting, but it is the smartest solution I’ve come across so far.

Instead of having to manually decide what time each tweet will go out (a la Hootsuite), you just preset some times each day that you’d like to tweet (e.g. 10am, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm) and then drop all the cool stuff you find into your Buffer, where it queues up and posts out throughout the day.

Add more goodies than can fit it in a day – it’ll buffer over into the next day. Decide you want them in a different order – it’s a simple case of drag and drop.

During the day, you’re then free to use what free time you do have to indulge in what Twitter (and all social media) is really all about – conversation.

In Leo’s own words:

“Buffer is a tool that helps you to tweet consistently every day without flooding your followers. It was an idea that came out of Joel’s use of Twitter [ed: Joel Gascoigne is co-creator of Buffer and an experienced developer with an MSc Computer Science]. He wanted to share more of the great articles he was reading, but without all these tweets in a row. Having a ‘Buffer’ which spreads out these tweets seemed to be the optimal solution.

“The heart of Buffer are the browser extensions. Whichever article you are reading on the web, just give it one click on the Buffer icon and add it to your Buffer. What we found is that many people tweet one article and add the rest to their Buffer. This spreads them out and never floods their stream.”

Why might you need Buffer?

Generally speaking, you might like Buffer if a) you don’t use Twitter much, or b) you use Twitter all the time.

Here’s why:

Leo: “We are seeing 2 groups of people using Buffer heavily at the moment. The first one is Twitter new comers. People told us they are overwhelmed with Twitter at first and with Buffer they come to gradually use it more and more in a piecemeal process.

“Of course another large percentage of Buffer users are Twitter Pros. So people who are very heavily involved in Twitter and also have a business interest. What many seem to appreciate is that they can save time and be more efficient by Buffering, yet still remain a genuine personality and not turn into an auto-bot.

“What I found for myself is that it is often hard to tweet consistently. Yet, only a consistent appearance, similar to blogging, can build trust and help you stand out from the rest.”

Are the spammers circling?

Just as I asked Proxlet and StrawberryJ.am, I had to ask Buffer if they see the app being used for spamming, and what they’re doing about it:

Leo: “We try to fiercely work against that. Our tagline is “Be Awesome On Twitter” and we aim to help everyone to flood users less.

So we basically try to optimize instead of automate. This means we try not to implement things such as pulling RSS feeds in or tweeting the same tweet multiple times.”

Get the very best from Buffer

I asked Leo what his top tips would be to get the best from the app. For him, it’s all about convenience:

  • Bring Buffer to you: “With our browser extension, you can go to Twitter.com and Buffer Retweets from your native Twitter stream.”
  • Know the shortcuts: “Press “alt+b” to bring up the Buffer box (again, needs the browser extension)”
  • Get jamming: “You can Buffer tweets from inside StrawberryJ.am, a Trend based Tweet aggregator”
  • Grab text for tweets: “Highlight some text and then click the Buffer icon and it will be turned into a tweet.”

For me, the ability to add multiple accounts (if you have a pro subscription) and set different times for each is a god send. So what feature is are other users loving the most?

Leo: “What a lot of our professional users are thankful for are the analytics we are providing for all Tweets that are Buffered. [ed: you can link your Bit.ly account into Buffer] It helps a lot to understand about how well your tweets are doing and if you should change your patterns.”

Plans for the future of the app?

Just like any new app, Buffer is promising, but could be more useful. I’d like to see it go truely mobile, for example, and then extend out to LinkedIn and Facebook. So what’s in the pipeline?

Leo: “We really want to built it out further in the future. One main goal is to allow people to Buffer from anywhere they are. We are currently in talks with many different reader and mobile apps as well as Twitter clients. The integration with Strawberryj.am was fantastic and definitely the route we want to pursue in the future.

An iPhone app is high up on our list and Joel is working away on it as we speak.”

A game changer

At the moment, I use Buffer for about five tweets a day per account, usually buffered up that morning. But overall, Buffer is only one of the ways I access and manage Twitter, along with Hootsuite, Twitter for Mac, Twitter for iPhone, Twitter.com and Bit.ly, according to my needs. Of course, Buffer isn’t intended to do everything those clients do, but if it keeps on the promising development path it’s on, that list could reduce.

So, have you tried Buffer? Is it working for you? What improvements would you make?

(Hat tip to Sarah Arrow for first making me aware of Buffer.)

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: , , , , , ,

A war of words: who owns communications in 2010?

May 12, 2010 By Emily Leary 3 Comments

Whilst the roles of a PR and marketer are different at face value, there is little doubt that the two areas have considerable crossover, especially when it comes to social media.

Today, Vocus (a producer of “on-demand software for public relations management”) has circulated a white paper examining the merging roles of PR and marketing, and the debate surrounding who ‘owns’ social media.

For the white paper – ‘Blurring Lines, Turf Battles and Tweets: The Real Impact of Integrated Communications on Marketing and PR’ – Vocus surveyed 1,094 PR and marketing professionals last month about their experiences and views of ‘integrated communications’, which Vocus defines as:

“A management concept that ties all aspects of marketing communication, including, but not limited to advertising, search marketing, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing, together to function in a unified and comprehensive fashion as opposed to functioning in isolation or silos.”

Blurred lines

The key findings suggest that the lines between PR and marketing are blurring, with 79% of marketing and PR professionals stating that they report to the same boss, and 78% reporting formal working relationships when it comes to creating a common communications strategy.

However, whilst the roles may overlap in some respects, 67% of respondents revealed that they hold cross-functional meetings only ‘sometimes’, with a further 19% stating that they held them ‘rarely’ or ‘never’.

Turf battles

The white paper also illustrates that ‘turf battles’ remain rife between marketing and PR professionals, with 33% citing that such conflicts are the single biggest barrier to creating an integrated communications strategy. Budget shortcomings were judged to be the next obstacle, with 20% of respondents highlighting this issue.

Who owns social media?

The concept of ‘turf battles’ is further developed when the debate about who ‘owns’ social media is examined. From the results of the white paper, it’s clear that there is no consensus, with 43% of PRs feeling that they should own it, and 35% of marketers saying the same for their profession. When it comes to corporate blogs, 38% of PRs feel that they should control them, whilst 24% of marketers feel that they should.

Integrated communications

Common ground was found when participants were questioned about the benefits of integrated communications and how to measure them. 48% of PRs and marketers reported that integrated communications increase the overall effectiveness of outreach programs, and that sales and ROI are the most effective ways of assessing an integrated communications strategy.

It’s debatable as to whether this paper reflects the overall experiences of the industry, but it certainly highlights a growing feeling that social media is driving a merging of marketing and PR roles. Similarly, whether this will be resolved into the ‘integrated communications strategies’ envisaged by Vocus remains to be seen, but with the level of conflict described above, it seems unlikely that it will happen any time soon.

Filed Under: Featured, Marketing, News, Public Relations Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The launch of #CommsChat on Twitter – fancy it?

May 3, 2010 By Emily Leary Leave a Comment

#CommsChat, a weekly Twitter-based chat about anything and everything to do with communications, is inspired by chats like #JournChat, #PRstudchat and #BlogChat, which focus on specific subjects / participants.

These chats are typically based / moderated out of the USA, which means that the times are often challenging for people based in Europe.

#CommsChat has been developed with these things in mind, and will hopefully be shaped even more by you after reading this post.

The top line framework of #CommsChat

  • A weekly chat on Monday nights at 8pm UK time (1 hour duration)
  • Wide-ranging topics connected to communications, including: traditional and social media, PR, blogging, marketing, journalism and lots more
  • Special guests will be invited to take part most weeks based on the subject matter

Help shape #CommsChat

The rest of #CommsChat and its make-up will be determined by you over the next few weeks.

  • What would you like to see?
  • Any thoughts on subjects / topics?
  • Is there a format from another chat you’ve taken part in that you really like?

All this feedback will help us collectively create an engaged community and host sessions that add value to everyone taking part.

Put a date in your diary

The first #CommsChat is scheduled for 24 May 2010 at 8pm (UK time).

Although based out of the UK, it is open to anyone from everywhere – comms professionals, bloggers, journalists, students – basically anyone with an interest in / passion for communications.

Over the next few weeks we’ll provide you with more information about how it will work.

But the primary objective is simple: encourage like-minded people to get together for an hour each week to share their tips, hints and lessons relating to the world of communications.

It should be a lot of fun…and we look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Thanks

Adam Vincenzini and Emily Cagle

Staying connected / useful links:

Filed Under: Featured, Public Relations, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Preparing tomorrow’s PR pros

March 29, 2010 By Emily Leary 1 Comment

This is a guest post by Jane Crofts, a PR Lecturer at the University of Lincoln. I asked Jane how the university is preparing the next generation of PR pros for the changing landscape amidst the rise and rise of social media

So how are we preparing the youth of today to be the PRs of tomorrow? Particularly bearing in mind that many of the tutors of today are the PRs of yesterday… and bearing in mind that the advent of Web 2.0 sees PR changing faster than it has for very many years!

At the University of Lincoln we are a small but beautifully formed team of ex-practitioners and academics setting PR in the business context alongside Marketing, Advertising, occasionally Management or HR and even less occasionally Journalism. Our purpose is to give students a solid academic grounding in their chosen subjects but with a practical dimension to give that added extra to their employability. To this end we encourage them to get as much paid or unpaid work experience as they can find and to develop a portfolio of work they can show off to potential employers.

Increasingly we are encouraging students to develop this portfolio online in the form of blogs and integrated web pages taking advantage of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn used appropriately – Facebook is very much the ‘Uni life’ and softer side of the portfolio! So, we are inviting our protégés to embrace Web 2.0…and then explain it to us!

The portfolio may also be a repository for some of their assignments for example in their studies of Managing PR the assignment is a blog about developing team working skills and a reflection on how the individual has learned about their own strengths and weaknesses as a team player. As part of PR for organisational communications part of the task is to develop a real campaign for an organisation of their choice – a charity or voluntary group – and to get as much of it implemented as possible.

But of course this is just part of the picture, it’s getting those blogs and pages noticed that will count. ‘Behind the Spin’ the Chartered Institute of Public Relations student online publication provides a great outlet for the students to write about their experiences, review books and observe about developments in PR. Recent contributors from Lincoln have attracted comment from far and wide resulting in offers of help with their careers and even jobs. Subjects have included a discussion of the role of Twitter in crisis communications and aspects of the debate between students from different schools at the University – is PR killing Journalism? One book review by a Lincoln student prompted the book’s author to make contact and another student’s observations about a PR campaign to stamp out spamming in PR attracted interest from the campaign manager.

Dissertations form a critical part of the final year of study and students are encouraged to explore something new. This year social media is a popular subject including its role in the workplace as an internal communications tool, its impact on music PR as well as the afore mentioned crisis management. The students are developing a wealth of original thought and creating new angles on old models such as the popular Grunig and Hunt four models of communication (Managing Public Relations, 1984).

So, to return to the question, I guess the students are preparing themselves very well and in true academic style we are guiding them to think independently, take risks and try new ideas in a safe environment. I am confident, therefore, that tomorrow’s PR specialists and thought leaders will be able to shift and change to meet their clients’ needs and provide wise counsel to ensure PR objectives are fully integrated into a powerful package of communications using the most appropriate tools and techniques from the ever expanding kit bag.

Are you a blogger? March is Be My Guest month, and we’re encouraging bloggers from all over the world to swap posts and reach new audiences. See Be My Guest for more information.

Filed Under: Guest posts, Public Relations, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Lost in translation? You don’t know the half of it!

January 14, 2010 By Emily Leary Leave a Comment

Handwritten scribbles

If you’ve ever played with an online translator like Google Translate, you’ll know that while these tools are pretty good, they’re not perfect.

Before you entrust such a tool with your promotional copy, head over to the Lost in Translation Multibabel tool and enter it there. The tool will take it through up to ten languages and back to English.

Think the results will be intelllgible? Here’s the text for one of our service pages after the Multibabel treatment. Can you tell what it is yet?

To announce the project, invested in the words, the end to control if each part of the contact writes that you are in the way of persuation with its customers and pertinent has.

You’ The RH in the transaction, each part of the writing is important. Each signal if a customer of the pages of a pamphlet pressures, not simply does not adapt it to information, he is _activement that _activement convinced, or at least would have that to be.

A good part of the copy not only declares the circumstances the end equally to work but conceited the lecturer or a certain position of its opinion or ideas of the taken one by the transactions. One leaves memorable of the writing knows the reliability of its small flag, improved ingualmente the squeeze you outside of the amount and the conservation of the manufacture of the improvement.

Our project of the advertising seemed to White Books of direct mail whole, with the national visualizations of the variety of the newspaper behind pamphlets, as with the types of this sequence of the video of the training it catalogues and in the studies finished with bulletins. In all in case that we work with the customer, the end to produce adequadamente in way of convincing form and the writing, who was starting, for the aim.

Engaging stuff, eh?

Filed Under: Copyediting, Copywriting, Proofreading, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Bloggers, are your messages being distorted?

December 11, 2009 By Emily Leary 1 Comment

Phone cans

Have you ever asked a question or sent a suggestion to a client or colleague, only to have them entirely misconstrue the message you are trying to convey? Does it sometimes feel like you are communicating in another language, with messages that appear straightforward simply not making it through to your audience in one piece?

Blogs can be a hotbed of miscommunication, often because posts tend to be led by personal opinion, and therefore carry an element of bias. Here’s my guide to three factors that can disrupt or distort your message on its way to your audience.

Message/medium mismatch

How you word any written communications should be governed in part by the intended method of delivery. When blogging, if you address your readership directly, it’s worth taking time to think about who they are likely to be, and try to avoid making broad generalisations that lump people into a category they’d rather not find themselves forced into.

Simliarly, the imagined audience referred to as “you” in a blog post addressed to a large audience will be very different to the “you” in a follow up email in response to a question from a reader. We expect personally addressed messages to be, well, personalized – to show an understanding of the individual recipient.

So, in a blog post, “Are you lacking a web presence?” might be a reasonable question to open with, whereas with a follow up email, you would be expected to have done your research and know the answer to this before firing out the message.

Multiple meaning mix-up

The accepted meaning of certain words can vary widely. This isn’t just down to dialect; it’s also down to personal opinion and experience. For example, if writing a review, keep in mind that one person considers to be a “fast service” could be positively snail-like in the eyes of another. If you’re using descriptive words like this, be sure to back them up with the facts. So, in this case, you could say, “Fast delivery, typically within 3 hours and in this case, within 45 minutes of receipt of my order.”

In addition, it’s wise to avoid complicated phrases as the wordier you get, the more open to misinterpretation the message becomes. This also goes for jargon and technical words, which should generally be avoided where possible, and clearly defined when used.

Tainted by terrible timing

In the event of an accident or tragedy, certain posts may have their meaning temporarily or permanently changed by the new context the event creates. For example, if you were to publish a post based on the concept of a business as a high-speed racing car on the same day as a serious Formula 1 accident, your message would be severely distorted.

If the event occurs after you have hit publish, there is, of course, little you can do other than respectfully amend or withdraw the materials from further public viewing. However, your audience is unlikely to be sympathetic if you allude to a tragedy that has already occurred, even if it done unwittingly. For this reason, it’s worth scouring the news for recent and current events that relate to your blog post’s concept before distribution, so as to reduce the risk of inadvertently causing offence and appearing obtuse or callous.

These are just three of many potential causes of miscommunication. What others would you add?

Filed Under: Featured, Marketing, Writing Tagged With: , , , , ,

The first and the last word in charity adoption

September 25, 2009 By Emily Leary 3 Comments

Words

As is pretty obvious from the title of this blog, words are my business. I spend most of my waking hours choosing them carefully, writing them out, looking back through them, talking them through with colleagues, clients and friends, tweaking an adjective here and an imperative there to (hopefully) produce the perfect copy.

So, when I came across the Adopt a Word initiative that allows you to ‘adopt’ a word for charity, my first thought was, “What word shall I get?” and my second was, “What a great idea!”

I’ve written about fundraising and the importance of a theme/activity that inspires people before, and the Adopt a Word concept strikes me as a little bit of genius. Everyone I mentioned it to knew immediately which word or words they wanted most.

Head over to the Adopt a Word website and you’ll see that this project has plenty going for it: a concept you can get on board with, a worthy cause, celebrity endorsement (lots of), and even merchandise to show off your newly adopted word.

All funds raised go to I CAN, the creators of the project. I CAN is the children’s communication charity, which aims to ensure that no child is left behind because of a difficulty speaking or understanding.

Its mission:

“To make sure that everyone in contact with children knows how important communication is, what a communication problem looks like, and what they can do to help.”

So, the core concept – words – is very closely tied to the charity it supports. The Adopt a Word concept gets prospective donors thinking about words, and realising how much they value communication, which helps to highlight the importance of the I CAN cause – excellent stuff.

Clare Horwood
, Head of Individual Giving 
at I CAN,
 was kind enough to run me through the background to the project:

“Adopt a Word is one of our fundraising campaigns to raise money from individuals. Alternative gifts are a great way for charities to increase their donations, but it’s a fairly crowded market.

“Obviously, we can’t use goats or pandas so words, which are at the heart of our cause and the building blocks of communication were the natural choice.

“By putting words up for adoption we hope to make their importance understood in the context of children with communication difficulties. Also, because words have such a broad appeal it means we can extend our reach beyond the traditional donor and way out into the twitterverse!”

The initiative has been running since October 2008, but recently received a boost when Stephen Fry purchased ‘wordy’, sparking a flood of donations. I think with another push on social media and via more traditional marketing and PR channels, it could receive much wider exposure.

Adopt a Word’s Twitter persona (@adoptaword) is starting to make waves but as with any initiative, there will be areas for improvement and the guys at I CAN are (unsurprisingly) great to communicate with, so I’m betting all suggestions are welcome.

Personally, I have suggested adding PayPal as a payment option and adding a button so that people can push a message to Twitter about their adoption. What do you think?

(Thank you to @reedwords for making me aware of this. And in case you’re wondering, I bought ‘social’)

adoptaword_final_rgb

Filed Under: Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Communications brilliance in the public sector

April 8, 2009 By Emily Leary Leave a Comment

Phone cans

If you were part of an exceptional public sector communications project in the last year, the Good Communications Awards 2009 are for you.

The Good Communications Awards recognise effective internal and external communications among Local Authorities, Central Government Departments, Charities, Voluntary Sector Organisations and academia.

There are four main awards for all round communications excellence:

  • Local Authority of the Year sponsored by Google
  • Strategic Communications Campaign
  • Central Government Communicator of the Year

There are also a further 18 awards split across four main categories:

  • IT and E-Government
  • Telecoms
  • Print
  • Public Relations

The deadline for entries in 5pm on 5th May and all submissions must relate to projects undertaken between 1st February 2008 and 1st May 2009.

For more information, visit the Good Communications Awards.

Filed Under: Awards Tagged With: , , , , ,