Came across a new site today for a service called Buffer. And so far, I like it.
Buffer is a site that allows you to Tweet, and then add a timestamp to the Tweet so that it doesn’t necessarily have to post right when you create it.
Why would anyone care to do this?
Well because there are some people who might have several good ideas for Tweets at once, and if they string a bunch of random updates together simultaneously, it can just be white noise to your followers. With Buffer, you can create all of those brilliant Tweets now, but then use the service to space out when they actually post to Twitter.
That way, you’re not overwhelming your followers. Or, if you’re on death row, you can send Buffer tweets right before they strap you down to the lethal injection table and be like:
12:05am: “Wow, that was another great episode of Conan. lmao”
and then
12:35am: “jk, I was already dead by then, LoLz”
Part of the idea is that if you can space your Tweets out, ideally you can post at times where the Tweets will have a higher impact.
At 5pm, it automatically updates by posting to Twitter. Simple.
The service runs on a freemium model. For no cost, you can do two Tweets a day (or have 5 tweets in your buffer). There are monthly rates of $5 and $20, each giving different premium services.
Constructive criticisms:
1. No smartphone app. I realize that the entire point of Buffer is so you can produce Tweets at a computer and then set them to post later, but if that’s useful, I don’t see why the idea to post Tweets to an Android or iPhone app that will post to Twitter later is also useful. It’s not a deal breaker, but I hope an app is forthcoming (although I do expect basically any site that offers any service that has ever been created to have its own app).
2. This is a little bit more of an issue. Once you’ve logged in to Buffer, You type your Tweets in the “My buffer” section, however to change the time that the Tweet posts, you go to the “account”section. I don’t understand why you can’t just look at the Tweet in the “My buffer” section, where it SHOWS you the time, and change it through that page. #imjustsaying
3. Unless I missed something, I don’t see a place where you can set a date for a different Tweet to post. Everything is set to post within a 24 hour period. I feel like if you’re going to have advanced Tweet writing, then the functionality to do stuff, days, weeks, centuries in advance is necessary.
Buffer, I bestow you with probably the greatest offer I can give to a webstie: I am adding the Buffer blog to my rss reader.
for more information on Buffer, visit their website: http://bufferapp.com
I learned about this website from Hacker News. Thanks Hacker News.
Here’s their website: http://news.ycombinator.com/
Josh Benner 