Buffer: Plan & Schedule Posts Reviews

by Jenkiddtx

Trust me- do not even waste your time with Buffer! I tried and tried for days to get it to sync with my accounts, and since I’m on the “free” version, I can only use two accounts. Sorry, but I’m order for me to fully know how each of my top platforms will look and perform I’m not going to automatically “UPGRADE” to God knows how much, Buffer won’t tell you if your on your phone- just says “go to desktop for prices”. Ummm... this is a MOBILE APP!!
So anyway I write a lengthy email to their support team and immediately get an auto-response back saying...... see below....

“Hey there, In order to keep our Free plan free, this app's email support is now limited to paying customers”.
WOW!! are you seriously serious right now with this?! That right there just made my mind up 100%! NOPE! If you are smart, you’d stay clear of this time-sucking so-called “App”!! Wish I would’ve read all of the other 1* reviews before wasting hours of my time!

by BubbleNest

For a week I was completely in love with Buffer. Seamless auto scheduling post to Instagram Facebook and Twitter. It was exactly what I was looking for and I even purchased an account for the additional features. Then for some reason I suddenly can’t seem to reconnect to my Instagram profile through my Facebook account. For two days I chase my tail asking for assistance and being directed to the same guidance which I did several times and With no change. At this point I’m losing traction with how regularly I was posting and I can’t afford to wait another two days to get the same piece of advice over and over and over again. Really disappointed to end my account after such a promising start but a total lack of support will make me leave every time.

by Bion Howard

I believe this app is a cool app, and I am sticking with it, but the whole reason for this app's existence is to save us time. It takes 19 taps to share 1 article on this app. Sadly, and it takes half as many taps to share an article 5 times than it does to share 1 article on 5 channels with this app. This is because of the massive amount of unnecessary tapping this app requires. You have to manually select the channels in a nested menu. You have to manually select an image in a nested menu. You have to manually copy paste a link into Pinterest. You have to manually tell it to crop the image for Instagram, and then nothing happens, so you have to manually crop the image and then manually post to Instagram anyway (so what's the point?) You have to manually hit an x on the image on Facebook channel. None of this requires fancy stuff, just sensible defaults.

by Raantuva

When the new sign in methods came into play, I wasn't concerned. I had signed up with an email address in the first place, I always do when the option is available. Didn't use this for a while as I had no need, open it last week and boom. Account is gone. Try signing in on desktop website/safari extension. Same situation. I reach out for help and am told over and over for a week straight that I don't have an account. Y'all DELETED IT. FOR NO REASON. Never been so frustrated with a support experience of this kind outside of battling Tumblr for 5 years to get my original account back and Wordpress' terrible support system. I'm putting this app in this same bucket now. I don't know who told tech people they're all smart, but this is a boneheaded move. I didn't even get an email from you guys about the sign in system change. I haven't gotten any emails from you in a while until last week and I'm so disappointed with this whole experience that I'm not using your platform anymore. It's not that it's bad quality, it's just clear you're not doing enough communication and QA to make this viable. Someday that's going to come back to bit y'all in the foot and I'm not gonna sit around waiting to get burned a second time.

by V. Rose

I've been testing out different social media management platforms, and came across this app in Buffer Store. Initially, I wanted to like it, but after using it for 5 minutes, I can honestly say that I don't. This is by no means a review on their web platform, which is probably flawless (don't take my word for it), but purely on the iOS app alone.

1) Connecting my Facebook page, no problemo! However, every time I go to the Facebook tab, I'm always asked to reconnect my account. When looking at post analytics, it shows analytics for posts in December. Why would I even consider paying a subscription fee when it's not even loading the posts from this past week? Because guaranteed, the posts in December and prior aren't "Recent". It's a joke at most.

2) The profile or page names that are displayed for each social media account are my company's old name. Every other social media management platform always uses my company's current name with zero effort on my end. Buffer doesn't even given me the option to change it.

3) I'd like to do a trial of the Awesome or Business plan before committing to it. Don't know why that isn't offered through Buffer , but tossing money around at something like this without even experiencing what I could get in return is no bueno.

From an otherwise beautifully designed app, I don't think I'll be using this again any time soon.

by Longest Route Possible

Updated Review April 2018: I had some decent success with this app last year and it was the first social app like I used. It wasn’t till now I realized Google is locked. I never got it to work with Instagram. And the main reason I used it was it linked well to LinkedIn. Despite having some months of issues with connection, it’s a nice feature. But with only 3 accounts allowed, I don’t see the difference between this free app vs Ripl or Everypost. Keep in mind I spend over 10k using industry specific listing sites, Google, and marketing social media tools. It’s kind of a let down until I got some real data sources backing up the pro price. Is there still an awesome plan?
Buffer has done a pretty good job of sharing posts after using it for a year. Only downfall is the recent problems with linking to LinkedIn company pages. The link doesn't work anymore unless I start back over as personal. Hopefully that will be fixed soon! Note: would be nice to have Pinterest for free and better posting method to Instagram than just a reminder.

by L,.&

I use Buffer only for Instagram and it’s middling at best for this use case. You would think they’d have a way to save hashtag sets by now, and maybe even a suggester, but they don’t. It’s also annoying how if you’re just using reminders, the post disappears right after the time passes, so you have to go into the “past reminders” section to find it. It should stay in upcoming until you’ve posted it!

Recently I’ve run into several bugs that are probably going to be the push I need to move on. Right now I’m set to share at 2:30pm eastern time, but it sent an alert at 9:30am my time, which is 12:30 in NYC??? Buffer had also been losing my images when I’m working on multi-image posts, and I don’t seem to be able to reorder them either.

I guess at the end of the day, their focus must be elsewhere.

by Boot From SC

I used the paid version of this app a few years back where I could post to 10 accounts, and while that part was great, there are issues that still persist now while I’m trying to use the basic version.

Here are the issues I experienced:

The first, while I know that instagrams policies somehow keep this app from posting multiple photos on one’s behalf, this app needs to figure that part out to make it possible in some way. It defeats the purpose of using the scheduler and is not in keeping with the changing trends in social media.

Second, I keep having to refresh the Instagram connection almost every time I close Buffer . That adds a level of unreliability to Buffer as one depends on Buffer posting on time, and when the refresh issue happens, it won’t post at all.

Third, the location tag does not allow me to tag El Paso, TX or anything for that matter. Nothing comes up in the search for it. Even after the update.

That’s all I have for now. I really believe Buffer has great potential over HootSuite and other apps, but these things have to get fixed.

by Ash (MD)

I’ve used Buffer for about two years now for my job as a social media manager and have absolutely loved it. For Twitter scheduling it’s amazing, LOVE being able to rebuffer because we send out like 50 blog posts a day. And you can se t from mobile desktop. A lot of the issues I’ve had in the past like image selections have been changed. I just wish you could add gifs greater than 3mb but I believe that’s a twitter issue.

Recently with the new update it’s been closing out automatically when I go into the analytics tab. I mostly use Buffer and not desktop so this has been really frustrating because I can’t rebuffer anything. Please fix this!

by Pojones

I had been using this with my FB page for months, then last month it stopped working and every effort to reconnect only led me to my personal FB profile rather than my podcast page and so it never reconnected. Then I had the bright idea to remove my FB this app account and add it back again fresh. However, despite being given 3 accounts for free on the basic plan, this app now tells me to upgrade in order to get that 3rd account added back again. So frustrating! Looks like I’ll just use Instagram from now on to directly post to FB and Twitter. I won’t be able to schedule posts anymore but at least I know it’ll work. Bye bye this app!

by Bpjake99

Best social media manager, once you can get all of your accounts added. At 20+ accounts it had proved to be a daunting task. Suggestions for improvement: include analyze with pro plan. We pay over $1,000 per year for the pro plan. We could easily just have a few of us spend $150 for a single pro plan and add analyze to it. We forked over the money not realizing that this was not an included feature. Another improvement would be time slot suggestions based off of real time analytics. The twitter extensions for best times is great, wish that was the same for all pages. I think this app has a long way to go, but I am totally team this app. I converted my team to this app this past month. Hoping that our CEO will continue to see value in the product. Please consider giving analyze services to pro plan members and small business members (included with the subscription). Also, it would be helpful to break down by brand. Example: group A for brand A with all accounts, Group B with brand B with all accounts, etc.

by Markdavidjohnson

I am really grateful for this app, and I use it pretty often. I’m also happy that it has a free version, although I think it’s a bit more limited than it needs to be. I’m good with the number of platforms it allows you to connect at a time. But a queue of 10 tweets/posts means, unless I want to log in multiple times a week to add content, I can only schedule a few times a week. And that makes it NOT as helpful of a tool as it claims to be.

There used to be a middle-of-the-road paid option, I think called “Awesome,” which was more reasonably priced. But I can’t afford the “pro” or “small-business” options, so I deal with the “free” version.

Anyway, it’s a great app for queuing tweets and posts, and the one or two times I’ve had tech issues, they’ve been really helpful. A cheaper “individual-but-not-wealthy” option would earn this app its fifth star!

by Sexum

Love the ability to load posts and prepare ahead without taking time each day. The reports are nice too. BUT...HUGE ISSUE...only being able to use ONE PHOTO!! In my biz, most posts require two photos...one for product, one for results. Buffer requires that I have to use a separate collage app to combine pics, then they don't visually show in a post the way two separate pics would so it may detract from the attention the post receives. Also, do not like it changing my web site address to a shortened version. My name on that site is part of the marketing and I want customers to view that name and this app removes it. So, generally like it but these issues lower my rating. If these things aren't important to you...great app!!

by Dania253

I am liking Buffer a lot, I got it because one of my mentors recommended it to me. It is a good app but I got a few suggestions for it or maybe I’m just not finding these features here but every time that Buffer shares a Facebook post for me it does it right except in goes in private and I have to go and changed the settings every time, it would be more helpful if I could choose if I want my post to be shared as public or as private, I want my posts to be public because I am a marketer and I don’t have the enough time to always be going to my Facebook to change the settings of my posts. I also think it would be helpful to have analytics of how my posts are doing once they have been shared.

by SpecialOpsJazz

I wish this scheduled AND posted for you but it’s only for scheduling. Regardless of that I actually love Buffer. I schedule 10 Instagram posts every week or so, add my pics, my commentary and tags then “this app” it to the schedule I created then Buffer reminds me to post so I open this app and click on the post I have scheduled and it opens Instagram, copies everything to a clipboard and all I do it hit paste and it’s done!

I am so bad at posting daily or when I need to so Buffer is VERY helpful and really easy to use.

It does struggle sometimes. I’ve loaded images and started writing up commentary only for an error message to pop up and everything disappears so I have to start over but it’s not often.

by Ninbroken52

So, after the new update I tried looking around at other services that would basically do similar functions to this app. I didn’t find anything close to it. Either they were way more expensive, didn’t have the function, or just completely messy to use / install. So after a couple VERY LONG DAYS of not using this app I went to the actual website, switched a few things around, and am back to using it! It’s still THE BEST service out there as far as I’m concerned for sharing content across networks and I hope to switch to Awesome soon! Still the best!

by SPnTX

The entire UI is pleasant and easy to use, but I have to say one of the great perks is the ability to schedule posts I create using Pablo through this app, and the “this app it” link that appears when you hover over photos in your browser! Not to mention the great functionality and UI for the iPhone app.

It’s easy to see what posts you have scheduled, and that’s in the free version (which does not offer a calendar view). Since I work with a non-profit organization, it was imperative that I keep any social media costs down, and other social media management tools no longer offer a free version and if they do the functionality is basically useless.

Thanks, this app, for making my life easier!

by TwilightLi

UPDATE: I now use a pro account for my job as a school librarian, and I have been so impressed with this app’s responsive tech support. This is an amazing tool to keep my students and parents up to date with what’s happening at school and around the world.
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Sometimes I get a little carried away with the Share button. this app lets me share all the great things I find without overwhelming my friends' and followers' feeds. My only complaint is the post limit. Sometimes I have more than ten things is like to queue, but the pro rate is too steep for me since it's just personal use.

by JT's Girl

When you want to have social media presence but wanna life. This is the best thing ever! I've used the this app computer version since 2012. The mobile option for posting to multiple platforms for about 5 years. I love that you can schedule posts to all your platforms with this easy to use program. It allows you to schedule on Facebook pages, Facebook groups, Instagram, Pinterest, linked in. It’s a way of creating a “presence” without being chained to social. To actually be able
To get some work done as new clients keep seeing you in their newsfeed. Plus it provides shortened links to save on characters within a single post. BRILLIANT!

by Doodlecupcake22

i’ve been using this app for probably about a year now, and it’s only gotten better with time. i don’t have a premium account, but i still get a lot of great features that i love! being able to schedule posts is great (i use it for twitter and instagram), but i also love having a preset queue schedule so i can fire off a bunch of posts at one time and trust that they’ll all automatically be posted according to the schedule i’ve set. i also really like the reminders that it sends when your queue gets empty! this app has a lot of great features, and the little things are what makes it stand out.

by FM_M

Awesome app for scheduling social media, and their updates keep getting better. (I wish Dark Mode took advantage of some true black so it’d save me power on my iPhone X as well as look cool, but that’d be a bonus).

My biggest gripe is just how pricing is structured: to get more features that would be useful to me, I’d have to go subscription, and pay for a bunch of bundled stuff I don’t want - pricing like big cable tv uses (and people have hated that forever).

I will probably never use Facebook or Instagram, but I have 7 Twitter accounts to manage. I have no team; it’s Team Me (trying to look like a big team, but still just me). If this app offered one-time in-app a la carte purchases of, say, Add One More Twitter Account To Manage, I’d buy six of them, no question, and wind up moving this app from an occasional tool to something I can start relying on.

I think if this app offered a handful of these types of in-app purchases (“one more” of each platform, one team member (maybe cap that at 2 or 3), still made it so that for the user for whom all the features make sense, the subscription as it is still gives you more and is a better value... I think if they did that, they would not likely cannibalize their subscriptions, but would pick up extra money that they’re leaving on the table, from customers like me who would gladly buy one-time a la carte adds for what we need (but will not buy the subscription because it doesn’t make sense for us).

by Zrevai

Best option I've seen to queue up posts to multiple social networks and have your posts spread out across the day. No need to flood your friends with posts all at once, let this app post for you at predetermined times which you control!!! Best tool ever for sharing across all of your social media simultaneously and with very little effort on your part, sign into the Facebook, Twitter, Google and more sites and then create your post & choose which sites you want it sent to and at what time of day & then this app does everything else and you only made one post and this app will share it with all of the accounts that you have chosen!!!!!