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Introducing more publishing options for Instagram 🎉 For every post you schedule to Instagram you can now choose between: ⚙️Automatic publishing Buffer will automatically post your content for you. OR 📲Notification publishing Buffer will tee up your post, send you a notification, and help you finish the post yourself on Instagram. Whatever you need to create the perfect piece of Instagram content, Buffer is here to help you stay organized and save time. 💫 #instagrammarketing #socialmediatips

Whether you’re neurodivergent or not, AI can be an amazing tool for supporting your brain as an entrepreneur. Here are some of the specific practices and prompts Ariana Rodriguez uses with ChatGPT to support her ADHD ⬇️ 💬 AI helps identify steps forward and prioritize ideas Ariana asks ChatGPT to help her map out a plan on any new ideas. For example, she’ll give ChatGPT details about what she’s thinking and ask it to help come up with a project plan. It will tell her exactly what needs to happen, from curriculum creation to marketing to the tech they’ll need. It’s important to note that Ariana typically doesn’t take these exact plans and run with them. But having a draft plan helps identify initial steps and reduces the amount of time it takes to get started. 💬 Have ChatGPT ask questions to unlock the answers in your brain Ariana’s biggest business hack with ChatGPT has been having it ask her questions to help think through challenges more deeply. For example, perhaps she’ll outline the marketing strategy for an upcoming launch, and then prompt it by asking: “What questions do you need me to answer to help me improve upon this strategy?” This can help her identify aspects she may be missing. 💬 ChatGPT helps verbally process without taking up any teammate’s time Ariana will say something like: “This is the problem that we’re having right now—let’s have a conversation to solve it.” She’ll have ChatGPT ask her questions, and it will often ask her dozens of (very good!) questions at a time. Instead of typing out her answers, she’ll open up a transcription software like Otter.ai and record herself responding to all the questions. Then, she’ll grab the transcript, paste it back into ChatGPT, and say, “Here’s the information you requested. What’s next? What other information do you need to help me solve this?” Learn more from Ariana on how she uses AI to support her work as a business owner with ADHD: https://lnkd.in/gE56TG9U

Eliza’s Instagram grid is a book lover’s dream 😍📚 Every so often, we spotlight a member of the Buffer community doing cool things on social media and we’re so excited to feature Eliza today. Eliza is a bookstagrammer from London, Paris, and Riga. P.S. You can also join our Discord community! It's a great place to connect about topics related to building a business, growing a brand, and lots more (link in the comments)

Organic vs paid social media: which one should you focus on? Businesses often grapple with which to focus on, but that mindset ignores the value of using both organic and paid social media to enhance your marketing success. Both approaches require different methods but will be equally effective. Organic social ➡️ Involves creating and sharing content that resonates with your target audience, fostering genuine engagement, and building a loyal community around your brand. Paid social ➡️ Allows you to target specific demographics, expand your reach beyond your existing followers, and drive more immediate results through strategic ad placements. In our article, we explore the unique characteristics of organic and paid social media, how they complement each other, and why incorporating both into your social media strategy is essential for achieving your business goals:

If you’re a business or a creator looking to monetize, using Pinterest as part of your marketing efforts is well worth exploring. We recently extended support for Pinterest to include scheduling from personal profiles. 🎉 Here are some stats from our launch: 📌 Launch day was our highest number of daily Pinterest channel connections since 2021 📌 We had 3,873 Pinterest channel connections in March - a 47% increase from March 2023 Have you tried scheduling your pins with Buffer yet? P.S. More Pinterest post analytics are coming soon! 👀 #pinterestmarketing #pinteresttips

AI can make your job as a writer a whole lot easier, but it can be tricky to figure out which ones are worth your time (and money). Which is where Senior Content Writer Kirsti Lang comes in. She’s a self-proclaimed productivity nerd who loves testing out new tools. She’s put dozens of AI writing assistants to the test in the hope of working smarter, not harder. In this article, Kirsti takes a deep dive into her favorite AI writing generators: #aitools #writingtools

Direct mail is such a cool marketing strategy. That’s probably a sentence you’re surprised to hear in a world of flashy social media videos and hyper-targeted online ads. Chris Orzechowski has worked on direct mail strategies for several of his clients, and the results speak for themselves: These campaigns see an average of 10 to 50x ROAS (return on ad spend). Direct mail works so well for a couple of reasons: ✉️ Less competition ✉️ The tactile nature of mail has an impact Read on to learn how Chris worked with one his my clients to help them achieve 11.2 to 107.9x ROAS from direct mail and grow their business threefold in 7 months—and what other small businesses can learn from their story about running their own campaigns:

President Joe Biden has signed the bill that would ban TikTok in the US if ByteDance fails to sell within 9 months. So what does the potential ban mean? Will the app immediately disappear from US devices when the deadline rolls around? Probably not — but it will disappear from iOS and Android app stores, meaning no US users will be able to download updates — eventually rendering the app unusable. There are still many unknowns, but preparing in advance certainly won't hurt. Here are a few steps you can take to start preparing in case TikTok does get banned: -Download all your TikTok videos -Tell your audience where else to find you -Update your link in bio to be an evergreen link -Evolve your social media marketing strategy TikTok potentially being banned is an unfriendly reminder of the importance of growing an audience on the platforms and services you have more control over. It’s a good time to keep your website up to date, get set up with a link-in-bio tool, and ensure you’re leveraging your newsletter to its fullest potential. This situation is still in flux, and we don't know what the outcome will be. For now, the best thing to do is stay informed and prepare for potential changes. We’ll keep this blog post updated as we learn more:

One of the earliest and and most important pieces of planning a Buffer Retreat is... the budget! This came up a few times in a recent AMA about retreat planning, so here’s a breakdown of the main budget items that we had for our recent event in Cancún — both what we budgeted for, and what we *actually* spent. 😆 We estimated a budget of about $4500 per attendee, for a total of around $300k. Naturally, teammates who fly from far away require a much larger budget than those with shorter, cheaper flights, so we have to account for that. All told, this averages out to about $1500 per person for flights and transportation, $2000 for the hotel, and some wiggle room for the other, smaller items. Choosing an all-inclusive resort really helped; even though the rooms were a bit pricier than other options we considered, the cost included all food and drinks, and some on-site activities. There WERE a few surprises, of course. 😅 For example, we were surprised by the high cost of shipping t-shirts to Mexico. (But a retreat isn’t complete without swag, so we paid the extra fees!) All told, we landed right around the budgeted amount. In-person events are a huge investment in every sense of the word. Of course, it’s a big financial event for the business. And, teammates give up time with their families, endure jetlag, and some teammates incur some personal cost. And yet, the benefits, like renewed strategic and cultural alignment across the team, and the personal connections made over meals (and beach volleyball!), can’t be quantified. We feel that it’s a very worthy investment for our global, remote team. 💛

Many brands and companies are happy to work with creators and influencers with smaller followings, but they’ll likely want to see some proof of your metrics and professionalism before sending you a contract or products. Enter: a media kit. What is an influencer media kit? A media kit (also called a press kit or collaborations kit) is a document or website creators or influencers will send to brands they’re looking to partner with. It’s usually a brief, well-designed kit that includes details about the creator, number of followers and engagement metrics, their audience demographics, the type of content they create, and examples of past campaigns. Here’s an overview of what to include in your media kit: -Key metrics from your main social media platforms -Audience demographics -Social media links -An ‘about me’ section -Testimonials from past brand collaborations -Relevant content examples -Contact details Whether you’re a full-time content creator, micro influencer, nano influencer, or just getting started, here’s how to create your own media kit: