Ready to unlock the secrets to YouTube growth? In this episode, we delve into the world of YouTube and share invaluable tips from YouTube creator Paul O'Malley. Learn how to harness the power of short-form content, optimize your posting schedule, and make the most of Buffer's new scheduling feature for YouTube Shorts. With Paul's expert guidance, we'll uncover the strategies you need to expand your audience, captivate viewers, and skyrocket your success on the platform. Cheers, Phill! Shownotes: Learn more about Buffer + YouTube: https://buffer.com/youtube Paul’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@paulomalley Paul’s Mastodon account: https://universeodon.com/@paulomalley

Here’s a question that puzzles most social media users … Why do some of my posts get more views than others? It’s a difficult question to answer. Each social network has a different algorithm. Each algorithm promotes and demotes posts in their own unique way. We’ve spent months analyzing reach and have attempted to determine why some posts (with links) get less views than others. Tune in to hear why. I hope you enjoy the episode! We’re testing the waters to see if we can get this show back up and running, so make sure you give us a shout on social media if you want to hear more episodes.  As always we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify (or wherever you listen to the show). Create your Start Page today: Buffer.com/start - Phill Shownotes: https://www.agorapulse.com/social-media-lab/linkedin-comments-link/?ref=buffer-resources https://www.socialinsider.io/blog/linkedin-posts-with-link/?ref=buffer-resources

Today we’ll be discussing a topic that we have been asked several questions about: what’s the ideal length for a video on TikTok? More specifically, we explore whether there is a one best TikTok length and look at examples from content creators who make both short and longer videos on the platform. I hope you enjoy the episode! We’re testing the waters to see if we can get this show back up and running, so make sure you give us a shout on social media if you want to hear more episodes.  As always we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify (or wherever you listen to the show). Cheers! Phill  Shownotes:  Ideal TikTok length data: https://twitter.com/stokel/status/1459171303227904000 Wired article: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/tiktok-wants-longer-videos-like-not TikTok want longer videos: https://www.protocol.com/entertainment/tiktok-longer-videos-ads Paris Hilton's 10-min long TikTok: https://centennialbeauty.com/how-hiltons-10-minute-long-advertisement-won-tiktok/ Umber's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bufferapp/video/7192654781238758699?lang=en Jess Hunt's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jesshunt02 Research on TikTok CTR: https://www.tiktok.com/business/library/Auction_Ads_Creative_Tips.pdf Naomi Burtt's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@naomiburtt Mitra's viral TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bufferapp/video/7195600797516893486 TikTok best practices: https://buffer.com/resources/get-started-on-tiktok/ How to gain more TikTok followers: https://buffer.com/resources/tik-tok-how-to-get-followers/ Best time to post on TikTok: https://buffer.com/library/best-time-to-post-on-tiktok/ Get started with Buffer: https://login.buffer.com/signup?product=buffer&plan=free

Hello there! Today, we're talking about the brand new Buffer AI Assistant, a game-changer in the world of social media management. With the ability to suggest post ideas, write posts for you, optimize, shorten, or even translate your content, the AI Assistant is like having a virtual marketing assistant at your fingertips. Don't worry, it's not a replacement for creators, it's designed to help you tweak, improve, and optimize your work. Discover how the AI Assistant can help you save time, grow your followers, and create engaging, click-worthy posts for any channel. Join us for a beginner's guide to using AI in social media management! P.S. This description was written entirely by Buffer’s AI Assistant! Shownotes: Try Buffer’s AI Assistant: https://publish.buffer.com/content/new Learn more about Buffer’s AI Assistant https://buffer.com/ai-assistant/ Umber’s blog about AI: https://buffer.com/resources/conflicted-ai-writer/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://buffer.com/newsletter Join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/EgGrmX6NTu

Are you tired of feeling like just another number on centralized social media platforms? Look no further than Mastodon, the decentralized, open-source alternative to mainstream networks. In this episode, we dive into what Mastodon is, how it differs from traditional social media, and how to get started on the platform. From building a community to customizing your experience, we'll cover everything you need to know to join the Mastodon movement and take control of your online presence. - Phill Shownotes: https://savjee.be/videos/simply-explained/mastodon-and-fediverse-explained/ https://instances.social/ https://fedifinder.glitch.me/ https://joinmastodon.org/ https://buffer.com/mastodon

Hello there! As audiences demand more content across different platforms, the number of content creators is growing to meet the demand. But it’s hard to keep up the pace of consistent and quality publishing without the support of a team. Content creators need all the help they can get – and they can find it in artificial intelligence, or AI. In today’s episode, we will explore six ways in which AI already supports content creation and which tools are leading the charge. I hope you enjoy the episode! We’re testing the waters to see if we can get this show back up and running, so make sure you give us a shout on social media if you want to hear more episodes.  As always we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify (or wherever you listen to the show). - Phill Shownotes: 1: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/13/chatgpt-is-a-new-ai-chatbot-that-can-answer-questions-and-write-essays.html 2: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/ 3: https://twitter.com/AndrewYNg/status/1600284752258686976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw 4: https://buffer.com/feature-request

A decade ago, the role of a social media manager might not have even existed. Today, however, almost every company is involved in social media one way or another. But what does it take to be a great social media manager? What are the skills to master in order to be effective? In this episode, we'll cover the primary skills that we employ for social media here at Buffer, plus a few skills we’ve noticed in social media managers around the web. A social media manager has a toolbox filled to the brim; come peek inside the toolbox with us and see what we find! - Dave & Heather-Mae Read the Show Notes: https://buffer.com/resources/social-media-manager-job-description About the Show: The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing strategies from brands and influencers in every industry. If you're a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you're sure to find something useful in each episode.  It's our hope that you'll join our 27,000+ listeners each week and rock your social media channels as a result! The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

Hello there! Personal branding has become an increasingly important aspect of successful career growth and social media is the tool everyone’s using to achieve that growth. On today’s episode we explore the future of personal branding as told by experts interviewed for our Social Proof series and in-house predictions. I hope you enjoy the episode! We’re testing the waters to see if we can get this show back up and running, so make sure you give us a shout on social media if you want to hear more episodes.  As always we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify (or wherever you listen to the show). - Phill Shownotes: Predictions about the future of personal branding: https://buffer.com/resources/personal-branding-predictions/ Social Proof content at: https://buffer.com/resources/social-proof-series/ 12 trends that will shape our careers in 2023: https://junglegym.substack.com/p/12-trends-that-will-shape-our-careers#%C2%A7building-identity-beyond-company Most popular video content type worldwide in 2nd quarter 2022, by weekly usage reach: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1254810/top-video-content-type-by-global-reach/

Today we'll be discussing how to set boundaries during the holiday season. The holidays are supposed to be a time for rest and relaxation, but for many small business owners, it can be a hectic and stressful time. We'll be sharing tips and strategies for setting boundaries with family, friends, and clients to ensure that you're able to enjoy the season while still taking care of your business. Tune in to learn how to make the most of the holiday season without burning out. I hope you enjoy the episode! We’re testing the waters to see if we can get this show back up and running, so make sure you give us a shout on social media if you want to hear more episodes.  As always we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify (or wherever you listen to the show). - Phill Shownotes: Study: Individuals who work over 61 hours a week have an increased risk of developing high systolic blood pressure: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6617405/

Hello there! On today’s episode we dive into what’s happening at Twitter and how it will impact marketers. We also share some advice for getting more engagement on Twitter, featuring a brand new Buffer feature, Twitter Threads scheduling. Learn more about threads scheduling at https://buffer.com/twitter. I hope you enjoy the episode! We’re testing the waters to see if we can get this show back up and running, so make sure you give us a shout on social media if you want to hear more episodes.  As always we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify (or wherever you listen to the show). ️️️️ - Phill Shownotes: How social media managers are coping with the Twitter debacle https://digiday.com/media/how-social-media-managers-are-coping-with-the-twitter-debacle/ In less than a month, Elon Musk has driven away half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers https://www.mediamatters.org/elon-musk/less-month-elon-musk-has-driven-away-half-twitters-top-100-advertisers I told my team to pause our $750K/month Twitter ads budget last week https://www.teamblind.com/post/i-told-my-team-to-pause-our-750kmonth-twitter-ads-budget-last-week-4dnbo1Ft Mastodon hits 1m monthly active users https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/109300967725833789 7 Reasons to Use Emoticons in Your Writing and Social Media, According to Science https://buffer.com/resources/7-reasons-use-emoticons-writing-social-media-according-science/

Oh hi there, it’s been a while! We’re experimenting with kicking off the Science of Social Media podcast again! On today’s episode we take a look back at our best performing social media posts of 2022 and share what worked! We’ll also celebrate the launch of our latest Buffer feature, Ideas, a tool to help you save, store, and action all your best ideas. Head here to learn more:  https://buffer.com/ideas I hope you enjoy the episode! We’re testing the waters to see if we can get this show back up and running, so make sure you give us a shout on social media if you want to hear more episodes.  As always we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen to the show). ️️ - Phill Shownotes: Buffer’s best performing Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/108311429241313/posts/7204551369617248 One of Buffer’s best performing LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6943563156040425472/ Buffer’s best performing Twitter post: https://twitter.com/buffer/status/1579094350079762432 Buffer’s best performing Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cf63xsQAxfG/ Buffer’s best performing TikTok post: https://www.tiktok.com/@bufferapp/video/7099110112547147054?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en About the Show: Each week in Science of Social Media the Buffer team answer your questions and explore marketing strategies and tactics to help you grow your business through social media and build a brand your customers love. Join our 25,000+ weekly listeners. The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

Listen to a preview of Small Business, Big Lessons, a podcast from Buffer that goes behind-the-scenes with inspirational small businesses to explore how they are questioning the best ways to build a business and uncover the big lessons we can learn from their journeys (so far). The eight-episode series tells business stories from extraordinary small businesses and the people behind them, examining how they’re doing things differently and what we can learn from their journeys. These stories prove it’s possible to build a business and do good along the way.

Welcome to episode 200 of The Science of Social Media! Thanks to each and every one of you for tuning in to the show and joining us on this journey. Today we're focusing on how you can build an audience on Twitter.  Twitter has over 321 million monthly active users, and it’s the perfect platform to build an audience — either for your personal brand or on behalf of your company. But how do you actually get people to follow your account, and engage with the content you share? To dig into all-things Twitter growth, we're joined by Matthew Kobach. Since early 2019, Matthew has built an audience of over 85,000 followers on his personal Twitter account and in just a couple of months, he's helped grow Fast's Twitter following to over 20,000.  I hope you enjoy the episode! And if you do, we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen to the show). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Dave About the Show: Each week in Science of Social Media the Buffer team answer your questions and explore marketing strategies and tactics to help you grow your business through social media and build a brand your customers love. Join our 25,000+ weekly listeners. The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

Today’s episode is a little different from usual. In this episode, we’re focusing on allyship and anti-racism on social media. Back in June, Buffer made a commitment to anti-racism work as an organization, as did many other brands worldwide.  And we want to regularly focus on this topic here on The Science of Social Media to keep ourselves accountable and also help others to continue to move forward and stand up to racial injustice and fight for equality for all.  In this episode, we're joined by Buffer teammates Keisha Washington and Katie Gilmur. We hope you enjoy the episode! And if you do, we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen to the show). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Dave & Heather-Mae About the Show: Each week in Science of Social Media the Buffer team answer your questions and explore marketing strategies and tactics to help you grow your business through social media and build a brand your customers love. Join our 25,000+ weekly listeners. The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

As Q4 approaches, budgets are top of mind for many of us.  And if you’re feeling worried about managing budgets, and hitting your goals, you’re not alone — a recent study on the marketing impact of COVID-19 from LinkedIn found that budget cuts are the top concern and the biggest challenge for marketers right now.  In this episode, we're joined by Buffer's VP of Marketing Kevan Lee. Kevan shares how COVID-19 has impacted marketing budgets and how brands have shifted social strategies to focus more on organic growth due to smaller budgets for paid. I hope you enjoy the episode! And if you do, we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen to the show). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Dave About the Show: Each week in Science of Social Media the Buffer team answer your questions and explore marketing strategies and tactics to help you grow your business through social media and build a brand your customers love. Join our 25,000+ weekly listeners. The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

As of July 2020, more than half of all the people on Earth use social media. With so much of the world’s population using social channels — and more joining for the first time each day — social media offers incredible opportunities to connect with your customers, no matter your business size. And in this episode, we’re going to focus in on exactly how local businesses can get most out of social media. We'll discuss why social media is important for local businesses, share examples of local brands doing great things online, and discuss some ways businesses can build their audience and connect their online and offline customer experiences.  Here are a few useful links from the show:  Harper & Blohm Cheese Shop on Instagram  WAX Watergate Bay on Facebook Callie's Hot Little Biscuit case study I hope you enjoy the episode! And if you do, we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen to the show). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Dave  About the Show: Each week in Science of Social Media the Buffer team answer your questions and explore marketing strategies and tactics to help you grow your business through social media and build a brand your customers love. Join our 25,000+ weekly listeners. The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

The thing we love most at Buffer is helping you succeed at social media. But I’m sure every social media manager has at some point asked themselves the question… "what exactly does success look like?" In this episode, we’re going to help you to define what success might look like for your business and specifically how you can use data to measure success, thanks to some expert advice from Buffer's Alfred Lua.  I hope you enjoy the episode! And if you do, we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen to the show). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Dave  About the Show: Each week in Science of Social Media the Buffer team answer your questions and explore marketing strategies and tactics to help you grow your business through social media and build a brand your customers love. Join our 25,000+ weekly listeners. The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

According to data from Shopify, new stores created online grew 62 percent between March 13th to April 24th, 2020.  With so many businesses moving from brick-and-mortar to online, and many people embracing their inner entrepreneur and starting completely new businesses, we’ve seen a ton of people asking questions around how to sell online. In this episode, we're joined by Simon Heaton, Demand Gen Lead at Shopify, who will be sharing five tips to help you to sell more online. Whether you’re new to eCommerce, an experienced seller or just looking to learn the best tactics to sell your products or services online, Simon’s talk will have something to help you. We hope you enjoy the episode! And if you do, we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen to the show). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Dave & Hailley About the Show: Each week in Science of Social Media the Buffer team answer your questions and explore marketing strategies and tactics to help you grow your business through social media and build a brand your customers love. Join our 25,000+ weekly listeners. The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

As people have been spending more time and home, screentime and time on social channels have also gone up. This has led to big jumps in engagement for many brands. And though a rise in engagement is great for marketers, it can also bring unexpected challenges and more demand for support.  With many brands not expecting such a sudden increase in messages on social, we spoke with Buffer's customer advocacy lead Darcy Peters to learn how we manage social engagement and support in busy times.  In this episode, you'll learn how to deal with more questions and comments, and keep response times down, as well as how to set up your team for success.  We hope you enjoy the episode! And if you do, we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen to the show). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Dave & Hailley About the Show: Each week in Science of Social Media the Buffer team answer your questions and explore marketing strategies and tactics to help you grow your business through social media and build a brand your customers love. Join our 25,000+ weekly listeners. The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

Does this sound familiar: One minute your social strategy is flying... the next, numbers are down, and it's hard to pinpoint exactly why. We're sure every social media marketer can relate to this in one way or another. But no need to worry. Today, we're opening up about how we stay on top of the social media industry here at Buffer.  In this episode, we'll be sharing how to stay one step ahead with your social media strategies without spending all day chasing the latest news, platform updates, and feature launches. Join us as Buffer's Sophie Gil walks us through her day-to-day workflows and how she stays keeps up-to-date on the industry in just 30-minutes each day.  We hope you enjoy the episode! And if you do, we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen to the show). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Dave & Hailley About the Show: Each week in Science of Social Media the Buffer team answer your questions and explore marketing strategies and tactics to help you grow your business through social media and build a brand your customers love. Join our 25,000+ weekly listeners. The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

This week we’re jumping back into our Buffer Session on how to adapt your social media strategy and thrive in this changing times. (If you didn’t catch part one, we released that last week. Feel free to jump back and start there.) In part two, Buffer’s Kevan Lee and Darcy Peters are again joined by Janet Mesh CEO at Aimtal. In this episode, we join the session as they begin to tackle audience questions on a host of social media marketing topics from paid advertising and how to adjust budgets, to what’s working on social video and marketing with empathy. Check out the full session here: https://lp.buffer.com/social-media-sessions We hope you enjoy the episode! If you like our new format, we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen to the show). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Dave & Hailley About the Show: Each week in Science of Social Media the Buffer team answer your questions and explore marketing strategies and tactics to help you grow your business through social media and build a brand your customers love. Join our 25,000+ weekly listeners. The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

Now more than ever social media may be one of your most important channels for connecting with your audience and your customers. The tricky part? Social media strategies have changed just as fast as everything else! This past week we held our first Social Media Sessions event. During the session, Kevan Lee, Buffer’s VP of marketing, was joined by our Customer Advocacy Lead Darcy Peters and Janet Mesh CEO at Aimtal to answer a bunch of social media marketing questions.  In today's epsiode, we're bringing you some of the key insights and takeaways from Kevan, Darcy, and Janet. The session covered topics like engagement, messaging, and creating content in the moment. Check out the full session here: https://lp.buffer.com/social-media-sessions Hope you enjoy the episode! If you like our new format, we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen to the show). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Dave & Hailley About the Show: Each week in Science of Social Media the Buffer team answer your questions and explore marketing strategies and tactics to help you grow your business through social media and build a brand your customers love. Join our 25,000+ weekly listeners. The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

When most people think of social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter — maybe even TikTok — tend to be top-of-mind. But today we're sharing why you should be thinking about Pinterest and how it could fit with your social strategies.  Occasional Science of Social Media co-host and Buffer’s head of PR Hailley Griffis takes a deep dive into data and tactics shared with us by the Pinterest team. For example, did you know that 90 percent of weekly Pinners use Pinterest to make purchase decisions? Listen to this episode for a ton of actionable data and ideas on how your brand can utilize the power of Pinterest.  I hope you enjoy the episode! If you like our new format, we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen to the show). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Dave  About the Show: Each week in Science of Social Media the Buffer team answer your questions and explore marketing strategies and tactics to help you grow your business through social media and build a brand your customers love. Join our 25,000+ weekly listeners. The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

"I feel like I’m getting tired of Instagram and I get the feeling other people are too."  This week, we speak with Buffer’s head of content Ash Read to discuss the future of Instagram. Ash shares a few unconventional opportunities for brands to stand out on the platform and how he sees Instagram marketing evolving. We also discuss why brands should be focused on community building above all else, and the one aspect of marketing that will never change... storytelling. Hope you enjoy the episode! If you like our new format, we'd really appreciate a review and five stars on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen to the show). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Dave & Hailley About the Show: Each week in Science of Social Media the Buffer team answer your questions and explore marketing strategies and tactics to help you grow your business through social media and build a brand your customers love. Join our 25,000+ weekly listeners. The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

What metrics really matter to social media marketers and marketing leaders? We’re really excited to share our new podcast format with you all today. Every week, the Buffer team (and occasional special guests) will be answering your biggest social media marketing questions. This week, we speak with Buffer’s VP of marketing Kevan Lee, to discuss the metrics that really matter for social media marketers and how Kevan looks at challenges such as inflated video view counts and finding reliable data sources. Hope you enjoy the episode! - Dave & Hailley About the Show: Each week in Science of Social Media the Buffer team answer your questions and explore marketing strategies and tactics to help you grow your business through social media and build a brand your customers love. Join our 25,000+ weekly listeners. The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

These are times of fast-changing news around COVID-19. It’s clear that what we are facing — not just as marketers, as friends, and parents and colleagues — is unprecedented. And we’re all in it together. So what does social media management look like over the coming weeks and months? We’re still figuring it out. We hope that the thoughts in this episode can act as a starting point to work from as we navigate the current and up-coming challenge. - Dave & Hailley Read the Show Notes: https://buffer.com/resources/social-media-management-in-times-of-crisis About the Show: The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing strategies from brands and influencers in every industry. If you're a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you're sure to find something useful in each episode.  It's our hope that you'll join our 27,000+ listeners each week and rock your social media channels as a result! The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

(Right now we’re working on creating a brand new, refreshed version of The Science of Social Media. We can’t wait to share it with you next week. We think you’ll love it. In the meantime, we're revisiting one of our top from the past year. Thank you for being along for the ride and for making The Science of Social Media part of your podcast routine. We're very grateful to have you.) If you're looking for inspiration for your next great Facebook ad, then we've got you covered with this episode! We're diving into the Facebook Ad Library to give you tips on how to research the ads of your competitors and how to find inspiration from some of the most creative and effective Facebook advertisers out there. We'll share some specific tips on how to get meaningful Facebook ad results, and we're hopeful you'll leave with a list of ideas that you can test today! - Dave & Heather-Mae Read the Show Notes: https://buffer.com/resources/facebook-ad-library About the Show: The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing strategies from brands and influencers in every industry. If you're a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you're sure to find something useful in each episode.  It's our hope that you'll join our 27,000+ listeners each week and rock your social media channels as a result! The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

(Right now we’re working on creating a brand new, refreshed version of  The Science of Social Media. We can’t wait to share it with you in just a few weeks. We think you’ll love it. In the meantime, we're revisiting  one of our top episodes of 2019. Thank you for being along for the ride  and for making The Science of Social Media  part of your podcast  routine. We're very grateful to have you.) Copywriting is one of the most essential skills for a marketer to have. Good copy is everywhere! Websites, advertisements, blog posts, and especially on social media. We want to give you the tools to write exceptional copy for even the  tiniest of things on social: captions, tweets, Stories, and more. Consider this a crash course in copywriting for all the little things  you write on social media everyday. Every word counts, and we want to  help make sure even your small words have a big impact! - Dave & Bonnie Read the Show Notes: https://buffer.com/resources/copywriting-microcopy About the Show: The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights,  experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we  share the most cutting-edge social media marketing strategies from  brands and influencers in every industry. If you're a social media team  of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social  media marketing, you're sure to find something useful in each episode.   It's our hope that you'll join our 27,000+ listeners each week and rock  your social media channels as a result! The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

(Right now we’re working on creating a brand new, refreshed version of The Science of Social Media. We can’t wait to share it with you in just a few weeks. We think you’ll love it. In the meantime, we're revisiting one of our top episodes of 2019. Thank you for being along for the ride and for making The Science of Social Media  part of your podcast routine. We're very grateful to have you.) We wish for you to have the very best, most fulfilling career possible, doing work that you love. And one of the best routes to that dream job is having a dreamy LinkedIn profile! We'll show you how. Today we’re giving you a checklist for a LinkedIn makeover. We’ll provide many different ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile and boost your presence - and the presence of your brand - so that you can shine. Whether you’re looking for your next great job, seeking to grow your thought leadership, or wanting to build a better brand, we have the tips for you. Listen to find out the best ways to make over your presence on LinkedIn … today! - Dave & Heather-Mae Read the Show Notes: https://buffer.com/resources/linkedin-profile-audit About the Show: The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing strategies from brands and influencers in every industry. If you're a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you're sure to find something useful in each episode.  It's our hope that you'll join our 27,000+ listeners each week and rock your social media channels as a result! The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

Does the timing of your social media posts still matter? Here at Buffer, we think so! And in today's episode we'll be guiding you through our processes for finding the best times to post on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Here are the show notes: https://buffer.com/library/best-time-to-post-on-social-media - Dave & Bonnie About the Show: The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing strategies from brands and influencers in every industry. If you're a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you're sure to find something useful in each episode.  It's our hope that you'll join our 27,000+ listeners each week and rock your social media channels as a result! The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

Over the years, we’ve shared plenty of tips and tactics to help you with social media marketing but one thing we haven’t really done well is to explain how to run social media marketing experiments… Today you’ll learn the six simple steps we use to run social media experiments, and we’ll also share some experiment ideas that you can get started with right away. Here are the show notes: https://buffer.com/library/run-social-media-experiments - Dave & Bonnie About the Show: The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing strategies from brands and influencers in every industry. If you're a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you're sure to find something useful in each episode.  It's our hope that you'll join our 27,000+ listeners each week and rock your social media channels as a result! The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

Instagram Stories has over 500 million daily active users, meaning half of Instagram’s overall user base create or view stories every single day. This means you have the potential to connect with your Instagram audience in two different places on the app — the feed and stories — and you don’t want to waste that opportunity with dull Stories and visuals. To help you captivate your audience in your Instagram Stories, we’re going to share some Instagram stories design tips that will have you creating high-quality visuals your followers will go back to view again and again. - Dave & Heather-Mae Read the Show Notes: https://buffer.com/library/instagram-stories-design-tips About the Show: The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing strategies from brands and influencers in every industry. If you're a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you're sure to find something useful in each episode.  It's our hope that you'll join our 27,000+ listeners each week and rock your social media channels as a result! The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

On this special episode of The Science of Social Media, we’re introducing you to a new podcast series from Buffer. It’s called 'Breaking Brand' and it charts the journey of Pattern Brands, a family of brands designed to help you enjoy daily life, from idea to launch. Over the past decade the Pattern Brands founding team has helped to launch over 50 businesses — creating over $15 billion in market value. The series dives into the tactics and techniques they’ve learned to create brands to stand out from the crowd. Plus, spoiler alert, throughout the series you can hear exactly how they are built Pattern’s brand, and follow along as they take their first product to market. Breaking Brand is launching on November 5th. 

Copywriting is one of the most essential skills for a marketer to have. Good copy is everywhere! Websites, advertisements, blog posts, and especially on social media. We want to give you the tools to write exceptional copy for even the tiniest of things on social: captions, tweets, Stories, and more. Consider this a crash course in copywriting for all the little things you write on social media everyday. Every word counts, and we want to help make sure even your small words have a big impact! - Dave & Heather-Mae Read the Show Notes: https://buffer.com/resources/copywriting-microcopy About the Show: The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing strategies from brands and influencers in every industry. If you're a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you're sure to find something useful in each episode.  It's our hope that you'll join our 27,000+ listeners each week and rock your social media channels as a result! The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp  Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

Looking to take your professional skills to the next level?  Thinking about YouTube advertising as a new channel for your brand? Wondering about the best-practices for generating tons of Facebook engagement? In episode #129, Brian and Hailley discuss the most in-demand skills of 2019 (according to LinkedIn), why we’re bullish on YouTube advertising, a brand new guide on Facebook engagement, using Instagram's latest Close Friends feature for your brand, and much more!

Facebook marketing in 2019 isn’t dead. On the contrary, it’s far from it! Although we continue to see a rise in the usage and effectiveness of Stories content, traditional Facebook posts in the News Feed offer a powerful outlet for brands looking to generate engagement and traffic. Which is why we teamed up with BuzzSumo to analyze more than 777 million Facebook posts from 2018. Here's everything we learned about successful content in 2019 and how your brand can thrive on Facebook.

2019 is officially here! Gone are the days where generating audience engagement on social media was primarily a passive process. The always-online audiences of today want to be involved, interact, and co-create. The brands that are successful in delivering personalized experiences to their audiences are the brands that are going to thrive with social media in the coming year. Today we’re covering 5 data-backed social media trends you need to know to make 2019 your best year yet.

A special episode from the SSM archives! This was the most popular episode from 2018 - voted on by our listeners. Content is the golden ticket to social media success. People know, love, and trust your brand on social because of the content you share across each of your channels. But how do we as brands create consistently great content that our audiences love and keep coming back to? 11 content creation hacks that will help to save you time and increase your reach on social media.

Often the best way to learn about a craft is from someone who has been in your shoes before. That's why we turned to 13 social media experts for their biggest piece of marketing advice. Social media marketing is becoming increasingly pivotal for businesses around the world. More emails are being sent and more blog posts are being published on a daily basis than ever before in history. These social media and marketing tips should help!

Video content is one of the most popular mediums for businesses today, and for good reason. Video is more engaging, more memorable, and more popular among consumers than any other type of content. There’s data, too! For example, did you know that 76% of businesses say it helped them increase sales? Or that 80% of marketers say video has increased time spent on their website? This week we’re looking to help you increase awareness and sales using the highly-engaging format of video.

Social media algorithms play a very important role in the ability for marketers and business owners to make an impact online. Yet they remain a mystery on so many different levels. We're fortunate to have an inside look at the various algorithms that power the world's biggest networks. Today we're covering everything you need to know about decoding social media algorithms in 2019 and what brands can do to thrive moving forward.

We gathered never-before-seen data from more than 15,000 Instagram Stories posted by over 200 of the world’s top accounts and brands. This is one of the largest studies ever conducted on Instagram Stories and this week we're breaking down everything we learned (and what you need to know) from our research. You'll learn the best times to post to Stories, the most effective Stories length, how to increase reach and impressions, benchmarks for different industries, and lots more.  Enjoy!

More than 400 million people use the Instagram Stories every day - making Stories an amazing opportunity for your business to reach your customers on social media. Today we're sharing tips, hacks, and strategies that you can use to create thumb-stopping Instagram Stories content that will WOW your audience.  Whether you’re using Stories to build awareness, for advertising purposes, or are simply looking to get started, this episode has something actionable for everyone.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, an incredible two-thirds of small business owners and entrepreneurs are personally responsible for three or more areas of their business, including marketing. That's where we hope to help! We teamed up with Mailchimp, Square, and WooCommerce to bring you a brand-new small business marketing guide for 2019. Today, we'll be covering specific and actionable marketing strategies that you can use to grow your business in meaningful ways.

Marketing skills and career growth do not come easy in a field that moves at the speed of light. It seems like every single week companies are demanding an evolved skill set out of their marketing team. Brands that can successfully bring a variety of people, marketing skills, and unique perspectives together have a huge advantage in providing value to their customers. We're breaking down 7 invaluable marketing skills that help the world's top teams produce consistently great content.

Great marketing ideas are hard to come by. Which is why many businesses resort to blogging as their go-to marketing strategy. But there are so many great opportunities out there to expand channels and attract customers. But, focus is key when developing new ideas and exploring opportunities. This week, we're diving into 9 effective marketing ideas that don't include blogging such as: podcasting, video series, events, and more! Plus, we're sharing how to focus on the RIGHT opportunities.

Looking to catch up on the latest social media news and trends, but short on time? This week we're covering everything you need to know to get caught up on social media: - How to launch your product on Product Hunt like a boss and generate tons of awareness, traffic, and feedback. - Lessons learned from 17.2M impressions on Twitter and the science behind what makes for a good Tweet. - Key Facebook trends for 2019 that businesses should keep their eye on to be successful. And more!

Influencer marketing is here to stay.  Beauty, business, and tech influencers (among others) can have a huge impact in helping businesses to reach what can be difficult demographics. Great influencer marketing campaigns include content that is compelling to your audience, authentic to the storyteller’s voice, and is in-line with your goals.  We're exploring how you can get started with your own influencer marketing campaigns as well as how to find quality influencers and calculate ROI.

Neuromarketing. Sounds complicated, doesn’t it?  Fortunately for marketers and small businesses it doesn't have to be! Neuromarketing is when the principles of psychology are applied to marketing research and strategy. Understanding why people make purchasing decisions online and how they respond to marketing strategies is a critical in effectively marketing your own products or services.  We're diving into the world of neuromarketing and how you can use it to get better results.

Looking to catch up on the latest social media news, but short on time? This week (ep. #114) we're chatting about all of this and more: - Instagram's co-founders stepping down from Facebook and what this critical change means for social giant. - Vertical video gaining momentum and becoming the preferred method of content consumption. - Facebook launches new Stories Ads format. Don't miss what they can do for your business. - Facebook to allow Facebook Pages to join Groups as a Page.

Looking to catch up on the latest social media news, but short on time? This week (episode #113) we're chatting about all of this and more: How two brands are using social media to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue and why it's not as difficult as you think. Instagram testing a brand new stand-alone shopping app. LinkedIn launches powerful new ad format for businesses called Dynamic Ads. Twitter released a feature allowing users to switch to a chronological timeline.

As businesses and marketers we've all had that feeling at one time or another... Where and how am I going to find my next great content ideas?  Developing consistently for your social media accounts, blog, webinars, online courses, and workshops is a major challenge from both a creative and resource standpoint. But content can also be the heart and soul of our business marketing strategy. This week on the show, we're sharing a simple, yet proven formula that you can use time and time again to discover irresistible content ideas using Reddit, YouTube, Quora, and other online communities. - Brian & Hailley Show Notes: https://blog.bufferapp.com/content-ideas About the Show: The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing strategies from brands and influencers in every industry. If you're a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you're sure to find something useful in each episode.  It's our hope that you'll join our 17,000+ listeners (more than 1,120,000 downloads to date!) each week and rock your social media channels as a result! The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp  Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

We asked you (our listeners) to let us know which social media networks you would like to learn more about - LinkedIn (53%) came in a close second, just after Instagram (62%). To get started, we teamed up with LinkedIn to share with you tried and true tips on how to leverage one of the most valuable online resources for your business: your LinkedIn Company Page. With this simple 5-step strategy your business can accelerate the growth of your Company Page by up to 600%.

Looking to catch up on the latest social media news, but short on time? We have you covered! After years of trying to sell brands on the Facebook news feed, they’re changing their pitch to Instagram, Stories, and Messenger engagement. Facebook interviewed some of the top video producers on social media media and compiled their latest tips and tricks to creating video. We have some really interesting YouTube stats for you on how to improve your brand’s performance on YouTube.

We partnered with BuzzSumo to analyze more than 43 million posts from the top 20,000 brands on Facebook in one of the largest studies of 2018. Today, we're excited to share the eye-opening research with you (hint: Page engagement continues to decline) as well as how your business or brand can revamp your Facebook marketing strategy moving forward and still find a ton of success on the platform. We've learned that the best way to succeed on Facebook is to take a growth mindset. Here's how!

Looking to catch up on the latest social media news, but short on time? We have you covered! This week we have a super interesting episode lined up for you, starting with specific details around Facebook's plan to redesign business Pages from top to bottom for "utility." We’re also chatting about some interesting social media facts about Generation Z in 2018, the return on investment (ROI) on meme accounts, and lots more.

What do psychology and social media have in common? A lot more than you'd imagine! Believe it or not, there are some very scientific reasons that people like, share, comment, and purchase products online. Understanding the psychology facts behind the way audiences think on social media is the first step in creating a better experiences, stronger relationships, and loyal customers in the long run. This week we're looking at 7 psychology facts that all social media marketers should know.

Is your business prepared for the future of social media?  The social media industry changes so quickly that it can be a challenge to keep up with all of the different announcements and platform updates from your favorite networks. This week we're chatting about a brand new Instagram engagement study, including everything you need to know about why users interact with content. We're also discussing vertical video on social media and 3 reasons why influencer marketing campaigns fail.

It seems like everywhere we look there's some new social media marketing tactics being touted as the next big thing. As businesses, we're constantly looking for ways to reach our audience in creative ways and so we often jump around from strategy to strategy - often leaving what used to work in the past. This week we're dusting off 6 old school marketing tactics that still work like a charm on social media. Plus, we're exploring how your business can implement them in new and creative ways.

A ton of great stuff to talk about in the world of social media marketing this week!  Several interesting and actionable articles published in the social media and marketing industry recently and we’re sharing the most important takeaways and learnings from all of those.  From important Facebook ads research and data, to generating emails and social media followers as a small business, to our favorite new social media tools on the market, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

Instagram advertising is one of the most promising (and exciting) opportunities for businesses and brands to get their products or services directly in front of consumers. More than 1 billion Instagram consumers to be exact!  Today’s episode is a list of best-practices, tools, and key data points that you’ll need to know to be successful with Instagram posting and advertising, and ultimately, selling your product or service on one of the world's leading social media platforms.

This week we’re looking at how you can create a customer-focused social media strategy that will work and pay dividends for your business or brand.  We'll be sharing a ton of ideas and information so that you can get started today setting up a social media strategy that will put your customers at the center of everything.  Focusing on your customers or social media will help you to increase engagement one every channel, improve ROI, and make social media a focal point of success for your business.

Instagram IGTV is here! Today, we’re diving into one of the most exciting new platforms on the entire internet right now - Instagram's brand new platform: IGTV. We’ve got everything you need to know about the new Instagram platform, plus, an exclusive guide for IGTV creators. We're predicting Instagram to pass Facebook’s 2 billion users in the next 5-10 years. Particularly because of their innovations on the mobile front with things like IGTV, which we’re going to cover in detail today.

We're celebrating one million downloads and our 100th episode!  In this totally random episode, Brian and Hailley go completely off-script and give you a never-before seen or heard peek inside The Science of Social Media.  They'll be sharing their top lessons learned from 100 episodes, favorite moments, biggest challenges, as well as how they grew the Buffer Podcast to more than one million downloads as a side project. Here's to one hundred episodes and one million downloads more!

Did you know: Before Instagram implemented their new algorithm in 2016, users were missing 70% of all posts and 50% of their friends’ posts in the feed? The Instagram team shared some never-before seen or heard updates behind how the Instagram algorithm actually works. We're covering all of those in detail on today's episode. Plus, we've got the scoop on several other Instagram updates that you won't want to miss as a marketer, business, or brand.

A brand new 2018 State of Social Media Marketing Report is live from Social Media Examiner and we're breaking down all of the most important takeaways for businesses and marketers! Have you ever wondered how fellow businesses and marketers are using social media? Or if you should focus more on ads or messenger bots or video? More than 5,700 marketers revealed where, why, and how they’ll focus their organic and paid social media efforts in 2018 and beyond.

Small businesses and entrepreneurs have their own set of unique social media and marketing challenges and opportunities. The biggest one being having so many different responsibilities! But the fact remains... Social media marketing is a HUGE opportunity for small businesses and entrepreneurs to grow their audience. Today, we're breaking down our 10 most proven social media marketing tips that will help small businesses and entrepreneurs (you) succeed on social media in 2018 and beyond.

Covering the biggest news in the social media marketing world, including one subject that we as marketers don’t talk about enough - Proving social media ROI. We’re also covering the biggest video trends in 2018 and what marketers need to know moving forward. Instagram released a ton of exciting features that will continue to grow the platform in big ways. You won't want to miss what those are!  Finally, Facebook leaked a new influencer marketing platform and we've got the inside scoop.

We partnered with Brian Dean of Backlinko to create a huge, step-by-step case study on how you can grow your brand’s YouTube channel in a big way… starting today. In just 30 days after implementing Brian Dean’s advice, we’ve grown our YouTube channel by 59%, monthly views have shot up by 35%, and video watch time has increased by 61%. In episode #95 of The Science of Social Media, Brian and Hailley share everything you need to create a rock-solid YouTube marketing strategy from scratch.

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is a new data privacy regulation that aims to give individuals in the EU protection and control over their personal data. It has major implications for your business and the marketing and social media tools you use, whether you’re located in the EU or not. In episode #94 of The Science of Social Media, we're breaking down the new GDPR regulation into understandable steps that you and your business can take to keep your social media strategy running smoothly.

Facebook F8 is one of the most important conferences of the year for the social media world! With F8 2018 in the history books, we thought it’d be useful to recap some of the most important announcements Facebook made during its flagship conference. Today we're chatting about the biggest announcements from Facebook F8 2018 and some thoughts on what F8 could mean for the social media industry moving forward.

Understanding hundreds of different social media demographics-or the different characteristics of audiences on each social media network-is key to defining your strategy.  We'll be chatting about 20+ key social demographic facts for each of the major platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn). We're also breaking down Facebook's Q1 Earnings Report and an encounter between Elon Musk and the co-founder of HubSpot, Dharmesh Shah. Dharmesh learned a valuable lesson from Elon Musk.

Did you know it takes less than two-tenths of a second for an online user to form a first opinion about your brand based on social media? Or that 77% of recruiters use search engines to learn about candidates? And of those researching candidates online, 35% eliminated a candidate from consideration based on information found online. Your personal brand is the most important career asset you own. We're talking all about personal branding and how you can succeed in today's competitive market.

As video content on social media becomes more widely used, it’s clear that companies not using video are missing out on a big opportunity to bring their brand to life. Video makes your brand more human, engaging, and helps to create trust because people get to meet the folks that help to make your company thrive. In episode #90, Hailley & Brian dive into 21 actionable tips on how you can create engaging videos for the two of the largest platforms out there: Facebook and Instagram.

Tons of exciting and interesting things to talk about in the world of social media this week! We're breaking down the best times to post to social media (according to more than 20 research studies). LinkedIn launched a great new video ad product for marketers and businesses looking to reach a targeted audience.  Buffer has a brand new GIPHY channel and we have some great ideas for you. We're also sharing some exciting news - The Buffer mobile app has been nominated for a Webby Award!

2018 is in full swing and you might be looking for new social media tools to add to your marketing stack! According to Scott Brinker of the Chief Marketing Technologist Blog, there are now more than 5,000 tools in the marketing technology landscape. So where do you start? As part of our State of Social Media 2018 campaign, we partnered with the team at Product Hunt to put together a list of the latest trending social media tools for marketers to try in 2018.

Another busy week in the world of social media!  We're covering everything you need to know to stay up-to-date on the latest happenings in social media marketing.  In episode #87, Hailley and Brian chat about the recent Facebook & Cambridge Analytica data incident, new and exciting changes to the Instagram algorithm, 3 must-read social media books in 2018, YouTube Stories, and more!

Content is the golden ticket to social media success. People know, love, and trust your brand on social because of the content you share across each channel. How do we as marketers and business owners create consistently great content that audiences love and keep coming back to? In episode #86, Hailley and Brian explore 11 content creation hacks that will help to save you time and increase your reach on social media. Plus, we're super excited to share a big announcement to share with you!

Pixar and their team of incredible writers are arguably some of the greatest storytellers of our generation.  As a marketer, effective storytelling involves a deep understanding of human emotions, motivations, and psychology. Luckily for us, Pixar openly shares their knowledge for everyone to learn from! In episode #85, Hailley and Brian break down 6 must-have rules for great storytelling and why stories are your brand's most important social media asset.

Instagram now has more than 800 million monthly users - more than 500 million of whom use Instagram every single day, sharing more than 250 million piece of content each day. How can you stand out among the other millions photos, videos, & stories posted each day? How can you create beautiful content for Instagram? In episode #84 of The Science of Social Media, Hailley and Brian break down 3 proven tactics the most successful brands on Instagram use to grow their followers and engagement!

We're diving into the State of Video Marketing in 2018, including all of the incredible data and takeaways from Wyzowl's 600+ marketer survey. After that we're breaking down the monumental change that will be hitting Twitter in mid-March. This change will impact the Twitter API and the way brands and marketers post content. We'll also be diving into our 3 favorite YouTube hacks. These hacks have helped us to grow our channel and increase video views over the last several months!

We talk a lot about specific marketing and social media tactics and strategies on this show, but rarely do we talk about the soft or "intangible skills" that really great marketers have in common. In episode #82, Hailley and Brian chat about the habits of some of the most successful marketers across all industries, the science of confidence in leadership, and what you can do to continue to grow in your own career.

The Facebook algorithm is constantly evolving in order to provide a better experience for users. But few changes to the algorithm have sparked as much conversation as the recent ‘meaningful interactions’ update, in which Facebook said it would be prioritizing posts that create conversations between family & friends. We got an inside look at the new algorithm, directly from an exclusive Facebook News Feed webinar. Here’s how it works and what marketers and brands can do to thrive on Facebook!

What an exciting week in social media! Facebook announces their Q4 earnings along with some groundbreaking revelations about the future of the News Feed. Instagram launches an exciting change to their API that will affect how we publish content from here on out. Inside the "follower factory" on social media and the implications of paying for followers, plus lots more! In episode #80, Hailley and Brian break down the latest in social media news and marketing!

Putting your trust as a marketer or brand in 3rd-party social media tools to manage all of your posts can be a bit scary. You might be wondering: - Are my posts getting optimal reach and engagement? - Do social media platforms penalize 3rd-party tools? - Are 3rd-party tools really worth the cost? For an entire month we tested more than 200 posts across 35 profiles to see exactly how 3rd-party social media tools stack up vs. native posting. Today we’re excited to share the results!

The way consumers and brands use social media is constantly evolving. To better understand what the future of social media will look like, we teamed up with Social Media Week to collect data from over 1,700 marketers and create our brand new State of Social Media 2018 report. In episode #78, Brian and Hailley break down the 3 most important findings from the research and how marketers can use this data to evolve their social media strategies in 2018 and beyond.

Mark Zuckerberg said that he wanted to “fix Facebook” in 2018, but not many marketers thought he would make such a big change so quickly!   Twelve days into the new year, Zuckerberg and the Facebook team have dropped what might be the biggest Facebook News Feed update in years (particularly for brands).   Quite understandably, the future of Facebook for businesses is somewhat uncertain.   In episode #77, Brian & Hailley discuss the specific changes to the Facebook News Feed (helping to clarify any potential rumors).   They also chat about what this change to the Facebook News Feed means for marketers and brands and their social media strategies in 2018.    An important episode for anyone that uses a Facebook Page to market their business! Facebook Press Release (Original) Inside The Facebook Algorithm - Changes You Need To Know About the Show: The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing strategies from brands and influencers in every industry. If you're a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you're sure to find something useful in each episode.  It's our hope that you'll join our 12,000+ listeners each week and rock your social media channels as a result! The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback. We'd love for you to check out the detailed show notes at www.buffer.com/podcast Check us out on Instagram - www.instagram.com/buffer Check us out on Facebook - www.facebook.com/bufferapp  Check us out on Twitter - www.twitter.com/buffer

Everything marketers and brands need to know to catch up on the latest and greatest in social media marketing news.  We're excited to be back for 2018 and can't wait to share everything that's happened in the world of social media over the last two weeks.  Hailley and Brian chat about the top mistakes businesses make on social media, Mark Zuckerberg's 2018 personal goal to "fix Facebook", our results from Twitter Promote More, and lots more!

2018 is here and it's gearing up to be a big year in social media! This week we're chatting about the 5 biggest (and most important) social media trends that marketers should keep a close eye on heading into 2018. Understanding and planning for each of these trends will help your business or brand stay on the cutting edge of social media - paving the way for massive opportunities. Tune in to episode #75 to catch up the biggest trends!

Covering another big week in social media marketing and news!  Instagram has a couple of new great features for individuals and brands.  Netflix takes their user data to a whole new level on social media.  Facebook releases a brand new Messenger app for kids.  And lots more!  Join us for episode #74 as Brian & Hailley break down a big week in social media and what marketers need to know moving forward.

What do Mr. Bean, National Geographic, and Red Bull all have in common? They created some of the internet's most engaging social media content in 2017! Wondering how you might be able to do the same in 2018?  Join us for episode #73 as Hailley and Brian break down social media's top 10 posts, the data behind them, why they worked, and how marketers can repeat their success. There's no reason why you can't be on this list next year!

Have you ever wondered how much Facebook really knows about you?  Or how they collect all of that detailed information?  Or how businesses are using your data to deliver specific advertising content across platforms? If so, you're in luck! In episode #72, Brian & Hailley discuss everything that Facebook knows about you, how businesses are using that data, and how you can take back control of your privacy.

There's a ton of great stuff happening in the world of social media!  In episode #71, we're covering four of the biggest updates, articles, and data-backed studies from the last week that marketers should keep an eye on as we close out 2017.  We'll be chatting about the $177,843 Facebook ad test, the current state of messaging, tweetstorms, and much more! Get ready for a jam-packed show!

More than 15 million businesses now use Instagram worldwide and over half of those businesses are creating Stories every month. Stories are an incredible way to connect with your audience in fresh and authentic ways. But creating attractive Instagram Stories can be challenging and time-consuming. Brian and Hailley share tons of ideas and tools around how to effortlessly create beautiful Instagram Stories as well as why they're important for brands to master in 2018.

What if we told you that LinkedIn, a social media platform that is now 14 years old, is the next big opportunity for marketers and brands? While much of the focus over the last few years has been on perfecting our Facebook and Instagram marketing strategies, LinkedIn has been silently growing their user base to more than 500 million users. LinkedIn is evolving into a thriving network of incredible content, influencers, and networking opportunities unmatched by other social media platforms.

Important updates in the world of social media and marketing!  This week, we chat about the continued decline of Facebook organic reach (including BuzzFeed Tasty's unbelievable dip in video views), LinkedIn video and what marketers need to know, our chat with Gary Vee at the Animoto Video Summit in NYC, Snapchat data, and more.  We'd love to hear what you think about this new style of episode on The Science of Social Media.

Social media studies have given us great ideas to improve our social media marketing. To help you better understand the ever-changing social media landscape, we jumped into the latest social media research papers, hoping to discover some under-the-radar insights to help supercharge your social media marketing strategy as we head into 2018.

There are now more than 1.3 billion people using Facebook Messenger every month. Yes, billion with a B! We've have been experimenting with different ways to include Messenger as one of our go-to marketing tools, by sending out our latest blog posts through Messenger and engaging and helping our customers through the platform too. Here’s everything we know about getting started and using Facebook Messenger for your social media marketing.

One thing that often gets overlooked in a lot of social media content is a general approach to social media for businesses and entrepreneurs. What should businesses be thinking about? What are trends that businesses can feel good about investing in? Hosts Brian & Hailley cover successful social media for businesses & entrepreneurs. After chatting with hundreds of businesses, we've dwindled it down to 8 super important social media tips you should consider on your way to social success.

Understanding how to leverage and strategically utilize Facebook Ads is becoming a staple part of almost every social media strategy. And if you want to get your posts seen on Facebook, it’s becoming more and more likely that you’ll have to pay for reach with Facebook Boosted Posts or even run a full-blown Facebook advertising campaign. Join hosts Brian and Hailley as they explore how top brands with $300K+ monthly Facebook Advertising budgets find success time and time again!

Social media is changing. It used to be a one-to-many channel. Businesses would publish links, photos, and videos on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, hoping to reach as many people as they can and drive a high number of leads and sales. Then, we hit content shock. There is now more content on social platforms than people can consume. If a post doesn’t look interesting or useful, people just scroll past it. Social media is no longer a megaphone. Here's why...

"Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light." - Vera Nazarian As social media managers and marketers, books have the power to open our minds to new and tremendously exciting ideas - no matter the subject. Join us for episode #62 as we break down some of the best reads on marketing and social media, including our favorite quotes and takeaways for social media managers from each!

Why is Facebook blue? Can colors impact how people perceive your brand and ultimately impact their purchasing decisions?  Absolutely! The visual sense is the strongest developed one in most human beings. It’s only natural that 90% of an assessment for trying out a product is made by color alone. Join us as we explore the incredible world of color and how you can evoke powerful and specific emotions in your potential customers.

The Facebook and Instagram algorithms are mysterious for so many marketers, yet they are also ingenious and brilliant in showing the best content to the most people. But how exactly do the Facebook and Instagram algorithms work? And how can marketers use this knowledge to have their content seen by more people? We explore the 7 key factors that influence the ranking and success of your content in your followers’ feed.

Now is the perfect time for marketers and businesses to take a closer look at Facebook video and how to use videos to engage more fans on the platform. With Facebook video being a top priority for marketers in 2017, we’d love to help you get ahead of this rising trend. In episode #59, you’ll learn proven ways to consistently increase views, engagement, and shares to your Facebook videos.

Ryan Holiday - best-selling author and media strategist - explains why marketers and businesses are approaching the art of content creation all wrong. We explore the current state of marketing and social media content and how short-term thinking only creates short-term results. Ryan Holiday dives into how we as marketers and businesses can begin to think strategically about our content and create something that lasts a lifetime or more.

What if we could understand the psychology of social media and use that knowledge to bring customers closer, give them more of what they want, and create better relationships? In episode #57 of The Science of Social Media, we explore just that! We take a deep dive into the psychology of social media and why people share and like what they do online. Many of these will surprise you!

We explore everything you need to know about creating captivating Instagram Stories content that your audience will love. We also dive into our favorite tools for creating beautiful graphics and videos that we use here at Buffer.

Noah Kagan joins us as we explore the top 5 most exciting social media and marketing trends that all marketers should consider in 2017 and examples of how you can get at started with each today.

Have you ever found yourself explaining how to use hashtags to someone whose only connection with the word is as a telephone button? Hashtags have the potential to be a truly valuable in your overall social media strategy. Here's what you need to know about using hashtags on social media. Including, how many, the best ones, and where to use them to help grow your social media accounts.

We've made a good number of social media mistakes - Mistakes that have cost us reach and engagement, maybe even fans and customers. But with each mistake came a ton of great learnings that helped us to improve our social media marketing results. Here are the 5 biggest social media mistakes that we've made here at Buffer and what we've learned along the way (so you don't have to make the same!)

It's an exciting time to get to know Instagram. The popular photo-sharing app is fun, simple and growing---Instagram now has more than 700 million monthly users and sky-high user engagement levels. Here are 6 proven Instagram marketing tactics to help grow your followers and engagement starting today!

Ian Cleary - Founder and CEO of RazorSocial, contributor to Forbes and Entrepreneur, and avid kick boxer - shares his unique PRISM funnel system that helps to convert loyal social media fans into customers. Ian has been using the PRISM funnel to help businesses of all shapes and sizes build valuable relationships and convert customers on social media for several years, and we're hopeful that this system will help yours, too.

Does the concept of social media benchmarking and ROI feel rather enormous? You're not alone! That's exactly what inspired this "delightfully short" guide to social media benchmarking and ROI and made it all the more fun and challenging to record. Discover the four benchmarks that are considered industry-standard and how you can apply them to your own brand or business.

Follower count is one of those metrics that has tons of meaning - both for the confidence of the social media manager and for the distribution of the content you share. If you want to grow your followers, there are tons of useful tips to try. In episode #49 of The Science of Social Media, we explore some key learnings we've drummed up about how to get that first initial batch of followers on some of the major social media networks.

Over the past year our Facebook organic reach and engagement were on a steady decline. We needed to make a change! In episode #48 of The Science of Social Media, we explore the change we made to our Facebook strategy and the eye-opening (and awesome) results that ensued. This episode is perfect for anyone looking to improve their Facebook marketing performance.

Paul Jarvis - one-time touring musician, veterinary assistant, and paperboy turned full-time entrepreneur - has written 4 critically acclaimed books, built several software companies, and has taught more 10,000 students through his online courses. He also hosts two podcasts of his own. Paul shares the secret sauce to social media success and why it's within reach for all marketers, brands, influencers and companies.

In this very special episode, Buffer co-host Brian Peters chats about how change is inevitable in both social media and marketing and why it's important for marketers to adapt with the changing times.

Looking for new and exciting ways to use Facebook to reach fans and grow engagement? Join Hosts Hailley Griffis and Brian Peters as they explore and share 10 little-known Facebook marketing hacks and features that you may not have used before. Everything from Facebook "Pages to Watch" to installing and utilizing the Facebook Pixel on your website is included in this jam-packed episode!

Classpass is one of the fastest-growing "all-in-one membership" startups out there today. Part of the reason is due to their useful (and awesome) product and part of it is due to their incredibly successful Facebook ads strategy. From managing their six-figure budget to coordinating more than 500 Facebook ads at any given time, Mary knows the ins-and-outs of what it takes to run a thriving Facebook ads strategy.

Hosts Hailley and Brian explore 11 proven ways to use Buffer to get the most out of your social media marketing. From user generated content to video marketing to the Buffer app for iOS & Android, this episode is packed with behind-the-scenes insights into how we use Buffer... at Buffer! Utilizing each one of these features has helped us to grow our social media audience size and engagement by more than 155% in one year. Today, we hope to help you do the same.

Molly Pittman - VP of Marketing at DigitalMarketer - is one of the premier experts and resources for Facebook Advertising knowledge on the planet. And so we asked her: Is it possible to create the perfect Facebook ad? Today we're excited to be exploring the 5 key elements that help to create Facebook ads that really work for your brand and business.

Marie Forleo shares specific ways that you can use social media to build an audience, connect with your customers, and eventually, grow your business. Whether you're just starting out on social media or you've been using social media for years, you'll learn the best-practices that thousands of businesses have used to succeed online.

Branden Harvey has built an audience of more than 120K on social media by telling stories of good in the world. Focusing on making a positive impact has allowed him to work with some of today's most innovative companies and has earned him features in Forbes, The Huffington Post, Elite Daily, WIRED, and Fortune. Branden shares some actionable insights into why telling stories of good on social media has been such a powerful tool for change.

Lauren Naturale shares her expert insights into how Merriam-Webster has developed one of the most powerful and unique brand voices in the industry - which has led to major social media growth. Their Twitter account alone has grown by more than 200,000 followers in just one year - gaining the attention of major publications like Mashable, BuzzFeed, NPR (and more) and winning awards along the way.

Jay Baer has been building audiences, online and off, for more than 20 years. His approach to content marketing is simple yet incredibly effective. It all starts with an understanding of what your customers are looking for online and overdelivering on value through content and customer service. Jay shares the challenges that marketers are facing today and the 4 ways they can fix their broken content marketing and social media programs.

Join hosts Hailley and Brian as they break down one of the largest square video studies to date. This study (complete with research) explores how square video performs vs. landscape video and why marketers should consider adding square video to their marketing tactics. This is a great video marketing episode for those looking to improve their game!

Clair Byrd - Director of Competitive Marketing at Twilio - has become one of the most successful and forward-thinking marketers in Silicon Valley. Clair shares the incredible story of how she went from cook to marketing superstar - working on some of the coolest projects in the industry. Clair breaks down step-by-step how she approaches marketing and how every single move she makes is a risky, but important decision.

Travis Bernard - TechCrunch Director of Audience Development - gives us an insider look into how his team at TechCrunch approaches video marketing in 2017. Travis also shares what makes videos successful for them on social media as well as the exact metrics that marketers should focus on when it comes to video.

Candice Galek - CEO and founder of Bikini Luxe (one of the world's largest and most successful online swimwear collections) - has seen first-hand how powerful LinkedIn marketing can be for both monetization and growth of a business. We had the pleasure of chatting with Candice all about how LinkedIn has been crucial for building relationships, getting the word out about Bikini Luxe, and in turn, building her business.

Join hosts Hailley Griffis and Brian Peters as they share 15 hidden Instagram marketing hacks that you can try today to enhance your content, boost your profile, and grow your account. This episode is part of our brand new Buffer "Minisode" series - Where we share 5 or more social media tips in 10 minutes or less.

Michael Stelzner - CEO and founder of Social Media Examiner - shares his insider knowledge on exactly how social media algorithms work and why they're important for marketers to understand. Michael also details out specific social media tactics and strategies marketers and businesses can implement to help use algorithms in their favor.

Breaking down the 5 most important things you can do to begin to build your personal brand online. And why it's important for both your personal and professional life. This episode covers everything you need to know about creating an expert personal brand no matter what industry you're in.

Bustle, with more than 1.4M followers on Instagram alone, is leading the way in Instagram Stories marketing. Everyday thousands of people tune into their Stories to watch one of the many fun, entertaining, and educational series that the Bustle team puts together. Covering how you can create simple, yet beautiful and engaging Instagram Stories that will help to grow your account and "wow" your audience.