The Science of Social Media

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.