What Buffer is (in plain English)

Buffer is a friendly, all‑in‑one tool to plan, write, schedule, and measure your social media. It keeps everything in one place so your team can work faster, make fewer mistakes, and stay consistent across channels. Think of it as a simple control center for social that plays nicely with your Back Office processes. (buffer.com)

Where Buffer helps most in a solid Back Office

• Consistent publishing without chaos: Build a calendar once, queue content, and keep every brand/account on schedule. That means fewer last‑minute scrambles and a predictable process your ops team can rely on. (buffer.com)

• Clear ownership and approvals: Use drafts, notes, access levels, and approval workflows (Team plan) to move content from idea to approved post—no messy email threads. (buffer.com)

• Centralized engagement: Handle comments for key networks from one inbox, with shortcuts and highlights to speed up responses and reduce support handoffs. (buffer.com)

• Actionable reporting: Basic analytics for quick checks and advanced analytics on paid plans for performance, timing, and reporting—exactly what stakeholders want in review meetings. (buffer.com)

• Predictable, scalable costs: You pay per social “channel,” so finance can forecast and allocate by brand or business unit. Annual billing discounts keep budgets tidy. (buffer.com)

• Simple guardrails: Two‑factor authentication and role‑based access reduce risk as more people touch social. (buffer.com)

What you can do with Buffer

• Plan and schedule: Map content in a visual calendar, queue posts, and even publish threaded posts to X, Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon. YouTube Shorts and Google Business Profile scheduling are supported too. (buffer.com)

• Create smarter with AI: Repurpose and refine posts with an AI Assistant (included on all plans), then save templates and hashtags for repeatable workflows. (buffer.com)

• Collaborate like a team: Share drafts, add internal notes, and (on the Team plan) use approval workflows and custom permissions so the right people sign off before anything goes live. (buffer.com)

• Engage your audience: Reply to comments from one place for Facebook and Instagram; highlight important messages so customer questions don’t slip through. (buffer.com)

• Measure what matters: Track performance, find your best posting times, tag content for custom views, and export clean reports people actually understand. (buffer.com)

• Extend your presence: Build a simple “link‑in‑bio” Start Page (it counts as a channel) to route traffic where you need it. (buffer.com)

Supported social networks (nice and broad)

• Facebook, Instagram (business and creator), LinkedIn (profiles and pages), TikTok, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, X (Twitter), Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, and YouTube Shorts. Publishing support varies by network, but all are connectable on current plans. (buffer.com)

Plans and pricing (simple and transparent)

• Free: Up to 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel, 1 user, basic analytics, and AI Assistant. Great for very small teams or pilots. (buffer.com)

• Essentials: $6 per channel/month (or $5 per channel/month when billed annually). Unlocks unlimited scheduling, advanced analytics, engagement inbox, hashtag manager, and first‑comment scheduling. (buffer.com)

• Team: $12 per channel/month (or $10 per channel/month annually). Everything in Essentials plus unlimited users, access levels, and content approval workflows—ideal once social becomes a true team sport. (buffer.com)

• 14‑day free trial on paid plans; pricing is per channel so you only pay for what you connect. Annual billing gives a built‑in discount. (buffer.com)

Why Back Office teams like it

• Standardizes how work gets done: From ideas to approvals to publishing, you get a repeatable path that reduces errors and creates a clear audit trail of content decisions.

• Improves cross‑team visibility: Marketing, Support, and Leadership see the same calendar and reports—no more copy‑pasting into spreadsheets.

• Easier budgeting and chargebacks: Per‑channel pricing maps neatly to brands and regions, making internal cost allocation straightforward.

• Faster stakeholder reporting: Exportable, branded reports (Team plan) make monthly and quarterly reviews painless. (buffer.com)

A quick note on scale and trust

Buffer is a long‑running, profitable company with a public “open company” ethos—sharing metrics, pricing thinking, and even salaries. As of May–June 2025, Buffer reported over 67,000 customers and $22M+ ARR, with monthly transparency updates published openly. That’s unusual in a good way and gives Back Office teams confidence in vendor stability. (buffer.com)

Where Buffer might not fit

• If you need deep enterprise features like social listening at scale or broad YouTube (beyond Shorts) publishing, you may still pair Buffer with other tools. Buffer keeps things lean—and that’s part of why it’s easy for Back Office to manage. (buffer.com)

Practical rollout tips

• Start with the Free plan to pilot your workflow on 2–3 channels, then add channels as your process firms up. (buffer.com)

• Define roles early (who drafts, who approves, who publishes) and switch to the Team plan once two or more people are touching content regularly. (buffer.com)

• Tag content by campaign or product line so analytics roll up cleanly for monthly and quarterly reporting. (buffer.com)

Bottom line

If you want a social tool that’s easy for creators, reliable for operations, and friendly for finance, Buffer is a strong, low‑friction choice. It gives you the structure a solid Back Office needs—without the heavy lift. (buffer.com)

Transparency bonus

Buffer is known for open salaries and public sharing of finances and product decisions. That culture shows up in the product: clear pricing, straightforward plans, and no surprises. It’s refreshing—and helpful when you’re justifying tooling choices internally. (buffer.com)