Do you want to automate the process of posting your WordPress posts to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter?
There are many social media platforms, and it can become time-consuming to manually post to all of them each time you create a new blog post.
In this article, we will show you how to automatically schedule WordPress posts for social media with Buffer.
Why Schedule WordPress Posts for Social Media?
Social media is an important source of traffic for many websites, including WPBeginner.
An easy way to encourage your visitors to share your content is by adding social sharing buttons in WordPress.
However, social media platforms require you to be actively engaged. One way to do that is to regularly post updates to your social media accounts.
It can become time-consuming to post several times a day and spend time on each social platform.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could automate and schedule some of that work so that you can focus on growing your business?
This is what Buffer does. It allows you to schedule your social media posts and even automatically schedule blog posts to be shared on social media from WordPress.
What Is Buffer?
Buffer is a web-based app that allows you to post across various social networks.
In their own words, Buffer is a smarter way to share things. It allows you to integrate your Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin into one single Buffer account.
You can use a single dashboard to share things on all your networks. It also offers analytics, easy scheduling of posts, and URL shortening.
You can also add team members, which is great for dividing up social media activities.
Video Tutorial
If you prefer written instructions, then please continue reading.
Connecting Buffer to Social Accounts
The first thing you need to do is go to the Buffer homepage and sign up with your email address. You can also sign up using your Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn account.
Once you are done, you will be taken to your Buffer dashboard. Now, it’s time to connect your social media accounts.
Click on any of those links to connect your social media profiles. For this example, we connected a Twitter and Facebook account.
Here’s what you will see in your Buffer dashboard:
The next thing you will want to make sure of is that you have created specific times to post to your social accounts in the Buffer dashboard.
Simply go to your Buffer ‘Settings’ and then click ‘Posting Schedule’. From here, you can set up your timezone and posting time.
Once that’s done, it’s time to set up your WordPress site to automatically post via Buffer.
Connecting WordPress to Buffer
Now that you have created a Buffer account, the next thing is to connect it to your WordPress website.
To do that, you need to install and activate WP to Buffer plugin on your site. For more details, please see our ultimate guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
After activating the plugin, go to WP To Buffer » Settings, and you will see this:
Next, click the ‘Authorize Plugin’ button.
You should now see this screen:
You will need to click on the ‘Allow access’ button, and that will connect your WordPress site to your Buffer account.
Now that your Buffer account is connected to your WordPress dashboard, you will see the following:
You have now successfully authorized the plugin to automatically add blog posts to be shared on your Buffer account.
Schedule Posts for Social Media Using Buffer
To automatically share posts when they are published, you need to go to the WP to Buffer ‘Settings’ page and click on the ‘Posts’ tab.
On the left side, you will see all the social media accounts you have connected to Buffer. You need to select the account you want to manage and then check the box to enable this account to be added to your Buffer feed.
Now, when you publish a new post on your WordPress blog, you will see the following in your Buffer dashboard:
This post that was just published was automatically added to the next time slot available in our Facebook and Twitter schedules.
We hope this article helped you learn how to schedule WordPress posts for social media with Buffer. You may also want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter and our expert picks for the best social media plugins for WordPress.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Yadian says
Can I change this ?: “Published by Buffer”
for this: “Published by site_name”
WPBeginner Support says
Sadly not at the moment, that is a limitation set by the social media platform rather than buffer itself.
Admin
Tayo says
Can buffer auto publish articles from blogspot blogs?
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Tayo,
We are not sure it can do that. You can try using it with IFTTT that may work.
Admin
Dave says
For Some reason the Buffer plugin, brings my Google Chrome to a standstill whenever I try to load a post or page in the admin, anyone else had this?
Davide Corizzo says
Hey guys, thanks for writing this interesting article!
It’s been a while I wanted to automatize publishing my blog articles as the way you made it and was successful.
Just an issue with WP to Buffer plugin… I’d like to get the same result when I copy & paste manually the URL of the article using Facebook Open Graph and Twitter Cards features.
At the moment, the plugin just publish a very basic {title} {url} #{category} plus the image of the article. How could I fix it and get your same result?
Thanks for your attention.
Cheers,
Davide
Sach says
If I schedule a post within WordPress, will it still be scheduled to go to Buffer when it was scheduled to be posted within WordPress? Thanks.
WPBeginner Support says
Yes.
Admin
Mike says
Hi guys, I’m wondering if we can have our Buffer posts or IFTTT or Pocket post updates directly to our WordPress blog page (not home page)? So not WP -> Buffer but reverse and have things auto posted to my blog page on my WP site through Buffer or IFTTT or Pocket.
This would be extremely useful for posting important articles from the web to my website and then my Get Response feed that is already set up.
Any help is much appreciated!
Thanks
Mike
Cristian O. Balan says
Work also for Facebook page (and not the profile page)?
David Pappas says
What’s the use case? If I can schedule posts within WordPress and publish directly to different social media sites, under what circumstance is this a useful service?
Editorial Staff says
Buffer allows you to space your tweets out. If the only thing you do is tweet links for your site, then you don’t need buffer. It is also great for sharing in general aside from WordPress.
Admin
François says
Thanks for your tuto, I followed all the steps to successfully set my buffer account.
It’s a pitty that google+ is not supported by buffer, do you know a solutions to deal with it please ?
Thanks for your answer !
Editorial Staff says
Google+ doesn’t have the API to allow for that, so we don’t know of any solutions just yet.
Admin
Abdul Rahim says
Very nice post, WordPress have already schedule post option, but BufferApp provide more option for publishing post and share on social network automatically.
I like this app
Gurjit Singh Khehra says
Nice Service for WordPress Users. Do you know something similar for Blogger Users? That would be much helpful.
Thanks and Regards.
Editorial Staff says
Buffer is a third party service and it works for blogger as well. You have to jump through an extra hoop by using IFTTT with combination of Buffer.
Admin