HOW TO Use The Brand New Buffer For LinkedIn

February 23, 2012 109 comments Buffer

There was some great news from LinkedIn announced recently. The 3rd largest Social Network, announced that over 150 million users are now on board using the platform.

Hitting that milestone couldn’t be timed any better. Over here at Buffer, we are excited to let you know, that from today onwards, you are able to Buffer your LinkedIn updates very easily.

It is the third Social Network we are supporting now, on top of Twitter and Facebook.

Our goal with Buffer is to help you be awesome on Social Media and being able to conveniently Buffer LinkedIn updates, was a vital step for us on the way.

How to connect your LinkedIn account to Buffer

Adding your LinkedIn account is super easy. If you are inside your Buffer dashboard, you can simply click the “+add” sign next to any of your connected Social accounts.

From there, pick LinkedIn from the selection of Social networks. It will conveniently connect you with your profile and you will also have the option to change it if you don’t have the right account connected.

 

Adding updates to LinkedIn

From then onwards, adding any new update works exactly like it does with Twitter and Facebook. Whenever you are reading an article, you can hit the Buffer button from one of our browser extensions.

It will bring up the Buffer box for you. Pick the right account and you are good to go to. Of course, it will allow you to choose the right picture and post it with link preview and thumbnail for you:

 

The way it will appear on LinkedIn is just like any other status update, that you manually post on there.

 

 

Some cool thoughts on Buffering LinkedIn updates vs. feeding Twitter to it.

Before being able to Buffer LinkedIn updates, what I tried out was feeding my Tweets to LinkedIn automatically. Whilst this appeared to work well, it made me very lazy and didn’t create any value for my connections there.

It was pure information overload and no effort from my side went into it at all. Plus I never checked my LinkedIn because of it. By Buffering much more selectively only what I feel is interesting for my connections, I feel I could create a lot more value on there. What are your thoughts on this?

 

Upgraded Free and Pro plans for you!

As we have added LinkedIn, we have also expanded both our main plan and the Pro for you to give you some extra flexibility when Buffering:

  • On our main free plan, you can now connect one account of each Social Network (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn).
  • On our Pro plan, you can now connect up to 6 different Social Accounts in one go and post to them.

 

Ok, I hope this is a helpful addition for your social networking efforts. So, over to you now. What are your thoughts on the latest Buffer feature? What else would you like to see?

Hi, I'm Leo, Co-Founder of Buffer, a new way to Tweet and share Facebook posts smarter and with more impact. Here, I share tips about getting more out of Facebook and Twitter. You can subscribe to my Facebook updates or follow me. I would love to connect.

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  • http://twitter.com/fairminder Jim Spencer

    Why not add Google+ of course.

  • Q8doctor

    Any Plans to upgrade the number of tweets for the pro plan? At least to 100 instead of 50?
    Thanks for the repLy

  • http://creately.com/ Nishadha Silva

    Thanks for you for this great upgrade, I hope you guys add Google+ next

  • Jorge Purgly

    Congratulations, great job!

  • Anonymous

    Hi Nishadha, great suggestion, we definitely want to add Google+ in the near future. Just waiting for Google to release their API! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Hi Q8doctor, great to see you here. That’s an interesting suggestion. Will brainstorm on that for sure and keep you posted here, we might change in the future! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Hi Jim, 

    Great to hear from you, and G+ is definitely planned, just waiting for the API to be released! :) 

  • http://twitter.com/IEBAcom Anthony Burokas

    You mean, I can stop typing #in?
    :)

  • Anonymous

    Hi @twitter-23603759:disqus , yes, that is exactly what it means! :) 

  • http://socialmediasorted.com Merrin Robinson

    Awesome update!  Thanks guys :)

  • Anonymous

    Hi Jorge, thanks for the shout, really excited about this. Let me know if you ever have any questions! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Posting to LinkedIn groups would be awesome. Thanks!

  • Anonymous

    Hey Merrin, awesome, so glad you like it! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Hi Noah, great to see you here and fantastic suggestion, we definitely are looking into adding posting to LinkedIn groups. Stay tuned! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Just wanted to say that since using buffer, our interactions have increased! What a great service! THANK YOU! 

  • Samantha Bell

    Upload from excel or google docs spreadsheet would be a-mazing!!! :)

  • http://twitter.com/degree_31 Mark Evans

    Thanks Leo. This is a great addition. Most of my updates are to my LinkedIn groups, so I too would like to see that functionality. For now though, this is great!

  • Anonymous

    Hi @twitter-48350605:disqus , so great to see you here. And awesome you like the update. Thanks for the feedback, learning about LinkedIn groups is very interesting, we will definitely look into adding this, will keep you posted! :)

  • Anonymous

    Wow, that is just amazing, so glad Buffer is helpful! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Hi Samantha, thanks for stopping by and great suggestion, will look into the bulk uploading feature for sure, will keep you posted! :)

  • http://techbizgurl.com Jessica Williams

    I am so happy for this update and that I don’t have to type #in anymore for my Buffer updates.  Cheers!

  • Jon Ferrara

    Leo,

    I love Buffer and I admire your sense of education and enchantment.  I think you and BufferApp are a model Social Business.  I am proud to be a paying customer. 

    Thx for the LinkedIn integration!

    Cheers,

    Jon Ferrara
    CEO Nimble

  • http://twitter.com/keithrozario Keith Rozario

    Great to hear buffer is beginning to integrate with a lot more social networks, hopefully G+ release their APIs soon enough. How about Pinterest?

  • George Ofwona

    Buffer is simply the best thing to happen to the internet in a long time …

  • Terri Nakamura

    Thanks!

  • Anonymous

    awesome, glad you like it Terri! :) 

  • Anonymous

    George, you are the man, thanks for the awesome comment! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Hi Keith, glad you stoppped by. Yes, that is exactly what we are after. Working eagerly for G+ just like you, will keep you in the loop. And Pinterest is on it’s way for sure too! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Hi Jessica, yes, exactly, no need for that anymore. Glad you like the update! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Hi Jon, so great to have you stopping by here and I am very humbled by your kind words. 

    Glad LinkedIn is useful, chat to you soon! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Thank you for these simply clear and user friendly instructions.  Will be moving over now to do this.

    See you round and keep up the good re pore with you readers.

  • Alberto

    Felicidades desde Mexico!! My Android buffer app dont show my linkedin account…its an update on your mind?

  • http://www.peterpetrovski.com Peter Petrovski

    Exactly what I needed, great update!

  • Anonymous

    Hi Peter, great to see you here and awesome, that is exactly what you needed! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Hi Alberto, thanks for tuning in from Mexico. Oh right, yes, there will be an update to the Android App real soon for this, stay tuned! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Hi there, awesome and fantastic the instructions are helpful, that’s great feedback for me! Sure thing, check it out and let me know if there are any questions I can help with! :) 

  • http://twitter.com/sched Sched.org

    This is awesome. I’ve already hooked up my LinkedIn account and have started buffering. Great job you guys! 

  • Lois

    Great addition Leo! Would merely add my vote for the addition of google plus. Well done!

  • Anthony

    Simply stoked :)

  • Lawrence

    Man, what a strong start building my 2012 automation toolkit. Discovered Buffer and Voxer the same week! Keep up the Buff!!!

  • Anonymous

    Hi Lawrence, great to see you here and fantastic that Buffer is so helpful for your toolkit. Haven’t come across Voxer, will have to check it out! :)

  • Anonymous

    simply happy to have you simply stoked Anthony! :)

  • Anonymous

    Hi Lois, so great to see you here. Fantastic, yep, will do my best and hurry Google up with their API release! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Awesome, so glad you have already connected your account and started Buffering. Give me a shout if you have any questions! :) 

  • http://twitter.com/kirsty_wilson Kirsty Wilson

    I just love BufferApp & now I can share to LinkedIn and Facebook, this has taken it to a whole new level. Great stuff!

  • Anonymous

    Hi Kristy, so great to see you here and awesome that LinkedIn and Facebook for Buffer are a welcome addition! More goodness to come. :) 

  • http://www.facebook.com/sylvain.lembert Sylvain Lembert

    Hello Leo, cool update :) Will it be possible to post in the Linkedin Group Like with the Linkedin plugin ? It’ll be fantastic :)

  • Anonymous

    Hi @facebook-695460438:disqus , great to see you here. Yes, that’s a fantastic suggestion, LinkedIn Groups is definitely high up on our list to bring out in the next iteration, I will keep you in the loop on things for sure. :) 

  • http://twitter.com/b33god Damien

    This is great news.  What I’d really like to see next is the ability to post company pages status updates.  Is that in the pipeline?

  • http://twitter.com/korovamilky Marco

    Next step should be adding ability to post on identi.ca as well, as more and more people are switching to it

  • Anonymous

    Great news guys! Just remembered to revoke access of LinkedIn in my Twitter settings. Loving your work! And the Digg Digg plugin is awesome!

    What are the chances of a “jump the que” option on Buffer for an update that you don’t want to post now but also don’t want to put at the back of the que?

  • http://www.timemanagementninja.com Craig Jarrow

    That’s a neat idea. I like it, too.

    I can remember several times, when I buffered something and then headed right over to the site to “move it to front of the line.” :)

  • http://twitter.com/tweet2eatHB tweet2eatHB

    Hi Leo, this is a good development and a way for me to publish content to my LinkedIN community in contrast to publishing content AND engaging in communication on twitter. I would select maybe 1 in 10 tweets from @kiwinlondon:twitter  for posting on LinkedIN. 

    Now…. get on with G+ Sir! :p

  • Anonymous

    Hi Marco, great to hear from you and awesome suggestion, identi.ca would be a great add-on. Will look into this option for sure!

  • Anonymous

    Hi Damien, great to see you here. Yes, company pages and Groups is definitely in the pipeline! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Hey Aidan and Craig, thanks for stopping by here. Love the suggestion, and totally agree that this would be useful. We are brainstorming a few things right now on how this could be most intuitive, will keep you posted!

    And so glad you like DiggDigg too! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Hi there, that is a great comment and I couldn’t agree more, having 1 in 10 and not ALL also posted to LinkedIn will be much better for the audience.

    Yep, G+ coming right up, just waiting for the API to be released. :) 

  • http://www.s-consult.com Wayne Schulz

    Nice work. I definitely would like to see integration into LinkedIn Groups which is the area of LinkedIn that I’m most active with.

    I think there’s also a market for some type of “reblogging” tool which would start with a link  then allow the user to fashion a post right from the toolbar. The missing piece with most “blog from a link” tools is they don’t handle the task of adding an image to a post very well.

  • http://twitter.com/JanMinihane Jan Minihane

    Hi Leo

    Great update – I, and my clients, will be welcoming this one with open arms! Totally agree re: not buffering everything you tweet/FB to LinkedIn also, the tone/style there is so different. Occasionally something will be appropriate but on the whole I won’t/don’t cross post. 
    This will still save me a lot of time and will probably ensure I start posting more to my LinkedIn profile – thank you!!!

    And yes to G+ also :-)

  • alpado

    keep it up, Buffer people!

  • http://othersociologist.wordpress.com/ Zuleyka Zevallos

    Wonderful news, thanks!

  • http://twitter.com/snowarchitects davecornett

    I love Buffer and this has made it even better, previously I’d set up a new twitter account to feed my Linked in account…  but this will make life much easier

  • http://twitter.com/MulliganMen Mulligan Men

    If you can figure out a way to let Buffer FB posts get shared like normal FB posts it would be a huge benefit. 

  • http://twitter.com/heybrettbell Brett Bell

    This is fantastic.  Kudos for adding this feature. And I completely agree with your reasoning behind disconnecting Twitter updates from your LinkedIn profile.  Buffer is quickly becoming my top app!  

  • Sara

    Can it do status updates on LinkedIn company pages/

  • Anonymous

    Thanks Leo a really value added freebie! See one more box coming, so assume it’s for Google+?
    You obviously listened to your customers, so congratulations on your customer-centricity. 

  • Anonymous

    Hi denysedd, thanks so much for dropping in. Yep, good spot there, we have one spot left. It will certainly be filled with G+ once their API is out.

    Thanks for the kind words, really appreciate that coming from you! :)

  • Anonymous

    Hi Sara, great to see you here. Not yet, but it is definitely on the list! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Hi Brett, great to have you here. Yes! So true isn’t it? Glad you have the same view, I just think this can add a lot more value. 

    Awesome to hear Buffer is becoming so useful for you. :)

  • Anonymous

    Hi Mulligan, Great to hear from you.

    Yes, you raise a great point, unfortunately, the fact that the “share” disappears is a slight bug on the FB API that we are dealing with right now, but hope to have resolved real soon. We have filed a few reports (alongside hundreds of other developers) to allow the “share” function in.

    Unfortunately, all other Apps have the same problem. One thing that we could do is add a “fake” share function, which HootSuite does. It then pops open a new window, but doesn’t add a “share” to the original post, it is just a link to post to your own wall. We are pondering this right now, but it doesn’t seem to be a great solution for us.

    I will get in touch with Facebook again right now and see if there is a way we can get this sorted out, thanks a lot for bringing it up! :)

    Hope that helps! :)

  • Anonymous

    Hi Dave, long time no speak, great to see you here! Yep, that is exactly what I did before too, and so glad your life is now made easier! :) 

  • Anonymous

    yay, glad you like it Zuleyka! :) 

  • Anonymous

    will do for sure! :)

  • http://twitter.com/LegalSeminars Sterling Education

    Next, please add the ability to post these updates to groups and pages instead of just my profile. That would really be helpful!

  • Anonymous

    Hi Jan, great to hear from you and that is fantastic, so glad it’s a useful addition!

    Yep, that is a very good point and exactly why I also turned off auto-feed Tweeting myself, it just isn’t always a good fit. 

    Absolutely, I hope it will help post more consistently to your LinkedIn profile too! :) 

    G+ is on the list for sure, keep you posted!

  • Anonymous

    Hi Wayne, 

    Great to hear from you and thanks for the heads up on LinkedIn groups, we will certainly be looking into this. A lot of people have mentioned it already and it has definitely made me think a lot. 

    That’s an interesting idea on the blogging tool you mention. You are right, it is quite hard to do this from on the go right now. Maybe it will be possible to do so right from inside Buffer in the future, will put this on our list to brainstorm on! :)

  • Anonymous

    Awesome, glad you mention that, I can totally understand that this will be adding a lot of value. Will be looking into adding this feature in the future for sure! :) 

  • http://niallm1.com/ Niall Madhoo

    Cool! As others said, can’t wait for Google+ too!

  • http://exciramedia.com Shannon Steffen

    Wonderful! It’s great that you’ve added LinkedIn. Of course, I’d love Google+ as well but my biggest concern is getting the “reshare” issue on Facebook posts to become available. I am curious as to why the FB share is working with Hootsuite but it doesn’t with Buffer. Wouldn’t that denote that the API is working correctly but not the coding on Buffer’s end?

  • http://www.facebook.com/ryan.swearingen Ryan Swearingen

    Very cool! Any possibility of posting to a LinkedIn Company Page? :)

    Thanks and keep up the good work!

    - Ryan

  • http://www.jwsocialmedia.com/ Jocelyn Wilhelm

    Love it!

  • http://BasicBlogTips.com Ileane

    You guys are really making a huge impact on the landscape of social media. Thanks so much for this and for all you do!

  • http://www.ivanhoesanchez.com Ivanhoe Sánchez

    Thanks for the upgrade! Are you planning to hook up with Feeddler app?

  • BreitWerk

    Thank you!  I hope the next is Google+

  • Anonymous

    Hi, yes the next thing is definitely G+! :) 

  • Edwardv2

    I do a lot of posting via email from Zite on my iPad. Are there shortcuts for adding to LInkedIn via email like @s LI or @s linkedin?

  • Anonymous

    Hi @isanchez18:disqus , great to see you here and yes, we definitely plan to integrate with Feeddler App in the near future! :) You can also just Tweet them @FeedlerRSS if you want! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Hi Ileane, wow, thanks for the amazing comment. This absolutely spurs me on to work even harder. And thanks for spreading the word about Buffer from your LinkedIn account also! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Yay! :)

  • Anonymous

    Hi Ryan, great to see you here and thanks for the suggestion. Yep LinkedIn company pages are definitely on our list. I will keep you in the loop.

  • Anonymous

    Hi Niall, for sure! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Hi Shannon, 

    Great to hear from you.Yes, that’s a great point, unfortunately, the fact that the “share” disappears is a slight bug on the FB API that we are dealing with right now, but hope to have resolved real soon. We have filed a few reports (alongside hundreds of other developers) to allow the “share” function in.Unfortunately, all other Apps have the same problem. One thing that we could do is add a “fake” share function, which HootSuite does. It then pops open a new window, but doesn’t add a “share” to the original post, it is just a link to post to your own wall. We are pondering this right now, but it doesn’t seem to be a great solution for us.I will get in touch with Facebook again right now and see if there is a way we can get this sorted out, thanks a lot for bringing it up! :)Hope that helps explaining it.

  • http://podjam.tv Marty McPadden

    Excellent news Leo. Buffer keeps getting better and better!!

  • http://www.xplorela.com/ XploreLA

    Great app thanks! 

  • http://www.dragonblogger.com Justin Germino

    Just connected my LinkedIn with Buffer and will be using it going forward.  

  • http://twitter.com/Phil_Lauterjung Phil Lauterjung

    Leo, great addition to Buffer. Please add my vote to those asking for LinkedIn Groups and Company Pages to be available too. Thanks.

  • Anonymous

    Hi Edward, great to see you here. Oh right, that’s a good point, we will definitely go ahead and update the email functionality for being able to do this! :) 

  • Anonymous

    Hey Marty, always a pleasure to see you here! And so glad to hear it, yep, we will be continuing to make it better every day, so great to have you on board! :) 

  • Anonymous

    awesome! :)

  • Anonymous

    That’s fantastic to hear Justin, let me know how it goes and if you have any questions or suggestions for us! :)

  • http://banadurga.blogspot.com ittech

    great one cheese

  • Brecht Palombo

    I second that. I do most of my sharing in groups, not many people see your status. Being able to set up pre-set groups of groups would be awesome.

  • http://twitter.com/sched Sched.org

    Will do! Now I don’t have to add the ridiculous #in hashtag to curate my awesomest tweets going to LinkedIn :)

  • Peter Bordes

    sweet! congrates on a great new addition to the might Buffer App!

  • http://twitter.com/TheZenGirl Stacy Bergdahl

    Stoked on Buffer App in general! Thanks for making it even better:)

  • Anonymous

    Awesome Stacy, so glad we could make Buffer more useful with this for you! :) 

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  • Edwardv2

    Any update on using buffer via email with LinkedIn?

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