The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: Buffer
Quick Pitch: Buffer helps you build a tweet queue and spreads out your updates over time.
Genius Idea: Separating the reading and tweeting actions.
You know that guy on your Twitter feed who posts 10 tweets in 10 minutes? It’s not his fault, say the founders of Buffer. Tweeting is just set up inefficiently for people who aren’t browsing the Internet all day, but prefer to read in chunks.
“When you read stuff is not necessarily the best time to share it,” Buffer co-founder Leonhard Widrich says. “You want to read it, and you don’t necessarily want to immediately engage in a conversation. Maybe it’s late at night and nobody sees your tweets.”
To solve this problem, Widrich and his cofounder Joel Gascoigne created a simple solution. Buffer is a tool that helps users create a queue of tweets as they’re reading, and then arranges those tweets to hit their feeds throughout the day.
According to the startup’s analysis of a 2,000-user sample, on average Buffer increased click-through rates on tweets by 200% in the first three weeks after sign-up — probably because they tweeted more often and at times of the day when more people are using Twitter.
What makes Buffer worthwhile is that you never need to actually visit the website. It makes extensions for every major browser that allow users to add tweets directly from the page they want to share, adds an option next to Twitter’s reply button for saving retweets to a queue (this feature is limited to the Chrome extension) and is making efforts to integrate with readers.
“If we have the best algorithm, but it’s just a web dashboard and you always need to go there and put your tweets in, it’s going to be really hard for you,” Widrich says. “But if it’s everywhere you go, if it’s in your reader…it will make the sharing experience for you a lot easier.”
Recently tweet reader Strawberryj.am put a Buffer button in its app. Buffer hopes to have a publicly available API ready within the next month so that other services can easily do something similar. The more services that add Buffer, the harder it will be for a Twitter client (or Twitter itself) to squash the startup by simply creating a similar feature.
“We never want to be a client, we really just want to take the experience of how we share on social networks and improve that.”
Buffer’s revenue stream is solely sourced from its premium accounts, which allow more than one Twitter account and a larger tweet queue. Of the startup’s about 30,000 users, about 2.5% have converted to its paid version.
Buffer’s chrome extension adds an option next to Twitter’s reply button for saving retweets to a queue.
Image courtesy of Flickr, ilse
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
More About: bizspark, BufferFor more Startups coverage:Follow Mashable Startups on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Startups channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
Posted on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:07:44 +0000 at http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/asaSJ3G4qjc/
Comments: http://mashable.com/2011/08/24/space-out-your-tweets/#comments
Name: Buffer
Quick Pitch: Buffer helps you build a tweet queue and spreads out your updates over time.
Genius Idea: Separating the reading and tweeting actions.
You know that guy on your Twitter feed who posts 10 tweets in 10 minutes? It’s not his fault, say the founders of Buffer. Tweeting is just set up inefficiently for people who aren’t browsing the Internet all day, but prefer to read in chunks.
“When you read stuff is not necessarily the best time to share it,” Buffer co-founder Leonhard Widrich says. “You want to read it, and you don’t necessarily want to immediately engage in a conversation. Maybe it’s late at night and nobody sees your tweets.”
To solve this problem, Widrich and his cofounder Joel Gascoigne created a simple solution. Buffer is a tool that helps users create a queue of tweets as they’re reading, and then arranges those tweets to hit their feeds throughout the day.
According to the startup’s analysis of a 2,000-user sample, on average Buffer increased click-through rates on tweets by 200% in the first three weeks after sign-up — probably because they tweeted more often and at times of the day when more people are using Twitter.
What makes Buffer worthwhile is that you never need to actually visit the website. It makes extensions for every major browser that allow users to add tweets directly from the page they want to share, adds an option next to Twitter’s reply button for saving retweets to a queue (this feature is limited to the Chrome extension) and is making efforts to integrate with readers.
“If we have the best algorithm, but it’s just a web dashboard and you always need to go there and put your tweets in, it’s going to be really hard for you,” Widrich says. “But if it’s everywhere you go, if it’s in your reader…it will make the sharing experience for you a lot easier.”
Recently tweet reader Strawberryj.am put a Buffer button in its app. Buffer hopes to have a publicly available API ready within the next month so that other services can easily do something similar. The more services that add Buffer, the harder it will be for a Twitter client (or Twitter itself) to squash the startup by simply creating a similar feature.
“We never want to be a client, we really just want to take the experience of how we share on social networks and improve that.”
Buffer’s revenue stream is solely sourced from its premium accounts, which allow more than one Twitter account and a larger tweet queue. Of the startup’s about 30,000 users, about 2.5% have converted to its paid version.
Buffer’s chrome extension adds an option next to Twitter’s reply button for saving retweets to a queue.
Image courtesy of Flickr, ilse
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
More About: bizspark, BufferFor more Startups coverage:Follow Mashable Startups on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Startups channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
Posted on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:07:44 +0000 at http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/asaSJ3G4qjc/
Comments: http://mashable.com/2011/08/24/space-out-your-tweets/#comments
