Get your end-of-year social media checklist

Hey there 👋

The end of the year draws ever closer, but it’s not quite time to stow away our laptops.

I’ve been reflecting on the year (and making plans for next year). With that thought in mind, I contacted one of my favorite social newsletter creators, Rachel Karten, and asked if I could share her handy “end-of-year” social checklist with you all (she said yes!) — so I've included it below. 

I strongly recommend you take the time to go through the list to set yourself up for success in 2025.

Finally, here’s a quick reminder that next week will be our last newsletter of the year before Buffer’s out of office for the holidays.

Alright, that’s it from me — let’s get into it!

Have a lovely weekend, and we’ll see you next Friday.

Warmly, 

Tami & the Buffer team

💌 What’s in this issue – 4.5 minute read

• 💻 The latest content on the blog

• 📰 Social media news and features to note

• 📱 A tip for U.S. Tiktok users

• 🪂  Dive into your end-of-year social media checklist

👇 The latest from the blog

• We dug into the data on 11 social media platforms to determine social network usage trends.

• Start planning your social media content for 2025 with this handy list.

• Hailley shares how she creates content as a verbal processor.

• Discover 15 reliable places to find music for YouTube videos, from free options to premium services.

🪂 Deep dive 

Your end-of-year social media checklist

It’s the end of the year, and this is the perfect time to review, refresh, and set up your social media strategy for the year ahead.

Rachel Karten, writer of Link in Bio (one of my favorite newsletters about social media), shared a checklist to help you start January with clarity and momentum, and I thought it’d be perfect for you as well:

• Audit your content performance. Review your top and lowest-performing posts to identify patterns. Also, look at what formats performed best. — use the insights to guide your strategy for 2025.
• Evaluate the goals you set for yourself or your brand. Check what goals came to fruition and which were a stretch. Then, decide on new metrics to track and new goals to work towards in 2025. Consider things that are also valued by platforms (saves and shares) or quantitative metrics like signups to a specific product or resource.
• Review and refresh your content pillars. Look at the current state of your industry, brand, and audience and compare them to your content pillars — are they still relevant? Do you need to double down on a specific area or explore something new entirely? And even if you don’t have plans to change your pillars, brainstorm some new ideas to see if anything excites you.
• Organize your wins! Document your major wins for 2024 — viral posts, metrics showing your growth, and screenshots of praise from your audience. Save them in a Google Drive folder so you always have social proof to share on your socials, to potential clients, or just to revisit when you need some encouragement.
• Similarly, celebrate your Year in Social, Spotify Wrapped style. Share a post highlighting your growth, lessons learned, and some standout moments. Also, involve your audience and thank them for their support.
• Plan your holiday and January schedule. Decide how you’ll be doing social over the next few weeks. If you want to go offline and post, pre-schedule some content in Buffer until at least the second week in January so you can unplug.
• Organize your folders and delete those screenshots. Doing this now gives you a fresh, stress-free workspace for your return in the new year.
• Outline some experiments to try in the new year. Start researching what new platforms or formats you want to experiment with in 2025. Look into key resources outlining trends and calendars highlighting cultural moments to plan for — look out for ours next week!

🤳 What's happening in social?

• Meta’s testing options to hide like counts on reels and replies on Threads
• Instagram will let you make ‘trial Reels’ for non-followers
• Bluesky shares what their paid subscription of $8 per month may look like
• LinkedIn and TikTok shared some of the trends that defined the platform in 2024

📱Social tip of the week

Starting January 19, 2025, TikTok will no longer be available for users to download in the U.S. You will still be able to use the app if you have it, but you will not be able to update the app.

Not to worry – this ban does not affect Buffer users’ ability to connect TikTok as a channel if you already have an account.

Here are some things you can do to prepare:

• Download all your TikTok videos so you have access to them if you want to repost them to other social channels — a smart social media strategy that we recommend.
• Tell your audience where else they can find you if you or they lose access to the app.
• Update the link in your bio on your TikTok profile to be an evergreen link in case you can’t update it after the ban date. We recommend using Start Page as a quick and free link-in-bio tool.
• Start evolving your social media strategy. Consider adopting other short-form video channels like YouTube Shorts and Reels.

⌛ "We grew a client's accounts by 400 percent"

We pride ourselves on being an excellent tool for creators and business owners to grow on social media — and our users are more than happy to back us up. 

Jayak at redpigeonmedia says: “Over the past 3 months we've managed to grow one of our client's social media accounts by 400% from 6k to over 23k followers!”

Want to skyrocket your growth? Get started with Buffer today!

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