Why the future of social media is audio 🎧

Hi there, 

We're in reflection mode big time over here at Buffer! I guess it's that time of year. 😉 One of our annual December traditions is to reflect on the past year and share all of the meaningful numbers that tell the story of our company and our customers.

I'd love to share our big numbers of 2020! 👉 https://buffer.com/2020

All of you have been doing incredible things this year -- adapting your lives to a global pandemic, taking on many new challenges in work and life... so I'd love to invite you to reflect on your year and your big "numbers" in 2020.

What meaningful numbers come to mind as you reflect on 2020?

If you have a moment, reply to this email! I'd love to hear your numbers. 😊 You can also join the conversation on Twitter over here!

Thank you, happy holidays, and stay safe! ❤️

P.S. There will be no newsletter next week as I'll be taking a week off to enjoy a much needed break.

In today’s newsletter:

• Buffer's 2020 in numbers
• Twitter launches voice-based service, Spaces
• Why the future of social media in 2021 is audio
• And much more!

Let’s get started! 👇

• Twitter launches its voice-based ‘Spaces’ social networking feature into beta testing
• Here's why the future of social media in 2021 is audio
• Facebook runs second full-page ad criticizing Apple and says opt-in tracking will make the internet worse
• Twitter relaunches verification program
• Twitter is returning retweets to the way they used to be
• Google's Blob Opera experiment is the best thing you'll play with online today
• Spotify adds a centralized hub to learn more about songwriters
• Twitter will show you personalized funny tweets
• TikTok is banning content that promotes pyramid schemes and multi-level marketing companies
• Facebook is temporarily disabling some Messenger and Instagram features in Europe
• Facebook is looking to take on TaskRabbit
• Instagram adds new creative tools in Reels and Stories
• The fastest songs to reach 1 billion video views on TikTok in 2020
• TikTok announces a text-to-speech feature for TikTok Creators
• Opinion: The year Instagram became Facebook

In last week's newsletter issue I had asked for you all to share how you're approaching your 2021 social media strategy. Here are a few of the responses I received:

• Ms. Me says, "I typically aim to plan posts 12 weeks at a time, based on a combination of seasonal events and what I think I want to talk about/spotlight/offer at a particular time. I’m adding more video to my 2021 strategy as it worked well the month that I tested it this year."
• Dana E. from Einsidler says, "Luckily my industry can be pretty cyclical in terms of some of the “trending” topics that come up each year. With the pandemic, next year will also be a continuation of focused content that addresses safety and coronavirus information for homeowners, shareholders, and residents. We will continue to convey that safety is one of our top priorities as a property management firm."

Feel free to reply to this email with your thoughts!

With over 119 languages, Audio Data lets you convert audio files to text with the power of deep learning. 

As we arrive at the end of 2020, we wanted to take a moment to thank you for being with us this year, for inspiring us to be better, and for trusting us to help you share your voice. In this post, we're sharing our 2020 numbers and our reflections on the year at Buffer and in the lives of our customers.

Stephanie Lee, our Team Experience Manager, was interviewed about working across timezones in FastCompany. Read on for four ways you can manage your team across various timezones.

Social media will play an increasingly crucial role in supporting small business growth. Here’s how (and why) you should work social media into your plans for 2021 and beyond.

How do people promote podcasts? We didn’t know back in 2017. We’d never promoted a podcast before!

So we went to work, researching all the best tips and strategies for getting a podcast seen by as many people as possible, downloaded as many times as possible, and maybe hopefully listed on iTunes’ New and Noteworthy list.

Here’s all we found and all that we’re excited to try.

Woohoo, you made it to the end! 

Thanks for reading this far. If you ever come across a neat article or a cool trend, I'd love to hear about it. Feel free to reply to this email directly to get in touch or DM me on Twitter.

Stay safe!

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