Navigating Buffer's classic publishing dashboard

Our Product Team is currently in the process of launching an updated version of our publishing dashboard, which has a new home for channel settings and Shop Grid. This article is meant to help customers on the "classic" dashboard experience navigate their channel settings, posting schedule, and more.

In this article:

1. Timezone & posting schedule

• Adjusting your timezone
• Setting up your posting schedule

2. Queue actions

• Pausing your queue
• Shuffling your queue
• Clean Queue
• Empty Queue

3. Link Shortening

• Changing your link shortener or turning off link shortening
• Connecting your Bitly account

4. Notifications Settings
5. Google Analytics & custom UTM parameters

• Enabling Google Analytics
• Customizing UTM parameters

6. Accessing Instagram Shop Grid

Timezones & Posting Schedule

Adjusting your timezone

1. Select a channel on the left side of Buffer
2. Click the settings wheel next to the Day/Week/Month/Create Post buttons
3. Start typing the first few letters of the city you'd like to set it to in the Timezone field.
4. Click on the city when it pops up and you should be all set! You can also click into Settings to adjust the timezone and posting schedule there.

Setting up your posting schedule

1. Select a channel on the left side of Buffer
2. Click the settings wheel next to the Day/Week/Month/Create Post buttons

• To add new times to your schedule, select the day or days you'd like to add the times to, as well as the time itself, and then click Add Posting Time.
• Times can be adjusted by clicking on the hours or minutes drop downs and changing as desired.
• Times can be deleted by hovering over the time and clicking the x icon.
• Individual days can also be turned off by toggling the day to off. If a day is turned off, it means that no time slots will appear in your queue for that day, even if you have times configured in your schedule. However, any posts scheduled for a custom date and time will still be sent.

Queue actions

Pausing your queue

To pause your queue, click on Settings and then select the Posting Schedule tab. From there, click Pause Queue.

Whenever your queue is paused, you'll see a message at the top of your queue noting that it has been paused. Whenever you'd like to unpause your queue, simply tap Resume Queue. Alternatively, you can head back to the posting schedule tab to resume your queue.

Shuffling your queue

Select the channel on the left hand side of your dashboard where you'd like to shuffle the queue, head to Settings > General then click Shuffle Queue.

Clean Queue

To remove all failed posts from your queue, take the following steps:

1. Open buffer.com.
2. Choose Channels from the left side panel.
3. Select the channel where you'd like to remove the failed posts from. 
4. Click on Settings. 
5. Click General. 
6. Scroll down and click Clean Queue. 

Empty Queue

If you'd like to delete all posts from your queue, including both failed posts and scheduled posts, you can use Empty Queue. 

To do this:

1. Open buffer.com.
2. Choose Channels from the left side panel. 
3. Select the channel where you'd like to empty the queue. 
4. Click on Settings. 
5. Click General. 
6. Scroll down and click Empty Queue. 

Link shortening

Changing your link shortening preferences

To change your link shortener, select the channel on the left hand side of your dashboard that you'd like to change, and then head to Settings > General. In the "Link Shortening" drop down menu, you can choose between buff.ly and bit.ly.

Turning off link shortening

If you prefer to have all of your links unshortened, select the channel on the left hand side of your dashboard that you'd like to change, and then head to Settings > General. Select "No Shortening" if you want to disable link shortening completely.

Connecting your Bitly account

1. Once you've set up your domain with Bitly, head back to Buffer and select the channel on the left hand side of your dashboard that you'd like to change.
2. Next, select the Settings tab.
3. Under the General tab, you'll find a section at the top called Link Shortening.
4. Click Connect Bitly. Follow the steps to authorize Buffer to connect to your Bitly account.

Notification settings

If you prefer to have all of your Instagram posts scheduled as notifications, you can take the following steps.

1. Selecting your Instagram account on the left hand side of your dashboard.
2. Click on Settings and make sure the General tab is selected.
3. From there, make sure "Enable Notifications by default" is not set to Enabled.

Google Analytics & Custom UTM parameters

Enabling Google Analytics

To enable Google Analytics Campaign Tracking, select your channel on the left hand side of your dashboard and then head to Settings. Under the General tab, set "Enable Campaign Tracking" to Enabled.

Customizing UTM parameters

When Google Analytics Campaign Tracking is enabled, the following default UTM parameters will be automatically added to the end of every link that you share through Buffer:

• Campaign Name: buffer
• Campaign Source: x.com or twitter.com / facebook.com / linkedin.com / bufferapp.com
• Campaign Medium: social

If you're subscribed to a paid plan, you'll have the added benefit of being able to customize the UTM parameters by clicking Customize Campaign Tracking.

Accessing Instagram Shop Grid

To get started, select your Instagram account on the left hand side of your dashboard and head over to the Shop Grid tab.