Using Facebook with Buffer
With Buffer, you can reach your community wherever they are online. Update your Facebook group by scheduling posts or share posts and reels with your Facebook Page followers. After publishing, you can analyze post performance and engage with post comments, all in one tool!
These features are available for Facebook
- Publishing: Yes (Facebook Pages and Groups*)
- Analytics: Yes (Facebook Pages)
- Engagement: Yes (Facebook Pages)
:::info
- Facebook reels and stories are not supported in our analytics or engagement dashboards. However, reels metrics are available within Sent posts metrics.
- *Publishing to Facebook Groups is available via notification publishing. :::
Connecting and refreshing your Facebook accounts
Head to your Channels area to connect your Facebook page or group: https://account.buffer.com/channels
You can connect multiple Facebook Pages and groups you manage to Buffer. To see a step-by-step guide and troubleshooting steps, checkout the following articles:
- Connecting your Facebook Page to Buffer
- Connecting and publishing to your Facebook Group with Buffer
If your connected Facebook channel needs refreshing, check out the article "Refreshing a channel in Buffer."
Having trouble connecting Facebook to Buffer? Check out our Facebook troubleshooting guide.
:::warning Important Notes
- Buffer supports posting to Facebook Groups with notification publishing. It is no longer possible to schedule posts to be sent automatically due to changes Meta made to their Facebook Groups API in April 2024.
- While we support Facebook Pages, Buffer doesn't connect to Facebook professional profiles. You can read more about the differences between these two types of Facebook accounts here.
- For the best experience with Buffer, accept any permission requests that appear during the connection or refresh process. Skipping them may prevent certain features from working as expected. :::
Features available on Facebook through Buffer
The features available on Facebook Pages and groups vary due to API limitations, so check out the table below to find out which features you can use while scheduling posts.
:::tip Tip: For advice on creating an optimal posting schedule, check out our blog post: The Best Time to Post on Facebook. :::
| Features & good-to-knows | Notes |
|---|---|
| Scheduling posts | Check out our step-by-step guide to scheduling posts on any social channel or peruse Facebook-specific details below. |
| Tagging / mentions (Facebook Pages) | To tag / mention another Facebook Page, type in the exact handle in the caption of your post or reel. Once published to your Facebook Page, the account you mentioned will become hyperlinked. check out our full guide to adding tags (mentions) here. |
| Daily posting limit | 35 posts per 24 hours. Learn more about Daily posting limits here. |
| Character limit | 5,000 characters per post or reel. Learn more about character limits for each social network here. |
| Hashtags | In the composer, type the hashtags you'd like to use for your post or reel (hashtags are not available for stories at this time). When the post is published, the hashtags will hyperlink just as if they were sent from the native platform itself. Learn more about How hashtags work in Buffer. |
:::info Note: At this time, we do not support the creation of Facebook polls through Buffer. If you'd like to see us support them in the future, you can upvote this suggestion on our feature request board. :::
Scheduling Facebook posts, reels, and stories
- To get started, select your Facebook account on the left hand side of your dashboard.
- Open the composer at the top of your queue.
- Select Post, Reel, or Story.
To schedule Facebook posts: Type in the caption you’d like to use, add links or upload any images or video you'd like. Learn more about attaching images, videos, and other media to your posts here.
To schedule Facebook reels: Upload the video you'd like to include in your reel and then type in or copy and paste the caption you'd like to use.
To schedule Facebook stories: Upload the image or video you’d like to use in your story.
<br />:::info Good-to-Knows
-
Scheduling Facebook first comments is available for customers on our paid plans, and works for all regular Facebook Page posts — text, image, and video. First comments aren't supported on Facebook Reels, Stories, or Group posts.
-
We are only able to schedule 1 image or video per story. If you'd like to use more than 1 image or video for a story, you'll need to schedule each image or video separately.
-
Neither captions, links, music, nor text overlays are not available for Facebook stories at this time
- Select one of our other scheduling options, then click Schedule Post and you're done! :::
Scheduling Good to Knows
Sharing links
- When using the Buffer browser extension, we can't auto-fill the text update of the post due to Facebook rules, so you'll need to type your own caption instead. We're sorry for this limitation!
- If you're sharing a link from your website to your Facebook page, you can customize the thumbnail image only if you have set up Facebook Domain verification.
- If you're sharing the URL of a Facebook or Instagram post, we are unable to generate a link preview. Learn more about Sharing Facebook and Instagram links through Buffer.
Scheduling first comments
- Scheduling Facebook first comments is available for customers on our paid plans and is only available for posts. It is not available for Facebook reels or stories at this time.
- The character limit for Facebook first comments is 5,000 characters.
- It is not currently possible to add tags (mentions) to first comments in Buffer.
Facebook stories
- We are unable to add captions or text overlays to Facebook stories at this time.
Facebook reels
- Due to API limitations, it is not possible to add trending music to Facebook reels. Therefore, we recommend adding music to your video file before uploading it to Buffer.
- The Facebook Reels API does not support locations, so you will not be able to add a location to your reel or post.
- When your Facebook reel is published, it will also appear on the feed.
Facebook Group posts
- We use notification publishing for Facebook Group posts. This means you can create a post in Buffer and then, when it's time to post, you'll receive a notification on your mobile device that you can tap to open and copy your post over to your Facebook Group to finish posting. Learn more about how this works here.
Multi-language posts
- It's not possible to create a Facebook post in multiple languages through Buffer at this time. You would need to create such posts within Facebook itself and you will need to be an admin on the Page.
Image, video, and GIF specifications for Facebook
Facebook supports images, videos, and GIFs. However, scheduling reels is only available on Facebook Pages.
| <br /> | Videos | Images | GIFs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number allowed per post | 1 (upload or link) | 10 | 1 |
| Video length | Reels — 3 to 90 seconds; Video — 4 hours; Stories — 3 to 60 seconds | N/A | N/A |
| File size | Posts — up to 1GB; Stories — up to 1GB | Posts — up to 10MB; Stories — recommended up to 1MB to avoid pixelation, but the technical max is 4MB | up to 3MB |
| Dimensions / Aspect Ratio | Video posts — 16:9 to 9:16; Reels — 9:16; Stories — 9:16 | 8192x8192 pixels (suggested) | TBD |
| File types supported | Reels — MP4; Stories — MP4; Video posts — MP4, MOV, AVI, and M4V | Posts — JPG, PNG, WebP (images will be uploaded as WebP); Stories — .jpeg, .bmp, .png, .tiff | .GIF |
| Custom thumbnail supported | Video posts — not currently; Reels — N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Optimal number of frames | 24 to 60 frames per second | N/A | N/A |
| Audio bitrate | 128kbs+ | N/A | N/A |
| Autoplay | ✓ | N/A | ✓ |
| Alt text | N/A | ✓ | N/A |
Engaging with Facebook posts
Engagement features are available for Facebook pages within Buffer's Community feature (available on the web version of Buffer and in Buffer's mobile app).
To use Community on the desktop version of Buffer:
- Select your Facebook Page on the left menu
- Click Community in the menu that appears and start replying to your comments.
Prefer to reply to comments on the go? Check out our guide to Engaging with Community comments in Buffer's mobile app.
Facebook analytics
We can post all day, but the real excitement comes when seeing how our posts land. Insights gives you a quick view of your Facebook Page performance right inside Buffer, no need to leave your publishing dashboard.
:::info Note: Facebook Reels aren't included in Insights. Reels metrics are available in the Sent tab of your Publish dashboard instead. Facebook Page Stories are included in Insights. Facebook Group analytics aren't available at this time. :::
There are two places to check your Facebook Page stats:
- For a quick view of an individual post or reel's comments, likes, clicks, reach, and shares, head to the Publish tab, then the Sent tab.
- For a full performance view, select your Facebook Page in the left sidebar, then click Insights beneath the channel name.
From your Facebook Insights dashboard, you can:
- Get a Summary of your recent performance, including reach, impressions, reactions, comments, shares, follows, and engagement rate, compared against a previous period.
- Sort your Performance per Post table by engagement rate, reactions, comments, views, impressions, reach, shares, or clicks to spot your best-performing content.
- Track trends with the Metrics chart, including Posts, Content Impact, Audience Growth, and Visibility views.
- Get AI-powered Takeaways, including repost suggestions for older posts and prompts to help you create content, based on what's been working.
:::info 📝 Note: If your numbers look different from what you see natively on Facebook, or you notice a gap in a chart, see Why your data in Buffer Insights might look different from native analytics. :::