If you’ve been seeing Buffer teammates pop up on your social feeds a lot more lately, it’s not a coincidence. It’s by design! We’ve been intentionally investing in building a team of Buffer creators as a company-wide initiative.
At the core of this work is a simple belief: being creators ourselves will continue to set Buffer up for long-term success. By living the same creator journey as our customers, we can make better product decisions and connect more meaningfully with the people we serve.
Becoming a team of creators is a signature brand bet that we’ve kicked off in 2025; it’s our way of building Buffer from the inside out.
In this post, I’ll take you behind the scenes of how we’re making it happen. From the systems and workshops we’ve designed to support our teammates, to the early signals of impact we’re already seeing.
The evolution from dogfooding to Team of Creators
Buffer’s story with creation started long before we called it “Team of Creators.”
Back in November 2010, our CEO Founder Joel Gascoigne built the first version of Buffer during a Startup Sprint to solve a problem he was experiencing: he wanted a way to space out when his tweets were sent.
In the early days, we were small, the product was personal, and many teammates were building in public — tweeting often and using Buffer just as our customers did. Creation was woven into the day-to-day in a natural way, but there was no formal structure and no shared expectation.
As Buffer grew, our approach became more intentional through dogfooding — using Buffer internally to publish our own content, test new features, and catch bugs before they reached customers. Dogfooding kept us close to the product and gave us useful feedback loops, but it had its limits. We were using the product, but not necessarily living the customer journey.
The shift to building a team of creators
Team of Creators is a deliberate shift from dogfooding, and a defensible long-term strategy that could be a huge differentiator for Buffer.
We’re no longer just testing our product internally; we’re creating content in public together. That means experiencing the same hesitations, creative blocks, and cold-start challenges our customers face; and learning how to move through them. In the process, we’re building our own voices and consistency; and gaining a deeper understanding of what it takes to grow as creators which ultimately helps us create a better product experience.
Team of Creators is about encouraging every Bufferoo to share their voice in a way that feels natural to them; on social platforms they’re most comfortable with, and in areas they genuinely care about. That might mean a designer sharing their process on Instagram, a marketer offering industry tips on LinkedIn, or a teammate posting their hiking adventures on Threads. It’s not about only posting about Buffer, it’s about building the habit of creating and connecting consistently.
Joel talked about this shift from dogfooding during our June 2025 All Hands, reflecting on how Team of Creators marks a natural evolution in our culture: one that moves beyond transparency into visibility, and invites every teammate to be a storyteller in their own way.
Setting expectations at Buffer
This shift has been intentional, and is a change we’re making company-wide. We’ve had certain teams in the past that naturally worked on becoming creators, but this change is company-wide — every role, every team.
To truly make the vision for our team of creators be a reality, Joel, set a clear expectation that everyone on the Buffer team participates and starts their creator journey; with managers supporting this work along the way.
We’re not just empowering the entire Buffer team to grow their voices on social, build public credibility, and share real stories from behind the scenes. We’re setting a high standard of excellence.
This shift strengthens our culture, builds a stronger bridge to our community, and creates a form of brand differentiation that’s hard to replicate. As Michael Porter writes in What is Strategy?:
“A company can outperform rivals only if it can establish a difference that it can preserve.”
Team of Creators is how we preserve that difference; by keeping our people at the center, and learning by doing.
Once we’d made the decision to become a true team of creators, the real work began.
How we built the Team of Creators ecosystem
It’s one thing to set an expectation, it’s another to build a program that people want to be part of, week after week, for the long haul.
Even great ideas can lose steam once the initial excitement fades. For Team of Creators to deliver on its promise, we couldn’t just rely on initial enthusiasm; we needed to build something that would make it easy, energizing, and rewarding for teammates to take part over the long term. That meant creating a strong backbone: clear structure, accessible resources, and ways for teammates to support and inspire one another.
With that end goal in mind, we set out to create a framework that could stand on its own, adapt over time, and truly help Bufferoos build a sustainable habit loop. That also meant making intentional choices about what to prioritize first, and setting up systems we could scale as momentum grew.
Setting up support systems for Buffer creators
Step one was making sure every teammate had practical support, clear pathways, and a place to connect with others doing the same. That foundation came together in several interlocking parts, starting with a dedicated Slack channel.
The Slack channel: #buffer-creators
Slack was the natural choice for this first step since it’s where we already collaborate daily, and we wanted this space to mirror the community spirit we’ve built externally, but within Buffer.
From the very beginning, we kept the comms pace intentional and set the channel up as an active, working space to swap ideas, share wins, ask for feedback, and cheer each other on.
One key piece of the strategy was to keep focus on a human and values-led approach, rather than kicking off any system-based automations or zaps in Slack on day one. Some days that meant asking what content people were planning for the week; other days it was spotting a teammate’s post in the wild; grabbing a screenshot, and sharing it with the link so others could boost it. And always, there were taco emojis — our Slack tradition for celebrating wins, living our values, and marking milestones!
We also made it a point to spotlight teammates who were just starting out as creators or were slightly more introverted. The aim was twofold: encouragement and visibility. Established Buffer creators — those with existing audiences and more creator experience — often joined in, offering platform-specific tips, sharing AI workflows, or breaking down viral post frameworks.
Over time, a set of natural champions emerged: people who consistently offered encouragement, tips, and quick help for anyone navigating the creator journey.
This deliberate early nurturing really paid off.
Today, #buffer-creators is a buzzing nook of experiments, candid conversations, and mutual support. Teammates openly share post drafts, ask for feedback, and celebrate Buffer Streaks from our leaderboard. Many posts have gone from draft to published in a matter of minutes, given the collaborative review process. It’s also become a chance to learn from each other, as teammates watch how different people shape their ideas and bring content to life.
As the space evolved a bit more, we added one light-touch automation — a Monday check-in — to keep the momentum going.
It’s a gentle accountability mechanism that also sparks idea sharing and sets the tone for the week. But the heartbeat of the channel remains the same:
Real people supporting each other, as they grow as creators.
Team of Creators Resources HQ (Notion)
The next big step was level-setting creator knowledge with rich and easy-to-follow resources.
We did not want to assume people knew where to start. We wanted to create something that felt like a light, choose-your-own-path onboarding: easy to dip into, substantial enough to level up.
That became the Team of Creators Resources HQ in Notion; a working library for kickstarting or up-leveling a creator journey.
Inside, teammates could find:
- Clear context for why the initiative exists, why it matters, and simple first steps to get going.
- Actionable guidance on identifying a niche, picking a primary platform, and setting achievable content goals.
- Practical techniques for content batching and scheduling content with Buffer.
- Exercises and strategies for reframing common creator mindset hurdles.
- Platform-by-platform best practices, plus notes on how algorithms tend to behave.
- Repurposing playbooks to help content travel further.
- Tools for packaging content well, aligned to personal brand goals.
Since teammates are balancing this journey with day-to-day work, in a 4-day work week; we were careful to avoid information overload. Throughout the hub, the tone stays warm and precise; pages are short and interactive. We baked in prompts like “Identify your why with these questions” so people could define their purpose at their own pace. We also layered in tips and knowledge share posts from teammates sourced directly from the #buffer-creators Slack threads, which created a nice continuity between where ideas start and where they are documented.
A favorite section in the hub is the Wall of Wins: a curated, daily-updated gallery of real posts from Bufferoos across platforms. It gives quick, visual inspiration and underscores an important truth: showing up counts, whether you are sharing Buffer-related work or something personal you care about.
The Team of Creators Resources HQ usage data tells us that teammates are using it!
Our latest Notion analytics snapshot shows 773 total views since launch, spread widely across the company; evidence that people are returning to the hub as an active working tool, and not a one-time launch document. Hurrah!
Creator Café workshops
After launching the Slack channel and resources hub, we wanted something that would bring teammates together regularly, and in real time. A space where Buffer creators could connect, learn, and ask questions without having to carve out that space themselves.
That’s how Creator Café workshops came to life!
These sessions are designed as relaxed, beginner-friendly virtual meetups for teammates to enter and sustain their creator journeys with more confidence. They’re totally optional, as we’re a fully remote team, but every workshop is recorded and content shared afterwards so no one misses out.
We’re still early in this journey, and have mapped out three waves for the months ahead:
- Wave 1 (foundational): Practical sessions to build early creator habits, overcome mindset barriers, and offer hands-on guidance
- Wave 2 (needs-based): Targeted workshops responding to specific challenges, strategies, or opportunities that surface over time
- Wave 3 (collective themes): Sessions focused on team-wide trends, showcasing successful approaches, and spotlighting creative experiments from teammates
Our first Creator Café was held on July 21st, and it set the tone for what’s to come!
We kicked things off with a tour of the new resources HQ and shared some surprising early results (yay) from our collective posting momentum that got everyone excited. Next, the heart of the workshop was an interactive Figma exercise, complete with “hero’s journey” soundtrack, that invited everyone to map out the hurdles keeping them from posting:
The first board, on the left — a Creator Empathy Map — had four quadrants: Imposter Syndrome, Perfectionism, Not Knowing Where to Start, and Lack of Time/Energy, plus a space for “something else.” Teammates filled it quickly:
- Imposter Syndrome: “I worry my content isn’t original enough.”
- Perfectionism: “I feel like I need to have everything figured out before I share anything.”
- Not Knowing Where to Start: “I have too many ideas and can’t decide which to focus on.”
- Lack of Time/Energy: “By the time I finish my workday, I’m drained and can’t think about creating.”
The second board, on the right — also a Creator Empathy Map — flipped the conversation. For every challenge listed, teammates offered ideas for overcoming it: everything from small mindset shifts to using templates, batching content, or finding an accountability buddy. It was knowledge-sharing at its most organic, with value flowing between creators at every stage of their journey.
We closed the exercise loop with a myth-busting segment on content creation and easing common worries. The session wrapped with an open jam and Q&A, which sparked ideas we’ll carry into the next workshop.
For any workshop we host, the goal is to keep it light and memorable throughout. For this first one, we framed the workshop around a pasta metaphor: content, like pasta, comes in many shapes and styles, with endless “seasonings” (AI tools, personal systems, creative twists) to suit your taste. The feedback was clear; the workshop left teammates more confident, inspired, and ready to experiment.
Today, our approach remains incremental, supportive, and grounded in meeting teammates where they are; with each session building on the last. More to come!
Turning Buffer’s social channels into shared spaces
As more teammates found their rhythm with posting, the next step was to extend that momentum beyond individual accounts.
We wanted to bring more of that creativity, personality, and lived experience into Buffer’s owned social channels; turning them into shared spaces that reflected the people behind the product.
This was a shift in how we saw our brand presence: from being centrally managed by a few faces to being a living, collaborative stream of stories. We began featuring teammate-generated content front and center; everything from industry observations and practical creator tips to behind-the-scenes glimpses of Buffer culture and personal milestones.
For teammates, this became a gentle and accessible way to ease into public content creation. Sharing on the Buffer account meant they could experiment, build confidence, and connect with a wider audience — all while knowing their voice still sounded like them.
For our audience, it meant more authentic, varied storytelling that could never be replicated by a single perspective. It gave our channels a steady flow of fresh content, more faces from across the company, and richer representation of the people and work that make Buffer what it is.
We’ve since expanded that same principle to our blog, inviting anyone at Buffer to contribute. This opens the door for a broader range of voices and experiences to shape our content — from engineers sharing product decisions to designers unpacking creative processes. It’s diversifying the perspectives we share and adding more depth to the conversations we start.
To keep this momentum going, we actively repost and syndicate teammates’ content, highlight their work in ask-me-anything (AMA) style threads, and encourage community-driven dialogue. The result is a feedback loop where our team and our community inspire each other, reinforcing the idea that Buffer’s brand is built by the people in it, and shared by everyone.
Measuring success with data and qualitative impact signals
From the beginning, we knew that measuring the success of Team of Creators couldn’t just be a numbers exercise.
We’re not chasing ad ROI or trying to justify media savings, which is why we deliberately skipped metrics like Earned Media Value (EMV). The story we want to tell is of collective momentum, participation, and building empathy for the people we serve. It’s about the ripple effect that happens when dozens of Bufferoos start showing up consistently, in their own voices.
In a team of 70, you can sense the change almost immediately without ever opening a dashboard. It’s in the rhythm of our feeds, in the conversations we’re having with our community, and in the steady stream of posts we reshare from teammates on Buffer’s brand channels.
We see it in our Wall of Wins, too. It’s updated daily and is a living gallery where anyone at Buffer can see what others are creating. Some posts are Buffer-related; others are deeply personal or rooted in industry expertise. That mix is intentional and we’ve never set the bar at “you must post about Buffer.” The goal has always been to help people create in ways that feel natural, self-led, and sustainable.
Building a dashboard
While the cultural signals have been clear, we also wanted a way to anchor our progress in something more tangible.
Before launch, we set a baseline by pulling data from teammate social accounts connected to Buffer, making sure to only include accounts they posted to themselves (not those managed for freelance or other side projects). This gave us a true picture of the starting point and ensured we were capturing the right volume for the right story.
From there, we built the Team of Creators dashboard; our home for tracking a few key signals:
- Active team members: to measure adoption rate, and see how many people are participating in a given week or month.
- Total team posts: to measure volume and spot spikes tied to launches, events, or cultural moments.
- Median posts per member: to understand posting habits across the team, not just the most prolific voices.
- Total team reach, impressions, and views: to show the collective impact of our content in the wild.
The numbers alone aren’t the whole story, but they give us a powerful lens on what’s happening.
More importantly, the trajectory is upward; participation and reach are both climbing as more people find their rhythm. Next, we’re exploring ways to monitor reach per teammate and track the percentage of weekly posting goals met in Buffer. This will add even more depth to how we measure and share this story.
Leaderboard for encouragement
While tracking numbers is useful, we also wanted a way to celebrate the people behind them, without turning Team of Creators into a high-stakes competition.
That’s where the monthly leaderboard came in!
It’s designed to recognize participation and consistency, not just the biggest reach or the highest engagement. The primary ranking factor is posting streaks, because consistency is a more equitable measure than raw impressions and reach; especially when social following sizes vary widely across the Buffer team.
Alongside streaks, the leaderboard highlights each person’s total posts, likes, reposts, comments and replies, reach, impressions, and views. The intent is to give teammates a fuller picture of their own momentum, while keeping the spirit collaborative.
Next up, we’re building a team leaderboard to see which teams are leading the pack on posting consistency! It’s meant to spark some friendly competition, while keeping the spirit collaborative.
Creator Confidence as a success metric
Consistency matters, but so does how it changes the way you see yourself.
To measure that change, we created a Creator Confidence survey that we’ll run every six months. It asks teammates to rate — on a scale of 0–10 — how confident they feel creating and sharing as a Buffer Creator, how comfortable they are expressing themselves authentically, and how their confidence compares before the support systems existed versus now.
In true Buffer fashion, we’ve made the results fully visible! The survey isn’t anonymous, and every response is shared right inside the Team of Creators Resources HQ. That transparency means we can all see what’s helping, where more support is needed, and what’s possible when we make space for each other’s voices.
Since launching the resources hub, the average teammate confidence score has risen by two full points compared to before the initiative! This is a steady, measurable shift that reflects both the consistency of participation and the comfort people are finding in sharing their own voices.
The results we’re seeing so far
The early signals are encouraging! Participation is high, and people outside Buffer have started to notice “Buffer everywhere” in their feeds.
Bufferoos from across teams are sharing everything from personal reflections to behind-the-scenes looks at their work. Some are building entirely new content niches; others, who once felt more self-conscious about posting, have hit their stride.
There have been many breakthrough moments; posts that took off and led to steady follower growth; and smaller compounding wins that created habit loops, making it easier for teammates to keep showing up.
Since launch, we’ve seen:
- 90% of the team actively participating
- 4132 total posts
- 2,529,156 total reach
- 3,705,897 impressions
- 1,852,648 total views
- 43, median posts per teammate
We’ve also noticed a big shift in how our community engages with us! More and more people are leaning in to help us create buzz around launches and key milestones.
As an example, for the launch of LinkedIn Profile Analytics, Buffer creators and community members posted coordinated teasers ahead of release. It turned the product launch into a company and community wide event, filling feeds with curiosity and enthusiasm. As a result of this, there has also been an uptick in product questions and suggestions directed to specific teammates, signaling that the circle of connection is widening.
The combination of clear expectations, accessible resources, and shared momentum is why the program is holding so strong, long past the initial excitement. The act of creating is no longer something we do “on the side.” It’s embedded in how we build, connect, and show up for the people we serve.
Keeping momentum alive and what’s next
With the systems and structures in place, Team of Creators is still in its early chapters. It’s a long-term strategy, and we’re deliberate about keeping the energy high and the participation steady.
Part of that is celebration. At our monthly All Hands, we spotlight teammates from the leaderboard — moments that always spark smiles and applause. The same spirit lives in our #buffer-creators Slack channel, where encouragement flows daily, and often in the form of taco emojis!
We’re equally intentional about listening. The initiative keeps evolving in response to what creators ask for — whether it’s new resources, one-on-one support, or Creator Café workshops that dig into specific, actionable topics. Soon we’ll be experimenting with lighthearted internal challenges; offering fun, low-pressure prompts to keep creative muscles active.
If you’ve been following along and wondering how something like this might work in your own team; or you’re curious about what we’ll try next, pull up a chair. We’re always happy to share how we’re building, what we’re learning, and where we’re headed next. You can also direct message me on LinkedIn with any questions!