Buffer adds RSS-style news feed and content suggestions to the social sharing mix, as it hits 1.5m users

Social media sharing, scheduling and analytics service Buffer is becoming a lot more than that from today.

Have you ever heard the mantra that content is king? Well, it apparently is. With Buffer Feeds, you’ll now be able to reel in various feeds from news sites, blogs and all the rest, and share these directly from within Buffer. So in effect, it’s becoming a Feedly-style RSS reader too.

“This has been one of our most requested features from big publishers to small bloggers and individuals who just want to follow their favorite blogs and share their stories alike,” explains Buffer co-founder Leo Widrich.

In addition to this, however, Buffer is also rolling out a new content-suggestion feature, where it serves up a a slew of recommended stories for users to share.

Ignoring algorithms for human curation is an interest tactic from Buffer, but Widrich says that hand-picking can sometimes deliver a better experience. “In the first beta run of this, we’ve started to see strong adoption, with over 200,000 suggested stories shared by our users in the last month,” he says.

This is a big move from a company that has gained many plaudits in recent times, not only for its products, but for its transparency. Even though not everyone might agree with its philosophy. The startup has made big strides in recent times hitting 1.5 million users just this week, and although it has become synonymous with social media sharing and scheduling, Widrich says Buffer has always been about content.

“Any posts you are sharing are content, and Buffer has been in the social media sharing business since we launched,” he says. “With the debut of feeds and content suggestions today, content has risen to the top of our experience for users.”

➤  Buffer