I've been keeping this site going for a few years now, and while my main form of sharing content is through the RSS feed for this site, I do also share content through Buffer. It's ability to schedule posts for the networks I'm on is what made me sign up. I also use a separate domain for all my shortened links for each post and it starts to look a little more branded.

Why do we share our content in this way though? I can't speak for the mass collective of netizens, but here's why I share links through Buffer.

1. To Be Seen

People share their content in this way as a marketing tool, they want to be seen. And so do I. Being self-employed means that I need to keep my name out there.

While my recently published content doesn't strongly tie in with my freelance career, I do like to think that what I publish is valuable to others and may lead to new clients and contacts.

2. To Suit The Reader

Not everyone uses RSS to subscribe to content. For many, social networks are their first point of call when it comes to finding new content. This is the main reason why I share my content in this way. RSS is often seen as a more techie solution for subscribing to content which is why some people prefer to get their news from their preferred social network.

3. To Pay It Forward

Some things are just too good to keep to yourself and that's why I'm starting to share more links on Buffer. For the content that I find valuable and worth reading, I'm going to start sharing on Buffer. They might not make my blog in the form of a link post, but sharing these links in other places means that the original authors of the content get noticed.

That's the main reasons why I share the content that I do. Largely it's about having an active presence on the Internet and letting potential new clients and contacts know that, "I'm here!".

This is a personal site though and unsuitable for the kind of content that would get me noticed by new clients. For that I need a separate site with more focused content on Rails, Ruby and other web development topics. This is in the pipeline and I'm hoping to have something up and running by the summer.