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Archive for the ‘Facebook’ Category

Save yourself time when choosing your social media usernames!

Posted on by Nikki Wong

One thing we try to drive home with our clients is the importance of selecting social media usernames or vanity URLs that are identical or as consistent as possible. If someone finds you on Facebook under ‘Brand XYZ Inc.’, it stands to reason they should be able to find you on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, and any other social media platform under the same name, right? Not under ‘XYZ Brand’, ‘Brand Inc.’, ‘Brand XYZ’ or any other permutations of your brand name. So what is a person to do? Check each social media channel for username availability before choosing one? Not necessary!

We’d like to introduce you to a very simple but infinitely helpful online tool called NameChk. Simply type in your desired username or vanity URL into the form field, and NameChk will quickly check that username availability against 159 different social media platforms they recognize. You can also filter the list down to their most popular networking sites, if 159 is too overwhelming.

For example, below is a screenshot of a search for available accounts under “october17media”. As you can see, some are already taken (by us!):

NameChk search results for "october17media"

Now doesn’t that make your life easier? Instead of checking each social networking website individually, you can have definitive answers all in one place! There are plenty of helpful social media tools like NameChk that save you time when creating and managing your brand’s social media marketing. Do you have any recommendations for tools you use?

TransLink Gets Social! An interview with Erin McConnell!

Posted on by Tamara Brooks

October 17 Media was excited to sit down with Erin McConnell from Vancouver’s TransLink, a leader in the Vancouver social media scene, to talk about their marketing and customer service tactics.

TransLink on Twitter, over 14,000 followers!
TransLink on Facebook, over 2,290 fans!
TransLink on Foursquare, over 30,000 followers!
TransLink Buzzer Blog

1. Tell us about the early days of social media at TransLink:
Well, initially we started a Twitter feed during the Olympics with the aim of communicating with media outlets. We hoped to alert them of service disruptions. Internally we organized the resources so that Twitter was supported 20 hours a day during those 17 days. Our plan was well received by the public and our dedicated team and systems associated with the channel grew strong. After the Olympics, our budget was reduced and we had to begin managing the channel(s) from our own desks.
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Recent Facebook Changes: What You Need To Know

Posted on by Keegan Morrison

As some of you may have noticed, Facebook has started making some big changes to its site as of late. Facebook began implementing these changes last week in unison with its F8 conference and will continue to implement more changes into the coming weeks.

As of right now these changes are receiving mixed reviews from users but as with all past Facebook changes, it’s more a matter of users needing to become familiar with the new features than the features themselves actually being flawed. To try and ease the pain that comes along with all these Facebook changes (and yes there have been many lately) we’ve decided to go over some of the most important ones and show you how they work.

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Facebook Releases Ad Targeting by Topic

Posted on by Nikki Wong

Facebook recently launched improvements to its online advertising targeting. Previously,
interest targeting in Facebook ads were limited to the ad creator specifically typing in each and
every target topic manually, but the latest developments allow for a much simpler process. Let
us summarize our favourite points for you!

New to Facebook ad targeting is the ability to target by topic. By placing a # in front of
the targeting term (e.g. #painting), you will also reach users with related interests, such as
watercolour painting and oil painting. Now there’s no need to input every type of painting style
you can think of!

Topic Targeting
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Here’s our #1 tip on saving time and doing Twitter updates better.

Posted on by Tamara Brooks

Hootsuite's Schedule in Bulk Screen ShotTIP: Get to know and love Hootsuite’s “Schedule in Bulk” feature. Simple. Isn’t it?

What does Hootsuite’s “Schedule in Bulk” feature do?
You can schedule in advance up to 50 updates from a mere text file (we use their FREE downloadable sample spreadsheet). We should mention at this point that it’s only available on the PRO plan which is pretty reasonably priced at $5.99/month. (Nope, we’re not a referral partner, go ahead and click the link and we won’t be making any money if you sign up).

When you schedule updates you can include:

  • the update text (140 characters for Twitter!)
  • A URL link
  • Desired delivery times

Hootsuite knows that this type of scheduling is especially powerful for agencies and marketing departments (like our Vancouver based social media agency, October 17 Media) managing complex campaigns. Interested in how we can train your team to use this tool properly, or just do it for you? Call us for a quote on social media consulting and execution!

October 17 Media specializes in website development, paid search advertising, social media and viral marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) and email marketing.