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!):

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 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.

Another neat fact is from when we launched our Foursquare initiatives. With the help of one of our staff members, Jhenifer Pabillano, TransLink was the first transit agency in North America to approach Foursquare to organize official badges and Check-ins with the organization. If you’ve ever checked in on the SeaBus and gotten the “I’m on a boat” badge, that’s thanks to Jhenifer.

2. So, for a while channel management was off the side of your desk. How did you transition that to the success we see today? Who manages it now?
After a small debate we could think of no one more naturally suited to the role of actual status deployment than our customer services experts. They already knew our policies and procedures, and they had direct access to timely transit information. Since it was a natural fit, we started to train them on Twitter. We taught them everything from the basics of typical social media vernacular to the culture we wanted the channel to embody. Now, we have a total of 12 people managing the feed and funnily enough only one of them had ever been on Twitter before we trained them!

3. How do you know if you’re doing well in Social Media? You’re not exactly selling “widgets” here, what social media metrics do you track at TransLink?
The obvious one is followers and fans. We’ve gone from 3,800 followers after the Olympics to over 14,000 on Twitter now. We also watch our interactions. For example, we started posting major service disruptions on our Twitter feed.These got re-tweeted and we knew it was something people appreciated. And, when we started posting “etiquette reminders” (i.e., “Does your bag really need its own seat?”) they were also re-tweeted. When we see that happening, we know we’re onto something and we build it into our future status update schedule.

We also track our number of complaints and commendations. We’re actually required to do this by legislation and report our satisfaction ratings. Additionally, we track the number of hits back to our website.

4. So, other than through obvious exposure of people chatting with you online, what other things are you doing to promote the feeds?
We do some cross promotion between the channels (translink.ca, m.translink.ca, Twitter.com/translink, facebook.com/translink, buzzer.translink.ca) and we’ve added it to our press releases. Obviously, being a public organization and a service provider we can’t run a contest aimed at growth. We’re yet to do any advertising on the trains and buses themselves about our channels but you can find it through our website. In truth, most of our growth comes from the informational value in our channel. The growth is organic.

5. What unique challenges do the TransLink social media channels face?
Well, with more than 50 SkyTrain stations and more than 8000 bus stops to consider, it can be hard to deal with communication about every single site – particularly on Foursquare. Alerts can be hard to send out on certain social media channels to reach everyone in need (i.e., If an elevator isn’t functioning at one of the SkyTrain stations).

Because we’re focused on having feeds of value to our followers, we also realized that different people are interested in different types of information at various times. To offset this we don’t duplicate information on our channels and instead treat each with its own unique personality. For Twitter we post service disruptions and do customer service; for Facebook we post community oriented activities (i.e., inviting people to come out to a new bus that we’re demo-ing or asking you to post your biggest transit pet peeves); and on our “Buzzerblog” we post historical events, facts and information for the hardcore transit fans. There is something for everyone! We only cross-promote when it fits.

In addition, having so many people manage the feed means that we need to have a clear course of action on who is responsible for posting and responding to each message that goes out. We’ve made some internal systems to deal with this and have found particular success in Hootsuite’s “Assign”feature. Our team is divided across a few different buildings so being able to assign responses enables us to coordinate efficiently.

6. What’s something interesting you’ve learned from managing the feeds?
We thought we’d see a drop in the number of phone calls we received as our Twitter community grew, but that hasn’t been the case. In fact, we get just about the same. So, we’re reaching and engaging with more customers than before, which we’re thrilled about!

As a tip, I’d recommend that social media managers always look for ways to change. Twitter and Facebook might not always be the ‘it’ thing. Google+ is looking at doing a paid profile for companies and who knows what else next! We like to go into a space and watch how it works. And then judge if it will or won’t work for our organization. Social Media isn’t an ‘exact science’ and you have to be open and brave enough to trying new things.

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!

Publisher Views

The new Publisher tab removes the need for Pending Tweet/Stream columns; rather, all your information is now available in the Launch Bar, identified by the paper airplane icon. We especially like the new calendar view, where you can see scheduled and past scheduled updates as time slots in a daily, weekly or monthly calendar view. From here, you can also schedule updates by simply clicking on an empty time slot. This publisher tool also allows you to edit messages across all networks, a time-saving feature that we are all sure to appreciate!

Limited Permissions

With HootSuite’s Limited Profiles, Enterprise teams can now use a “read & draft” account for interns or junior social media coordinators to ensure that brand-appropriate content is being published. With this level of permissions, interns and junior staff can compose messages, but are restricted from posting directly to the brand’s social channels. Messages will queue up for approval by a qualified Team Member, who can then approve messages to go live. This is similar to an approval process we use at October 17 Media, however having all these functions available on the HootSuite dashboard is indisputably a major time-saver!

Although not available to those with Free or Pro accounts, this functionality could have averted countless social media crises for large brands, like the infamous rogue Chrysler tweet we blogged about in March.

Profile Picker

Lastly, HootSuite’s new Publisher tool features a drop down menu for selecting multiple profiles with a convenient auto-complete text field. Team Members can save time by creating a list of favourite profiles to publish from with one click. Alternatively, your most active account can be set as the default account to publish from. Although this isn’t a huge change from the previous HootSuite capabilities, small changes do make a difference. This could be helpful for social media coordinators who are responsible for a general corporate account, as well as sub-brand accounts from which identical messages are to be deployed.

HootSuite is to be commended for being a pioneer and constantly improving their products. After all, they were the first to offer message scheduling, and surely their competitors will follow suit with these latest changes. We’re excited to fully test out HootSuite’s Publisher tool, and we encourage you to play around with it too! If you aren’t using HootSuite to manage your social media voice but would like to after reading about their newest improvements, we’re glad to help! We offer HootSuite training and account services, among many other online marketing services. Be sure to give us a shout!

P.S. It’s Game 7 today! GO NUCKS GO!

UPDATE: Since the Publisher tab launched, Hootsuite have been listening intently to feedback about the changes. Due to strong feedback about losing Pending Streams from the Dashboard (the streams were replaced with the Publisher’s “scheduled” calendar view), the team has brought back the Pending Streams, much to the relief and/or joy of users who enjoyed the simplicity and convenience of viewing their scheduled updates alongside all other updates. The Hootsuite team also decided to use this opportunity to make a couple other improvements, including colour-coding messages from various social networks. To read all the juicy details, click here to view Hootsuite’s blog. Thank you for listening, Hootsuite!