Issues Disarming

Moved into a new home and they have a hard wired security system with honeywell keypads (the generic ones, sorry dont know specifics). The security guy came and set it up, but, if I use the quick arm (#away/stay), then I cannot disarm it with the code+off. If I arm it with the phone/remote app, I cannot disarm with with code+off. The buttons actually do not make any noise when pressed. Using code+stay/away, then I can disarm it with code+off. The app always disarms. Almost like quick arm disables the keypad. Any ideas?

And he said the 4 function buttons, canNOT be used for quick arming (although I had that in my previous house), any reason he would say that? THANKS!!

Analysis: Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey wraps a tough first year

Failure to see the LRT plan through was one of several flops for a mayoralty trying to rise above the previous administration’s scandals.

Utica Boiler MGB150HD Shutting off after a few minutes

Hello everyone,

I am working on diagnosing my boiler system now since I noticed it went out today. I first attempted to just relight the pilot light and that seemed to get it to kick back on but yet again it shut off after a few minutes. I am still fairly new to the system so I started to read and poke around and noticed the following about my system. It roughly has the following flow.

• The water supply is teed from the cold water from the water heater so it should be automatic.
• I have a regulator valve to keep the system at 12psi
• I have a backflow valve
• I have the resevoir
• I have a White Rodgers device that is set to 25? maybe this is an air regulator
• I have a safeguard low cut off valve
• The system then going into the boiler and comes back out and is split into three zones

One concerning part is the pressure and temperature gauge has water in the gauge. The temperature still responds but the pressure doesn't move at all so I am not sure what the pressure is. The zone valves are still working turning on and off and the pipe gets hot so the heating works when the system is on. The burner flames are very yellow compared to the blue I would expect and I am thinking that this maybe one of the suspects.

Other things I have done: Took out the thermcouple and sanded it off. I hooked my meter up to it and held a flame to it and it slowly changed but then it eventually went negative (not linear responsive like I would suspect). Took some water out of each zone through the valves to try and bleed any air out.

So that smattering of information is where I am currently at. At this point I could swap out the thermcouple pretty easily to try and eliminate that but I still really need to swap out the gauge for the pressure and temperature to get a better idea of performance.

So what do we think we're looking at? It runs for 5 minutes and then....high temp limit (thermocouple), low water/pressure limit (system issue), other?

Thanks in advance,
Greg

Mayor John Tory seeks freeze on taxi licence fees after Uber protests

Tory is recommending council support not raising taxi costs for 2016, pending new bylaws that would regulate Uber.

How to Terminate Outside Post Wires

I have a outdoor lamp post that was removed and now needs to be terminated at ground level in some kind of enclosure? What should I use? The wires are live via switch inside house. Thanks very much

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14 Amazing Social Media Customer Service Examples (And What You Can Learn From Them)

How important is customer service via social media?

According to J.D. Power, 67% of consumers have used a company’s social media channel for customer service.

And when they do, they expect a fast response. Research cited by Jay Baer tells us that 42% of consumers expect a response with 60 minutes.

So, how’s your social media customer service?

For this post I was excited to research a set of 14 amazing examples of customer service using social media.

Let’s get started!

1. Samsung: A Unicycling Kangaroo and a Dragon Phone

As a loyal Samsung customer, Canadian Shane Bennett asked for a free unit of their latest, soon-to-launch phone. To sweeten his offer, he included a drawing of a roaring dragon.

Not surprisingly, Samsung said “no”. But to say thanks, they sent him their drawing of a unicycle-riding kangaroo.

Shane then shared both messages (and drawings) to Reddit where it went viral. In response, Samsung Canada sent him the phone he asked for – and customized it with his fire-breathing dragon artwork.

Takeaway: Have fun with customer interactions. Don’t take yourself too seriously.

2. Morton’s Steakhouse: Airport Delivery

While waiting for takeoff in Tampa, Florida, Peter Shankman jokingly asked Morton’s Steakhouse to deliver a porterhouse steak when he landed at Newark airport.

While departing the Newark airport to meet his driver, he was greeted by a Morton’s server with a 24 oz. Porterhouse steak, shrimp, potatoes, bread – the works. A full meal and no bill.

When you think of the logistics of pulling this off, it becomes even more impressive. The Community Manager needed to get approval and place the order. It needed to be prepared and then driven by the server to the airport, to the correct location and at the right time. All in less than three hours.

Some of the comments on Peter’s post suggest that this isn’t an anomaly. Another reader shares his experience of ordering a baked potato and getting a full steak meal – delivered and for free.

Takeaway: Do something unexpected for a loyal customer – when they want it most.

3. Gaylord Opryland: Sleep-Inducing Clock Radio

After numerous stays at Nashville’s Opryland Resort, Christina McMenemy wanted her own spa-sound clock radio that comes standard in each room. The sound helped her sleep better than ever, and she couldn’t find that model anywhere. So she asked the hotel for help finding it.

Turns out, that model was exclusive to the Gaylord hotels. She thought that was the end of it, and went to her conference.

Upon returning to her room that evening, she found a gift waiting: the spa clock and a handwritten card. The staff had given her the product she was unable to find. Not only did they make a long term customer very happy, they also received significant media coverage for their act of kindness.

Takeaway: Make customers happy one at a time.

A quick note on these first three examples

While it’s great to give away phones, steak dinners, and clock radios, this might not be sustainable customer service.

Why not? When other, loyal customers hear what these companies did, they might expect the same treatment. Can Morton’s deliver a free steak dinner to the airport for every customer who asks? Can Gaylord hotels give every loyal guest a free clock radio?

A more sustainable approach is to provide outstanding customer service on a daily basis. These next examples have lessons that can be implemented right away and on a consistent basis.

4. JetBlue: Feeling the Customer’s Pain

During a four-hour flight, Esaí Vélez’s seatback TV gave him nothing but static – while the rest of the passengers had normally functioning screens. How did he respond? He tweeted a complaint to JetBlue. Nothing inflammatory, but he was clearly disappointed.

How did JetBlue respond? While they could have made an excuse or even ignored his tweet, they didn’t. They took his side and empathized with him.

“Oh no! That’s not what we like to hear! Are all the TVs out on the plane or is it just yours?”

After he confirms that it was just his TV that was out, they respond:

“We always hate it when that happens. Send us a DM with your confirmation code to get you a credit for the non-working TV.”

Not only do they imagine his frustration, but they also offer him a credit for his trouble.

What was the result? Just 23 minutes after his complaint, he tweets: “One of the fastest and better Customer Service: @JetBlue! Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving”

Takeaway: Put yourself in your customer’s shoes when responding to complaints.

5. Delta Hotels: Room With an Ugly View

While attending the #PSEWEB conference in Vancouver, Mike McCready tweeted that, while he liked his room at the Delta, the view wasn’t so nice. He didn’t tag the hotel, and he wasn’t asking for anything.

Within an hour, Delta responded – offering a room with a better view. And when Mike returned to his room after the conference, he found a dish of sweets and a handwritten card from the staff at his hotel. It made such an impact that he wrote a post about it – the very same day.

Takeaway: Set up a social listening strategy to listen to all customer conversations.

6. Waterstones: Man Locked in London Bookstore

While every customer comment is important, some are going to be a little more urgent than others. Like locking a customer in your store.

This happened to David Willis last year at Waterstones Trafalgar Square store. He tweeted:

Not surprisingly, this tweet went viral, with 16,000+ retweets and 12,000+ likes. Because someone was monitoring Waterstones Twitter account, they were able to tweet 80 minutes later that they had freed their previously captive customer. Imagine how this could have turned out, if Waterstones customer service had stopped listening for the day.

Takeaway: Always listen to customer conversations.

7. Contextly: Customer Onboarding

Before I do business with a new company, I like to see if anyone is listening. It gives me confidence that they’ll be there if I have a problem or question.

When I was looking for a premium related-content service, I signed up for a free trial account with Contextly. The process was smooth, and I was excited about the app, so I tweeted about it. They responded with a positive, helpful tweet.

As a result, I’m confident that they are interested in me and will help me if I have a question with the app.

Takeaway: Use social media to streamline customer onboarding.

8. Xbox Support: Elite Tweet Fleet

Back in 2010, Xbox added a dedicated Twitter account. Since then, their Elite Tweet Fleet has posted more than two million support tweets. In fact, when I visited their account page, they were averaging two tweets per minute! And they have a team of 27 support experts.

Any company that assigns a dedicated Twitter account (and 27 people to manage it) is amazing to me. Check out some of their interactions:

• The support team addressed an issue with a user and then initiated a follow-up message nine days later. This is outstanding, given the volume of users they interact with on an hourly basis.
• This user tweeted a thank-you message about a replacement Xbox.
• One follower tweeted a custom greeting card, entitled: “To my good friends: Xbox.”

Takeaway: Be committed to your social media customer service.

9. Nike: Respond Kindly to Confused Customers

Nike Support is one of the strongest customer service accounts on Twitter. They feature a dedicated Twitter account, support seven days a week and in seven languages (English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Italian, German & Japanese.)

An example of their approach is here in this customer interaction: A customer contacts them to ask for help finding an order number. Although the question was unclear Nike’s customer support made the customer feel cared for. And when the customer realized they had the information all along, their response is super supportive.

Takeaway: Be kind, even when it’s not your fault.

10. Seamless: Pay Attention to Every Comment

Seamless is an online service for ordering food from local restaurants. Food orders are full of variables and when you add in time frame and delivery – it has the potential to be a nightmare. To manage customer service, they have an active Twitter account where customers can share their love and voice their complaints.

In a recent comment, a customer tells Seamless that on his recent order he received white rice, instead of brown. He wasn’t upset – he said: “Don’t mind terribly, just FYI.”

In response, Seamless asks for the order number so they can check into it. In response, the customer tweets:

Takeaway: Pay attention to all customer service issues. Passive complaints that are left unaddressed can easily cause a rift between the vendor and customer.

11. My Starbucks Idea: Listen and Harvest Ideas

As a way to listen to customers – and get tons of great new ideas – Starbucks created My Starbucks Idea. To date, customers have submitted more than 210,000 unique ideas. To support this program, they have a dedicated Twitter account. It is a great place for users to share their observations and coffee wishes.

A couple of the recent ideas include solar cell equipped umbrellas for device charging and morning coffee delivery (looks like it’s going to happen).

Takeaway: Make it easy for customers to tell you what they want. Listen to everyone and implement the winning ideas.

12. Sainsburys: Fishy Exchange

Sainsbury’s is one of the largest supermarkets in the UK. They’ve got a pretty active Twitter feed with lots of customer questions about products and sale prices. The tone of the account is helpful and positive.

There are lots of good examples of interactions. But none better than Fishy Sainsburys. This fishy exchange took place over a three hour period, between David (Sainsbury’s Twitter manager) and Marty (a customer). The puns will make you groan – many made me laugh out loud. Remember, this interaction was not a marketing play but a real conversation between the company and a customer.

Takeaway: Let your customer service team have fun.

13. Hubspot: Every Day of the Year

Holidays can be challenging times for customer service. When customer service closes for the observance of a holiday in one country, users from other countries will still have questions.

This recently happened with a HubSpot customer in London. She had workflow issues and couldn’t contact anyone at the US-based call center because it was closed for American Thanksgiving. When she took her concern to Twitter, she found a customer service representative in Ireland.

Like many companies in this list, HubSpot has a dedicated customer service Twitter account. To manage international schedules and time zones, they have two Dublin-based representatives and another three in Cambridge, MA.

Takeaway: Be available for your customers.

14. Buffer: Personal and Kind

If you take a quick look at Buffer’s Tweets & replies feed you’ll see how engaging their customer service is. Responses are personal and friendly. And they are usually signed by the team member you’re chatting with.

For example, my wife has been impressed that when she mentions them in a tweet, they acknowledge it, even using her name in their response.

Takeaway: Treat each person with respect. Use your name (and theirs) when interacting with customers online.

What we can learn from these customer service examples

Here are some key takeaways:

1. Choose a primary channel for customer service (many use Twitter) and assign staff to manage it.
2. Decide on your schedule of availability (set hours and days) and post it on your profile.
3. Have each tweet/post signed by the person who sent it. This is done well by Xbox Support, Sainsbury’s, and Buffer.
4. Remember that customers might contact you any number of ways – not necessarily on the channel you chose. Make sure you monitor other social channels for questions and conversations about your brand.
5. Establish a tone for your social media conversations. Generally speaking, you’ll want first to empathize with your customers problem. Stephen Covey said it best: “Seek first to understand…”

I recommend following a few of these companies on Twitter. Watch how they handle customer complaints and comments. I’ve learned so much doing this.

What to do next: Review these points with your customer service team. Decide which apply to your business right now and assign a team member to implement them.

Over to you

Have you had an amazing customer service experience via social media? How are you using social media to provide customer service? I would love to hear both in the comments!

The post 14 Amazing Social Media Customer Service Examples (And What You Can Learn From Them) appeared first on Social.

How to hire a painter?

I'd like to hire some kind of artistic painter.. and experiment with having them paint my room.. create cartoon type characters or images..something?

So how would I go about finding/hiring said person..? was hoping people on this forum would know.. :)

Beck Taxi protests fee increase for taxi drivers

As unlicensed UberX drivers roam the streets, Beck Taxi is upset the city plans to raise taxi renewal fees as usual on Jan. 1.

Electrical Anomoly - need help identifying?

I have my living room tv plugged into a 6 plug in surge protector. The other devices sharing this surge protector are 2 videogame systems and a HDMI switch.

On the other side of the wall is my bathroom.

What I've noticed is if I have the vent exhaust fan in the bathroom on, my Xbox one on, and of course the tv on, once I switch off the exhaust van OFF in the bathroom, the tv display goes black for 2-3 seconds. I tested this without the Xbox on, and flipped the switch and no issue.

So I don't think my tv is the problem but rather the Xbox. The tv display will only have the 2-3 seconds of blackness when xbox one is on and i flip the vent switch to OFF in the bathroom.

So question is, do I have an issue with the socket for that particular plug I have the surge protector plugged into? or is it that the Xbox is using too much power from that socket?

I also have another 2 plugs about 5 feet away from this one and was thinking of plugging in the Xbox there to test it out. But I'm not sure if this will solve the problem.

Just wanted to know from you experts what you think is going on and if this is a major electrical issue.

Thanks!

Basement toilet concrete floor

1940s house w/full concrete basement: existing toilet floor is a concrete block two steps (about 14") above basement floor.

1. Why?
2. What do I need to know about breaking the concrete out and putting in a new toilet/shower/sink @ basement floor level?

Appreciate any comments that will make me smarter. Many thanks!

Insurer asks policy holders: Are you driving for Uber?

Wawanesa is asking the question directly, and won’t cover drivers who are charging for rides.

How to reattach the side panel to a built-in dishwasher?

My son has a built-in dishwasher in his condo.
The screw came out of the side panel to which it is attached.
The side panel looks like fiberboard. The place where the screw came out needs to be firmed up.
I think that it needs to be filled in with wood filler - scoop out the loose stuff then fill in.
Am I correct?
Can it hold the screw when it is filled in with wood filler and dry?

Or is there a bettter method of repair?

Ghelp

Joyeux Noel Et Bon Anne ~!~!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All ~!~!

Removed tile and had to take out 3/4" drywall.. what now?

Hello,

I am trying to remodel my half bath. It had some ugly tile and when I took it down there was a ridiculous amount of glue left on the walls. It wasn't realistic to scrape the glue off so I cut the drywall where the tile began and started removing it. I was hoping to bring in some new drywall to fill in what I've removed. Unfortunately when I measured what's on the wall it looks to be 3/4" (see pic). I went to HD and Lowes but neither carries this size. I've read you can stack two 3/8" pieces to equal 3/4" but I'm not confident that's going to work out. Unless it's absolutely necessary I don't want to take down the whole wall, I'd rather piece in what I removed (it's less than 1/2 of the wall + taking it down may cause me to damage the ceiling). What is the best way to handle this? On the right side of the 2nd pic you can see what the glue looks like and why I had to remove the drywall. Thanks, any help would be appreciated for my next steps!!

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Saving Time and Money: How Social Media Works for an Early-Stage Startup

There’s often a critical time (or two) in a business’s journey when it’s make or break and time is at a premium.

There’re often times beyond this, once a brand is established, where time is still scarce and efficiency is the name of the game.

The team at Smart Pension has felt both sides of this in the past couple years and has experienced the time crunch particularly on the social media side (sound familiar at all with your experience?). One of the UK’s leading pension companies, the Smart Pension team pulled through in an incredibly inspiring way.

Here’s their story of how they’ve come up with their social media strategy, saved time, and found the best tools to use.

Social media and an early-stage startup

Jack Saville, a marketing executive at Smart Pension, built his startup to be the go-to source for UK pension and auto enrolment. And one of the key marketing strategies he chose for traction was content.

One of the first jobs was to put as much great information and helpful content on the website as possible. However when we finished creating content, we also wanted to shout about it on social media.

We were churning out so much content in the beginning that logging and posting each article on each social media channel was becoming a real time consuming exercise. If we had had Buffer in the beginning we would have saved a great deal of time (and money) in the crucial start-up, make-or-break phase of our business.

Smart Pension made it through this early critical stage and is grateful to now be a more established entity. They’ve kept right on working.

The content team crushed it early on and put together the majority of the foundational, main topics needed to be a thought leader on pensions and enrolment. The next phase was tackling current news and changes, being more of a real-time resource for Smart Pension’s growing audience.

This shift to timely content also needed timely distribution, which is where social media marketing has really paid dividends for the team.

The news section is where we direct most of our efforts now. This is important, as investing a lot of time in your news section shows your customers that you are well aware of the changes in the industry, and that we know that the services we provide need to be altered and suited to the current market and the current pension laws. Social media is the channel in which we communicate our knowledge of industry changes to our customers.

Not a content creation problem … a content distribution one

In building out this news hub, Smart Pension ran into a slight problem:

We work so hard on making sure our news section addresses the current topics in the pension industry, that sometimes we finish a number of articles at the same time.

It’s a similar problem that might crop up for publishers, news organizations, online magazines, and others. It’s not that there’s any trouble coming up with content to share, it’s more a matter of knowing what to share and when to share it.

Jack and his team found the solution here with social media scheduling from Buffer.

Smart Pension spaces out new posts every few hours so that there’s room between each update.

The articles don’t all go up as a wall of similar-looking tweets and posts.

The buffered schedule makes it so that content hits the timeline at all times, helping to reach people who may be online at different times throughout the day.

And the beauty of it all: All this scheduling can be automated.

The scheduling function is also helpful to the work flow of the team. The team member who wrote the article can schedule the post for times of the day that we are posting less and then proceed to the next task. The team members do not have to try and remind themselves of when to post their articles.

Additionally, with the scheduling function we can then post articles at night and at weekends when team members would not necessarily be working. This means that we can have a round the clock presence on social media, without having one of our team members staying up all night!

Scheduling + Analytics

Lots of content to share and a set number of times to share it all: When do you get the most bang for your buck with social media sharing?

The Smart Pension team came up with a few experiments to test the best time to post for engagement.

Here’s an example:

To find out if it’s better to post extra content at night or over the weekends, set up a schedule for both and check the results.

After a few days, log into the Analytics section of Buffer and check to see which time slots have tended to perform the best. You can see this from the Analytics view with a quick glance and intuition …

… or you can export data from your past period of experiments, and filter the results for each different time.

Here’s a sample spreadsheet using data from my own sharing:

(Couple this with the takeaways from Buffer’s optimal timing tool to get even more confirmation for which way you’re leaning.)

Great content goes great with images

As we are a start-up, we cannot afford to have a graphic designer to create the imagery for our social media posts every time we need to post something. Pablo give us the ability to make our social media posts look interesting and exciting, whilst not having to pay for a graphic designer to design them and create them.

According to our most recent data here at Buffer, we’ve found that tweets with images get 150% more engagement than tweets without.

The takeaway: Test content with images!

We believe in this so strongly that we built our own tool for making this as easy as can be. The free image creator at Pablo makes it simple to create images for Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and more, all at the ideal image size, all looking beautiful—no matter your design skills.

Here are some that the Smart Pension team has used on their latest social media updates:

Click to read The Employer's Guide To Auto Enrolment Contributions. https://t.co/9bUmJBNxA9 pic.twitter.com/El3z1lFPjU

— Smart Pension (@smartpensionuk) December 14, 2015

Click to read our guide on lost pensions. https://t.co/JwLXr8PQlg pic.twitter.com/BLJ0v3e7ar

— Smart Pension (@smartpensionuk) December 14, 2015

Click to read our guide on spotting the tell-tale signs of a pension scam. https://t.co/ZVRzn4DCwT pic.twitter.com/PAl8FdoV3s

— Smart Pension (@smartpensionuk) December 14, 2015

Working with a team on a social media calendar

And another key piece to the team’s workflow and system is keeping all this distribution organized. One of Buffer’s newest features works great in this case: the social media calendar.

Our content calendar is designed to make sure that we are regularly completing and posting content through buffer. We can all log into buffer and see what other people are planning, and then we can plan our content around the existing scheduled posts.

Want no-worries scheduling for your social media posts?

Smart Pension uses Buffer for Business to manage its social media profiles, share multiple times a day (without having to think about it), and work together to identify the content that works and what to share again and again.

Join Smart Pension and 5,000+ other brands and business with a free trial of Buffer’s most powerful social media features!

Image sources: Iconfinder, Pablo

The post Saving Time and Money: How Social Media Works for an Early-Stage Startup appeared first on Social.

wire advice needed

I have a house that was built way back when and a 14 gauge wire between two outlets has gone bad and it needs replacing. There is a 90 degree turn. This house has plaster walls.

Any tips for pulling the replacement wire through? I know I will need someone pushing while I'm pulling.

Thank you..

Chuck

Baseboard heater recommendation

Hi all,
I currently have two 2000 Watt Dimplex baseboard heaters (from Homedepot) installed in our cabin living room. The area they heat is about 400 sq ft, and they work great getting the place up to comfortable temp from about 2 deg C in the winter. The only problem is that they get really hot and I need to move the drapes out of the way as they get dangerously hot if they touch the heaters. I'm wondering if anyone can recommend other heaters that would be better with the drapes.

Much appreciated !
Krzys.

Twitter Video: The Marketing Advantage No One Is Using… Yet!

We’ve talked about how important of a tool video is becoming for marketers.

Every day people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube, Facebook has 8 billion daily video views and Snapchat users watch 6 billion videos daily.

Video views are growing so fast that if you don’t jump in now, you might miss out on one of the biggest opportunities for you and/or your company.

And that’s why I wanted to talk about Twitter video, which is something not a lot of marketers have embraced yet!

Let’s get started.

Liberal Amarjeet Sohi — from bus driver to $60-billion infrastructure chief

Canada’s new minister of infrastructure and communities says the Liberals will take a “different” approach, letting cities set the priorities.

Salmon color bathtub-

I am putting in a white toilet and sink, but keeping my light colored salmon bathtub. Would like advice on what color to paint wall outside the tub area, what color floor tile to install and colors for towels and bath rugs.

Thank you!

Reading Wiring Diagrams

Home | Dodge Body Builder's Guide contains electrical wiring diagrams for Ram trucks. When a circuit is different for different models, options, etc, the diagram contains abbreviations but they don't define them. One example is NGC. I emailed Dodge and the person got back to me. He said it stands for Next Generation Controller(whatever that means) but said he is not aware of a list of definitions for all abbreviations used in the diagrams. Has anyone came across such a list they are willing to share or provide the website? Thanks

Lumber species for outdoor beam

Not exactly framing, but I figured you folks would know a bit about lumber.

I'm looking to make a swing set by hanging a beam between two, large trees. I've already been brought up-to-speed on how to secure the beam to the trees without restricting sway or having it break the beam.

The trees are about 18' apart. I was really hoping for something like 14', as 16' beams are easy to find. I've got four types of wood available nearby that should do OK outside:

1. Pressure treated pine. For this one it's no big deal that I can't find it longer than 16" because I already planned on joining 2-3 layers of 2x6 or 2x8 to control the warping. since I'll already be gluing and screwing, I could just splice together the layers with shorter boards at staggered spots.
2. Cypress. I found a mill nearby that I can get 2x6s, 2x8s, 4x6s or 4x8s from and they may be able to give me a 20' piece depending on what they've got. Otherwise, I can do the same as the PT pine and splice together a couple layers of 2x?s.
3. Kiln dried cypress. Longest length is 16' so I'd have to do the spliced 2x? layers here to make a longer beam.
4. White oak. Another mill, same situation as the cypress - availability of one, solid beam would depend on what they have.

So what's the best material for this application? Best way to build the beam? Consider that the hardwoods won't likely be old growth so I'm probably not getting good heartwood. Should I worry about them warping or rotting? For that span, considering the light, intermittent load, would a 6" beam work or should I go to 8"? Should I add additional support with cables and turnbuckles holding up closer to the center of the beam?

City seeks conciliator amid claims of talks slowing with workers' union

The city has requested an appointed conciliator two months of what it termed slowing bargaining with the union representing outside city workers.

Tory promises police task force will plan for action

Board chair vows Thursday that a new group tasked with shaking up law enforcement and finding savings in the budget won’t be the “same old suspects.”

Condenser unit runs in cooling whenever fan ON setting is selected.

Condenser unit runs (fan and compressor) whenever fan ON setting is selected... Even when system is set to HEAT. Everything works perfectly in fan AUTO mode. This means I can't leave the fan on when bedroom doors are closed at night and the circulation of heat is necessary. I inherited the Bryant condensing furnace with the house. This problem was noted in the inspection and no one could figure out why it was happening. I have since replaced the older programmable thermostat with a Honeywell wifi unit from Home Depot, but the problem exists just the same. I've double checked the thermostat wiring per the installation instructions and I believe it is wired correctly, and so was the old one. I've also checked for obvious wiring issues in the furnace and can't see any. This is so weird. Any ideas?

How One of the Most Popular Pro Sports Teams in America Shares to Social Media

For the Denver Broncos—and most any major sports team—there’s so much to share on social media not just at game time but all week long, all year long.

How do you get the right content out at the right times?

How do you ensure that all the awesome material from your site makes it to your social profiles—and know which content resonates?

How do you get your whole digital team to join in and contribute?

Look no further than the Denver Broncos. Their digital media team has a slick and efficient system in place to entertain and engage with fans on social media, using tools like Buffer. The results: The Broncos are one of the top teams in the entire NFL when it comes to social media.

Here’s how they share.

Getting the whole team involved in sharing to social media

Ben Hunt, the Broncos’ Director of Digital Media, and Scott Ward, the team’s Social Media Coordinator, have an awesome system in place for sharing. And one of the keys is the way the digital media team comes together to get content ready to ship to fans on social media.

The Broncos use Buffer’s team members feature to allow for others on the digital media team to contribute content to Twitter and Facebook. Eight people are currently on board with access, and Scott and Ben have the final approval on everything that goes out.

Scott handles just about every social post that goes out on our behalf. It’s definitely a challenge for him to be able to write, link, and put media with those posts, whether it’s photos, or videos, or whatever. Having the contributors to be able to do that in advance for him—then he just needs to go in, maybe tweak the way the post was structured a little bit, or just approve it as is—that’s huge for us.

The way team members works within Buffer, different people can have different permissions.

1. You can have profile contributors who can create the content and submit for review.
2. You can have profile managers who can approve content and fully manage the queue, analytics, and scheduling.

Ben and Scott use this system as a way to efficiently add content to their queue: It saves Scott from having to create all the content all the time and instead allows him to share ready-made stuff in a single click.

Another benefit is quality control. The team member functionality is an added step to ensure that the content is on point, accurate, grammatically correct, and all the little things are in place that make for a great social media update.

How to easily tell which content is worth resharing

The Broncos may share more than 20 social media updates per day (possibly even more on gameday when the team wins).

How do they know which content is resonating most?

In the absolute easiest way possible, Scott is able to quickly dive into Buffer analytics and see at-a-glance what’s working, simply by spotting any Top Tweet or Top Post tags.

Whenever these tags appear, Scott knows that this post was a hit, getting more total engagement (perhaps from extra clicks or extra retweets) than a typical post. At that point, he can act right away by re-scheduling it to share again.

1. Clicking on the re-Buffer link from within the update
2. Drag-and-drop from analytics back into the queue

We utilize the “top tweet” — how Buffer lets us know throughout the day what’s performing well, that sort of thing. I’ll Re-Buffer those at night sometimes, just at a different time. If it was in the morning, I’ll do it in the afternoon. I use that a lot.

To fill out the picture from the analytics side, the Broncos also rely on Rival IQ for advanced analytics on their own posts as well as how their fellow NFL teams are performing on social media.

How the Broncos found their ideal Twitter schedule

The Broncos—and all sports teams—have an interesting use case of social media scheduling: There’s a balance of live events and real-time news, coupled with the in-between times of sharing content with a different rhythm.

Ben and Scott have found some neat ways to work within this duality.

1. Get a standard schedule in place to help make sure content is always going out at the right times
2. Be flexible on game days and with news by sharing right away or setting custom times

From Scott:

If I were to stay directly on schedule, we never really go more than about 50 minutes without a post. But then there are times where we share stuff immediately or will share things just to get them out in a timely manner.

After a game I’ll often do a custom schedule, and we will have posts scheduled around the clock because we have a lot of content and everything is relevant or timely at that point. Of course everything we throw out after a big win, our fans love.

The main schedule for the Broncos came about with a mix of research-backed data and personal results.

The team started with an around-the-clock schedule of 24 posts on Twitter, one every hour.

When the return from those late night tweets wasn’t quite as good, Scott went into research mode, checking out some of the posts on the Buffer blog even that share about the best times to post on Twitter as well as concepts like The Burrito Principle.

This inspired the new schedule: Sharing the same 24 times per day but in a condensed way. Every post the Broncos schedule is now set for daytime hours in the U.S., beginning at 5:00 a.m. on the East Coast and stretching to 10:30 p.m. on the West Coast.

The Burrito Principle has been a really good strategy to keep in mind, especially on Twitter. I’ll even think about that, what that content is, and is it consumable. A lot of times, I’ll put out a press conference around those times. If we have Coach Kubiak’s press conference in the afternoon, I’ll put the presser out right away on our Broncos TV profile, but later I’ll retweet it at a time where I know people are probably sitting in traffic, or sitting on the bus. It’s a perfect chance for them to, “Oh, let’s see what Coach Kubiak said today.”

Feeds & Making sure all the right content gets out there

The Broncos are also epic content creators. Their official team website has loads of articles, videos, and features that make ideal content to share on social media.

And here’s the way they make sure it all gets out there.

The Broncos use Buffer’s Feeds to tie in content from their online content channels right into the Buffer app.

With Feeds, you can pull in up to 15 RSS Feeds per connected profile, and all that content fills in automatically and chronologically into the Feeds section of the app, from which point you can approve or dismiss with a single click.

Scott finds that the Feeds system works great as a sort of checklist for seeing what’s been published and what’s been shared. It’s an inbox of sorts, constantly filling with new messages each time a new article is published.

Mobile integration and sharing on the go (and on the bus, and on the field, …)

Due to the nature of pro sports, the Broncos’ digital media team is always on the move—either traveling back-and-forth from away games, heading down to press conferences or practices. It’s key that you’re able to take your social media sharing with you wherever you go.

Ben, Scott, and the team have found this to be easily accomplished with the mobile version of Buffer (on iOS and Android).

With the app and the desktop version, it’s a really smooth interface between the two. That really helps a lot. Our contributors use the desktop version to contribute content, and then I get alerted to it. I’ll approve it, and make any edits and push it out. It definitely helps us to always be on.

The social media tools used and loved by the Broncos

Here’s a picture of the full social media stack for the Broncos, all the tools that help them schedule and analyze content and see what’s working for their players, fans, and fellow NFL teams.

Buffer – For social media scheduling, team management, and content distribution

Rival IQ – For competitive analysis and full context and data on their social media shares

Way In – For social data visualization and data discovery of the Broncos’s particular niche

Encore Alert – For keyword monitoring of Bronco-related topics, fans, and players

Essentially, what Encore does, instead of us having to log into a dashboard all the time to see what’s trending or seeing what’s making news – as soon as something hits social, whether it’s Instagram, whether it’s Twitter, it’ll let us know by sending us an email. The email gives us instant insight on say, “Hey, this is trending around Demarcus Ware” or “Emmanuel Sanders tweeted about this today, and it’s getting 15% more traction than his normal tweets do.” It allows us to take action in real time from the email alert.

Additionally, the Broncos have used Encore Alerts to spot new fans like UFC fighter Holly Holm, DJ Tiësto, actor Kate Hudson, NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Kyle Busch and NBA All-star Paul George, just to name a few —all social media influencers who loves the Broncos and who the team might not have found out about without it.

Want simple team sharing and scheduling for social media?

The Denver Broncos use Buffer for Business to manage their social media marketing, to engage their fans with timely content, and to stay connected as a team on social posting on-the-go.

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Image sources: Craig Hawkins, Pablo, Denver Broncos

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