Testo 435-1 with Accessories for sale

For sale used but in great condition
Testo 435-1 Multifunction Meter
0635 9535 Testo 435 5/8" Telescopic Vane Velocity Probe
0635 9335 2.4"...

Goodman blower motor wiring

I'm replacing my goodman furnace blower motor my question is what speed goes to heat, cool, M1 and m2. My motor has a neut, run cap wires and a black red blue and orange. My guess is the black lands on the cool terminal so the A coil won't turn to ice but I'm just guessing

Multi stack Chiller Graphics?

Anyone have a graphic for multi stack chillers or could point me in the direction of somewhere I can get one?



Either for free or paid, much appreciated



Thanks

A First Look at New Instagram Business Tools (And What They Mean for Your Business)

Businesses have been using Instagram as a way to build their audience and connect with customers for a while now without too much insight on how their content is performing. But soon, they'll be able to dive way beyond total likes and views.

Instagram has officially announced the launch of its tools for business users, including new business profiles, analytics and the ability to create ads from posts directly within the app.

The Facebook-owned company worked with hundreds of business users to understand what was needed to enhance their Instagram experience, and three key needs became clear-stand out, get insights and find new customers.

Most importantly, they found that businesses want the ability to stand out on Instagram. Secondly, they realised that businesses needed more insights into their post-performance. During their research, a retailer in Austin explained that many analytics are overwhelming and hard to apply to its marketing. And third, businesses want to reach even more customers.

With these insights in mind, the company developed new Instagram Business Tools and we'd love to share what's coming with you.

Let's jump in!

Business profiles

Business profiles are a free feature for accounts wanting to be recognized as a business on Instagram. As noted previously, brands with a business profile can choose how they want their customers to get in touch with them: call, text or email with a tap of the contact button as well as get directions.

Business profiles will only be open to those who already have a Facebook Page for their business. Instagram's Global Head of Business and Brand Development, James Quarles explained the reasoning behind this decision to TechCrunch: “In doing that, it gives us the payment credentials, as well as if they want to prepopulate some of the information like their street address, the phone number, and the website.”

The 'Contact' button will appear next to the Following button in the profile information section of the page. Upon clicking the button, users will have the option to get in touch with the business or get directions to their location.

The 'Location' tag will be displayed underneath the current website link on a business page and when tapped, will open up a map showing the business location and enable users to get directions from their current location.

Insights

Insights on Instagram give businesses actionable information about who their followers are and which posts resonate better than others-all from within the mobile app. By learning more about the behavior and demographics of your audience, Instagram believes you can create more relevant and timely content.

Insights will feature metrics like top posts, reach, impressions and engagement around posts, as well as more data on your followers like their gender, age, and location. Here's a look at how the Insights will be displayed on iOS, as reported on Later.com:

Instagram business users will be able to identify where their followers are from, even going as deep as the city they're in. This will be incredibly valuable for marketers, especially when it comes to figuring out when to post content to their profiles to maximise reach and engagement. The new Insights will also show you the most popular times of day your followers are using Instagram.

Later also reports that you'll be able to view the top posts sorted by Impressions for both a 7 day and a 30 day period. This will help business users to work out an engagement rate based on how many people have seen their post and how many decided to engage with it.

Here's a quick video showing Instagram's new Insights in action:

Promote

The ability to promote lets you turn well-performing posts into ads right within the Instagram app-helping you connect with even more customers.

To run an ad, you'll be able to simply pick a post you've already shared on Instagram and add a button encouraging people to take action. You can select a target audience or allow Instagram to suggest targeting for you. After that, your post will be promoted as an ad for any length of time you choose.

The new ads functionality is designed to let business get started with ads in just a few taps. Speaking to AdWeek, Jim Squires, director of market operations at Instagram, said: “The way I envision this is there are a lot of businesses on the platform that may be new to advertising, or not advertising yet, and this is a straightforward, easy way to start advertising on the platform.”

The simplicity of this tool means that businesses may not have the flexibility and targeting options available using tools like Facebook's Ads Manager or Power Editor. Though, as TechCrunch reports, advertisers will be able to define and save custom audiences based on data from Facebook users' profiles such as gender, age and location and interests.

Over to you

Instagram business tools are just some of the new ways Instagram hopes to make growing a business on the platform much easier. Business profiles, insights and the ability to promote posts will be rolling out in the US, Australia and New Zealand in the coming months, and will be available in all regions globally by the end of the year.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these new features and how they may make your Instagram experience smoother. Feel free to leave a comment and I'd be excited to jump in and join the conversation.

Help understanding pressure balanced vs thermostatic valves for shower

Hello,



I'm shopping for a couple new tub/shower faucets, as we have the old two handle faucets in both bathrooms and both sets are pretty well shot. I was looking at Delta, and just trying to get more information on what pressure balanced vs thermostatic (Delta's TempAssure) valves are, since they are both available as single handle faucets (a volume control and a temp control, both on a single faucet)



We have 4 kids, so the risk of a toilet flushed while showering in the morning is reasonable - which is what I understand the pressure balancing valve will prevent scalding. What's the thermostatic valve do? Is it worth the extra money?





Here's one for example:



http://www.amazon.com/T17T478-Leland...lta+tempassure

First detailed plans revealed for one-stop Scarborough subway

Local residents question wisdom of spending billions for subway with homes threatened by tunnelling

Pot dispensaries urge city to drop charges

Even after last week's high-profile raids, pot being sold in at least one dispensary. Meanwhile, a local Liberal MP scoffs at a councillor's request for guidance.

How many AC returns for a 2100 SF home?

What is the typical amount of returns for a 2100 sf single level home? There is one in the hallway by the air handler. Is this the only one?

Harambe Dead

Think that is that go rillers..... name..... Harambe....



Little boy got into his cage..... zoo folks capped him..... and they had to..... I would have.....



If that was my child I would have been in there doing everything to get my kid back....... the mom in this case.... who negligently allowed her child into the cage..... was heard on tape saying "Lord, protect my child"....... lol



Maybe she should have prayed before going to the zoo for the Lord to keep her kids safe..... lol



Harambe is cat food now...... big cats...... I bet they took his carcass to the lion cage after the zoo shut down...... lol



Of course... wonder if the big cats would even eat him.....

After a while... even those zoo animals expect to see their food brought to them already prepared.... with the hair and bones removed....... lol

Most silent AC unit

I have currently a Comfortmaker AC unit.

The unit is probably about 15 years old and generally in good shape. However, I believe it needs some service. Air is not as cold anymore as it used to be.

I am sure it could be serviced. It is a 3ton Comfortmaker from 1996. A8036a2c1



However, since it is mounted beneath my deck I am considering to replace the AC unit to reduce noise.

The deck spans the entire with of the unit and is 7ft high. Moving the unit to a better location is very difficult to impossible.



I would like to find out what types would be best for the installation location. for example, would this type be better, given the fan pushing air out instead of up?

Comofrtmaker Performance 14 Compact Central Air Conditioner (couldn't post a link...)

The SEER rating seems low.



What types/brands are generally considered most silent?

Staining 20 year old concrete floors? Any tips?

Any tips / advice on staining 20 year old concrete floors? Someone suggested muratic acid to open the concrete up?

Electronic Speed Cotrol Whole House Fan

Can I use a Broan 6amp 120v speed control on a 1/3hp 1 phase 5.7amp motor, to adjust speed successfully? There is also a timer in this circuit. First time ever on any forum.

There goes my AC unit.

The old saying no good deed goes unpunished hit home ever so slightly yesterday.

Was outside my home using the hose pipe and noticed a rather...

Test for fleas?

Is there some sort of a test that you can do for fleas, such as when a tenant moves out? Perhaps there's some sort of sticky tape that attracts fleas that can be left on carpet for 24 hours?

Piston and Capillary tube question

Hello HVAC-Talk!

I have a question for all of you..I have a 2 ton ICP unit r22 and I went to start it up this week to notice that the evaporator...

Window AC fan not working

I have an LG 18000 BTU window unit that does and doesn't work. The compressor will run but the fan doesn't. There is power getting to the motor, but it just hums. I gave the fan blades a good spin and the motor started spinning. However, the whole unit shut off after about 15 minutes and the motor was extremely hot. Not sure if this is normal? Any ideas what could be the problem?

Trump's Stated Positions and beliefs.

Here is the stated positions that I have heard Trump say.

1. Says Global Warming is a hoax.

2. Gave a list of rock solid SC justices to choose from

3. Build up our military again.

3. Send illegals back and build a wall and stop illegal immigration.

4. Stop Federal government interference with local and state governments.

5. Back the police fighting crime.

6. Rescend thousands of job killing regulations by executive order.

7. Renegotiate trade agreements to benefit America and bring back jobs.

8. Repeal Obama Care.

9. Foreign affairs to be conducted with only American interests first.

10. Stopping all immigration of non vetted immigrants and all Muslims till we decide how to handle it.

11. America first in all government decisions.

12. Make our Allies pay ther fair share for ther defense.

13. Stop nation building. Build up America no other countries

14. Destroy ISIS by whatever means necessary including torture to gain information.

15. Supports Pro Life positions.

16......etc. etc.

Please add more as you see fit. I say all those that think Trump is a liberal or is evil can go to hell.



Those who want to trash Trump now that he is the Republican candidate and by default support commie loving Hillary are not Americans IMHO. Thank you, thank you very much.

Eventually, we'll all have to pay for this: James

City hall can't put off the inevitable for much longer; with taxes the lowest in the region and demands growing, politicians will have to reckon with reality.

Yet another door and RO question

installing new doors in my hallway for 3 bedrooms, bathroom and 2 closets. When I took the 28" bath door off, it had 1 1/2" of shims on each side and the RO is ~32". When I measured the replacement 28" door, it will fit but the trim only overlaps the RO by abt 1/4" on each side. I'm sure the answer is YES, but should I return the door and get a 30" door?

Carrier Cor / Ecobee 2 stage question

I have a 5 ton Carrier with a 2 stage compressor. With the thermostat set for the A/C to kick on when the indoor temp is 1 degree above the set temp, and the Stage 2 Temp Delta set at the default 3 degrees, the second stage does not kick in. Outside temps have been 85, but I assume once we get to 93 or so here in south Florida, it most likely will. However, for now it is not, and the 3 degree default says it prioritizes comfort over efficiency. But if I set the Stage 2 delta to Auto, then the second stage kicks in and over the course of the day, the unit runs less time. But I always thought lower tons for a longer time was more efficient than higher ton for shorter time.



Anyway, I'm trying to figure out if I should leave the Stage 2 Delta set to 3 degrees, Auto, or some other value.



Thanks

Vehicle Wraps Boost Your Marketing Goals and Suit Your Budget

May we interest you in the dynamic and budget-friendly vehicle wrap? The desire to harness this 24/7 advertising is a hot topic in the sign design world, and with little wonder why. Whether you're parked in your driveway, stopped at a red light, or cruising through town, everyone who walks, rides, or drives by is going to at look at your car and when they need your services they'll search specifically for your company. Our team works with you to customize the job to your messaging, and budget, with rates starting between $2000 and $3000. Tabulate your cost-per-impression and feel your marketing-loving heart beat faster!

How do I order a vehicle wrap?

When you order a vehicle wrap from Grand River Sign Design you'll sit down with us for an in-depth consultation on your concept, marketing-goals, and your design preferences to strategically produce a wrap that memorably and professionally represents your business. Oh, and makes your car look good. If you have a logo in vector/.ai file format we can incorporate that into the design easily – the formatting allows us to blow up and skew the image with superior resolution. If you don't have a logo we can design one for you, we've got you covered. You can pick from 3 designs we create based on your consultation and we will to work with the one you choose until it's just right. We want to help your business to grow.

Will a vehicle wrap damage my car?

Vehicle wraps are vehicle-friendly – you won't fear for your paint job during installation or removal. They are known to stay in great shape up to 5 years, but you can tear them off and re-wrap with a new design anytime. To keep your wrap in the best shape your car becomes hand-wash-only, but the benefits of the wrap far outweighs the convenience of a drive-thru car wash (so do the benefits of hand-washing). Really, the only downside to wraps is that you can't re-apply them to the vehicle once removed, although the balled up vinyl makes for an interesting conversation piece – ask our head cheese, John, he's got some in his office and it never fails to get people talking.

What kind of vehicles can be wrapped?

Almost anything! Order a vehicle wrap for your minivan, compact car, sedan, pick-up truck, trailer, even your boat. Is the vehicle type you want wrapped not in this list? Call us to find out how we can outfit your vehicle with a wrap. And why not go beyond the vehicle and consider wraps for walls and doors or outfit your man cave fridge and bar? We have a certified 3M specialist on staff to install your wrap almost anywhere to the highest standards and best practices.

When you're thinking about a banner or a sign for your business why not chat us up about vehicle wraps, too? We can customize your current advertising to suit your car, or design a fresh idea, to drum up new business while you're on a coffee run. It really is as easy as that. Call Grand River Sign Design at (519) 740-7272.

Debate over new Toronto ward boundaries delayed until October

Mayor John Tory pushes for more study on ward boundaries and for no new councillors at city hall.

Worst attic unit I've seen in a while

Newer Rheem/Ruud 2 stage furnace coil, horizontal left orientation. As soon as I put my head into the attic space, I saw many, many feet of single wall flue pipe. Condensate drain looks very flat, no pitch. I see the condensate pump recessed in the floor, sitting directly on the drywall, (thinking that's got to make a lot of noise). I crawl all the way up into this about 30" tall space.









Thinking where does this pump discharge at, must be the washer box, because it's directly above the laundry room. Nope, they drilled a hole into the plumbing vent and stuffed the other end of the twenty foot tube into the vent, pinched it too, left the other "extra" 17' laying in a nice roll/pile.





The emergency pan is not only sized incorrectly, but installed incorrectly, they reused the original pan that was bent from original install. The pan outlet is at least an inch higher than the low points. The secondary stays flat against the OSB, the whole way.





I'm sure they charged extra to change out the lineset.



More single wall flue in the attic, with a 3" elbow, on a 100k btu furnace.







I'm sure I forgot more.... I quoted a page and a half of repairs, and improvements. The coil is also leaking and scheduled for replacement.

Cigarette lighter intermittently cuts out

I have a 2001 Toyota Celica GT-S. The cigarette lighter that I only use to power various devices has started to intermittently not work. Judging by the power light on the plugs I put in it, I can jiggle it and the power light turns on and off. If I get it set in a good position to have the light on, it will go out when a bump in the road, or pulling on the cord re-positions it in the outlet to where it loses power again. The problem has been getting progressively worse to the point where it loses power a dozen times during my 20 minute work commute, and is the same regardless of the particular plug I put into it.



I'm guessing there is a loose power connection to the socket, but do not know how to remove it to check/tighten the connections. I've found several videos for other car lighters that disassemble differently. Can anyone guide me on how to get to the back of the socket to check the connections, or tell me if something else may be the problem? Thanks! ~Jim

Toronto trails Vancouver in regulating pot shops

Vancouver Councillor Kerry Jang says his city put public health at the centre of its new regulations, which limit locations for dispensaries.

No wonder

2" drain line plugged with straws , saw some plummets ripping this up on a remodel I'm involved at yhought id share , not our trade but worth chuckle





Sent from the van with a/c on

Double hung exterior doors

Hi All, I have a shed with double hung doors, I'll try to explain what's happening,the jambs are plumb the doors are plumb,bottom of right side door on both the jamb side and latch side seem to have swelled making the doors hard to close, both edges have what appears to be a piece of thin pine for weatherstripping,I have tried to plane it,it helped for awhile,but I need a better solution.

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low suction pressure

OK,85 degree day Ruud 3 ton split ,return filters clean ,I'm measuring 275 head psi,60 psi suction,line sweating, no frosting.I'm thinking airflow across evaporator but return filters are clean. Indoor temp 79 and has dropped in 2.5 hrs ANY IDEAS?.THANKS

Toronto's top bureaucrat tries to instill some budgeting reality: James

Residents of Canada's largest city can't continue to pay the lowest property tax rates while enjoying the highest service levels in the region.

Craftsmen air compressor

First off hello and thanks for letting me join the forums.



Ok my 30 gallon air compressor is right around 13-15 years old. It's a 150psi 2-6hp 30 gallon craftsmen air compressor. When I start it it runs for a couple seconds then blows the fuse in my shop. It has ran in there for a atleast 5 years. There is no extension cords and nothing else plugged in with it. I think I have the conductor out of it and it still does it.. Is this the conductor I need to replace or is there something else wrong with it.

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Simple pergola question

I've looked at a lot of pictures of pergolas. It seems to me a lot of pergolas without a consistent roof or fabric don't seem to work very well: vertical slats don't work when the sun is high, and they only work well when it is perpendicular to them. As such here is what I am thinking, but I wonder why I don't see this design used much? I would have the slats angled at 45 degrees.







So 4X4 posts, 2X8" joist probably, and 5/4 decking about half way notched in (as deep as a circular saw will get me).



Fabric won't save any money over this plus it blows around and decays. The benefit to the angled wood instead of laid flat like a deck is that I don't get additional snow weight on top of this (it will be on top of a deck). Also it gives the ideal angle against the sun when the sun is perpendicular to it and, finally, as the sun swings around at late day and sends its light parallel to the slats, they still offer substantial shade (though not complete).



Feel free to post thoughts on if this is awesome or terrible! Thanks!

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Lennox RTU Condenser fan is not running in stage 1 cooling.

I am Having an issue with a Lennox RTU M/N:LGH036H4ES1Y S/N:5610C03692.



The Condenser fan does not come on in stage 1 cooling so the unit trips out on high head pressure. The fan does kick on in stage 2 cooling. I tested the voltage when calling for stage 1 and it is all there. When i run stage 2 i have the same voltage but the fan will actually run. I cannot figure out what is holding that fan out in stage 1. i swapped the wires for stage 1 and 2 for now. So when i give the signal for stage 1 stage 2 kicks on so the fan runs. then if there is a need for a second stage my controls send the signal for stage 2 then stage 1 will kick on so the fan will stay running.



has anyone seen this issue

Contest to name Gardiner project relaunches after 'ballot box stuffing'

Waterfront Toronto is again asking people to vote online to name the $25-million Gardiner Expressway underpass transformation.

3 Unusual Lessons We Learned by Studying Over 16 million Posts (And 100,000 Brands) on Social Media

At Buffer, we love to see new stats and research about how to best share to social media and drive engagement. And as a brand on social media ourselves, we know just how challenging it can be to post engaging content across multiple channels.

To learn more about how brands are tackling social media in 2016, and importantly, to discover what's working, we decided to study what types of posts brands were sharing the most of on social media.

We examined over 100,000 accounts, which consisted of over 14 million tweets and two million Facebook updates to figure out how brands have been sharing to social media over the past 12 months.

Here's how it broke down…

How have brands been sharing to social media

Which social networks are brands posting to?

Facebook and Twitter are still leading the charge

After looking at over 16 million updates over 12 months, covering Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google +, Facebook and Twitter, we found that brands posted primarily to Facebook and Twitter. It makes sense seeing as both social networks have the largest active audiences of the group according to this study.

Here's the breakdown of percentages:

• 79.6% of updates were sent to Twitter


• 13.8% of updates were sent to Facebook


• 3.6% of updates were sent to Google +


• 2.3% of updates were sent to LinkedIn


• .5% of updates were sent to Pinterest

How many times are brands sharing per week

This data was super-interesting for us as we love to experiment with posting schedules frequencies. We found that brands posted to Twitter more than any other network – which feels about right considering the more real-time feel of Twitter.

I was a little surprised to see that Facebook is the only other network where brands post an average of once per day.

Which types of post are getting the most engagement

For this part of the study, we looked at how many engagements (clicks, likes, shares) each post a brand shares gets on average across Facebook and Twitter. We found that Facebook video appears to be leading the way here (by a considerable margin, too) and photos are still leading the way on Twitter.

It's interesting to see that links appear to be driving more engagement than photos on Facebook at the moment. It feels like this could be due to their visual nature, now when you post a link, a large image is displayed, as is meta data from the post, giving brands plenty of opportunities to grab user's attention as they scroll through their news feeds.

Here's an example:

A cool way to potentially further increase the success of links on Facebook could be to create specific headlines and descriptions for your post. Here at Buffer, we use a neat tool called Yoast to choose the image, title, and description that'll accompany a link when posted to Facebook:

Does Twitter have a noise problem?

Twitter have recently made similar adjustments with links pulling meta data into the timeline. Could this lead to a boost in Twitter link engagement? Maybe. But for now, it feels a little like Twitter has a noise problem, with images being one of the few ways to stand out in the timeline.

 How are brands posting to each network

Three http://pamelageller.com/2016/05/pame...to-allah.html/



It appears the election was rigged... for some reason a 'technical glitch' did not allow Jewish voters to vote... curious that...



It is just a matter of time... before the human rights the Magna Carta guaranteed to Englandeers... becomes a figment of memory in history.



Folks... this CAN happen in the USA...

The ONLY thing that will stop it...

Is getting involved in politics and being SURE it is stopped.



Hey Chase... you DO KNOW that Trump is the ONLY POTUS candidate that will not welcome this anti-Christian mess to the USA... :) You lady Hillary will sell out the country to this mess in a minute!

Toronto ban on hookah lounges challenged in court

A lawyer for the owners of four hookah lounges says the city had no power to ban the businesses.

Sealing a PVC joint

I have a 1" sprinkler system that has a difficult connection. I estimate that something like 1/8 to 1/4 inch of pipe is inside a 45 elbow joint. I have loaded it with pvc glue, but I would like to know if there is any kind of sealer or glue that could be placed at the intersection of the pipe and the elbow to give added strength. The system operates at about 100 psi and this joint is on the input side, thus under pressure all the time. Appreciate any advice.

No insulation,attic,or vent-Is my Window AC [6500 BTU] adequate for 160sq ft?

Hi!

I rent a small house [ca 750sq ft] & want to cool a 160sq ft Living Room,which I use for guitar lessons,so there is 1 or 2 other people present, about 3 hrs in a day, [betweeen 2p to 10p]



There is no insulation on the ceiling or roof,no attic, & no exhaust vent [& no Casablanca fan].



This Living Room is separated from the Kitchen by a curtain which extends all the way to the ceiling. The ceiling is high & slanted [average height of 9.75ft.]



My Window AC is a Frigidaire [LRA074AT7], 6,500 BTU, bought Oct,2011, EER : 10.7, [nominally for 250 sq ft application],$165.



Last summer it was really hot here in Pasadena,CA & this Frigidaire AC didn't seem to be at all adequate,but that may be because I didn't didn't realize that I needed run it long enough or early enough.



MY QUESTION: What size of AC do I need?

Or do I just need to run my current one long enough & early enough?



Is 1200-15000 BTU's too large to remove humidity properly?

Excavating a dirt crawlspace -- success!!

Hi, I'm new to this site. Just wanted to post about my recent experience with excavating a dirt crawlspace (about 40" clear) into a regular basement, about 900 s.f., and adding a bulkhead/Bilco door.



It wasn't a big deal and wasn't very expensive. The house is about 150 years old and just has a granite foundation. The central supports for the floor were pretty bug-eaten, although thankfully the floor above wasn't soft. (Dirt crawlspaces are, of course, terrible as far as pests and overall dampness.)



Our local building code allows you to excavate to place your finish floor no lower than the base of the foundation walls. In our case, that created a limit of 7' clear -- which is fine because at least you can stand up!!



First, they punched a hole in the foundation wall. Doing so under a narrow gable end meant very little weight coming down on the wall in that area. First it was a bit of shovel work, then they they were able to get a Bobcat in. They excavated down about 8', leaving the requisite 45 degree slopes up to the foundation walls. Put down perimeter corrugated drains and gravel, running back to a new airtight sump connected into the sewer. Put down new 1x2' center footings, and added strong lally columns to hold up the floor. Then a vapor barrier of dimple mat. Then a concrete slab was poured to just above the base of the perimeter foundation wall.



We were a little worried about the high water table. But it never appeared. So that was good.



Next, added an angle iron to the top of the opening, and finished it off, added a precast bulkhead, sealed it up against the house, put a Bilco door on there, and we were done.



Only $11k plus the cost of materials which was about $3k. So that wasn't too bad and it's an infinitely nicer setup, that can in fact be used as a real basement (and, thankfully, a bone dry one).



Anyhow I just wanted to post this because some people wrote in some other posts that this type of work had proven costly and/or troublesome. If you can just find an area of your foundation wall to punch through that's not bearing any significant load, I think you will find it's a pretty straightforward process. Just make everything utterly bombproof and I really don't think you'll regret it. Awfully nice to have that extra space.

Open drive/belt driven compressor

Looking for a 1hp compressor or close to that hp. Hoping to build a condensing unit with belt driven compressor. Need help locating one, preferably used, wanting to run 404a, small walk in cooler. Just a hobby project, have been commercial for 5 years and wanted to tinker with this.

Inside Buffer's New Blog Design (And a Behind-The-Scenes Look at Our Content Strategy)

It is our greatest marketing asset.

And we just keep changing it.

Kevan Lee, October 2015

And now things have changed again. We've flipped the switch, and our new design is here.

From where it started with Leo over five years ago to where it stands today, the Buffer Social blog has evolved a great deal over the years, and we're extremely grateful to have built up a great reputation and sizeable audience along the way.

The Buffer Social blog now attracts over 850,000 readers and averages over 1.1 million sessions per month. But it certainly didn't come easy, and it took some trial and error before we found a recipe that started to pay off.

The Google Analytics screenshot below, helps to illustrate our story:

Towards the end of 2015, we revealed that we'd lost nearly half of our social referral traffic. And the discussion around this post made us realise that if we want to continue growing, we need to see change as a necessity. We need to continue to push ourselves and figure out how to keep reinventing ourselves to stay ahead of the curve. 

This new design is our latest experiment and in this post, I'm excited to go into detail about different sections of the new blog design and share some of the thinking behind our content strategy.

Let's jump in!

What's changed

Here are some of the new elements to look out for:

Homepage Discover Block

We have over 900 posts on the Social blog, and next to a visual refresh, the main goal of this redesign was making content more discoverable. We felt that a lot of the great stuff we've published in the past can get a little lost and that we need to signpost better where particular types of content can be found.

A brainstorm during the retreat gave us the idea to approach the social blog as a toolbox. A reference blog and knowledge hub. And the Discover block at the top of the homepage is aimed to make it as easy as possible to find what you're looking for when you come to the blog.

You can use the search bar to discover content based on keywords you're interested in learning about, for example, “Twitter Marketing” and you can also click on any of the categories below the search bar. Popular categories have also been added to the bottom of the homepage to make it easier to discover content about your favorite topics too:

Two-column layout

Under the Discover block, we've transitioned from a one-column layout to two columns, highlighting more than just the latest piece of content and guiding you through our latest articles on subjects like social media marketing, design, and the latest news and trends.

Adaptable content: Toolbox and Magazine articles

As we thought about the various blogs we have here at Buffer (Social, Open, and Overflow), we realised that they served very different purposes, and a one-size-fits-all post style may not work across the board. Sometimes our content has an editorial flavour, and sometimes it has more of an educational angle. The new design allows us to tell stories more effectively with the help of a couple of article formats.

Toolbox articles

Toolbox articles will mainly be used here on the Social blog. They're geared up to support our social media marketing and content tips articles.

Magazine articles

Magazine articles have an immersive heading with a full-width photo as the background and will mainly be used on the Open and Overflow blogs, as well as on any more editorial-lead posts here on the Social blog.

Behind our content strategy

In October 2015, we shared our marketing manifesto, and we've now evolved a section of the manifesto into our Editorial Mission Statement:

“Treat every piece of content with the utmost care. Every single piece of content is the only one that matters.

Every single piece, we have to feel like “this is going to be the one.” Not all in the same way, but all in their own unique way of redefining excellence for their own area. And then, only some of them will be the true breakout hits and most of them won't. But that'll be the only way for us to truly create a space of excellence.”

– Buffer Editorial Mission Statement

This mission statement will serve as a constant reminder to be vulnerable and create content that we truly believe will stand out and attract everyone's attention. It's also a promise to every reader of the blog, whenever you visit us here, you'll know that we've put everything into the post you're reading.

The five questions that shape our strategy

In a previous post we discussed the five ways that a blog can change and grow (though there are probably more) and our content strategy is largely based on answering these five questions:

1. Topic: What will we write about?


2. Audience: Whom will we write to?


3. Style: What types of content will we publish?


4. Depth: What level of depth will we approach a topic?


5. Behind-the-Scenes: How will we organize ourselves to get the work done?

Below, I'd love to guide you through how we're currently approaching these challenges.

1. Topics

On the Buffer Social blog, we strive to deliver content that helps readers solve a problem or challenge they face in their everyday work environment. This can come in many forms: sometimes it'll be a “how-to” guide on using the latest social media tools, other times it could be a list of great blogs or marketers to follow.

We tend to break down the topics we cover into four types of posts:

1. Definitions – Here's what this means


2. Tools – Here're the tools you can use


3. Workflows – Here's how to get it done


4. Future – Here's where it's headed

How we find topics to write about

Keeping a pipeline of posts we feel can break through the noise and stand out can be quite a challenge. Kevan has covered our idea curation process in detail before, but I'd love to share quickly how we keep our editorial Trello board full off (hopefully) great ideas to write about.

1. Looking at our data: Google Analytics can be a great tool for content ideas, I love to keep tabs on which posts and topics are performing well. For example, posts on social media images and design have performed well for us recently, so this feels like a great topic to write about some more.


2. Taking inspiration from others: What are certain people in our niche talking about? What are people sharing and writing? Outside sources are a huge inspiration for us. We come across articles that we love and want to dive even deeper into. We find headlines that grab us, and we repurpose them for other topics.


3. We save every idea: I have tons of notes on my phone, scribbled down in notepads and saved in our Trello board. Sometimes, all it takes is a phrase, link or few keywords to get us started on a topic.


4. Listening: An incredibly valuable source of inspiration is you, the reader. We listen to blog comments and to conversations on Twitter to see what you'd like to learn more about.


5. Sharing our experiences: Sometimes, the most relatable posts we publish are the ones where we share our experiences and challenges.

2. Audience

As Buffer continues to grow and evolve, so does our audience. We've not been too persona focused thus far on the blog, but it feels like our audience has changed a little over the past 6-12 months.

A while ago we shared a breakdown of who we felt our current and future readers may be:

It now feels like we're learning towards the 'future' vision of who we're writing for. During the coming months, I'd love to spend some more time on customer research for the blog to identify who our readers are and what content they're particularly excited for.

3. Style

We feel that a blog post should be as long as it needs to be. For us, this tends to be ~1,500-2,000 words per post. But we use the word count as a target, more than a restraint. If a post is 1,200 words and filled with great content, excellent, let's not expand on it just to fill a word count quota. Likewise, if a post is 3,000 or more words and fully covers an in-depth topic, that's great too.

We like to go into detail and give customers everything they need in one place. We include details on functionality, how things work and how to implement any ideas or strategies we discuss in the post. We love for our readers to be able to read and post and instantly know how to use what they've learned to benefit their business.

This is the recipe that has been proven to work for us. But we need to continue to experiment and try new types of content to push on and continue to grow the blog.

Over recent months, we've experimented more with news and trends, alongside our more traditional in-depth pieces on social media marketing and had a few spikes off success:

• A post on Twitter Polls (published the day after they launched), grew our search traffic by 25% – from 26.5k sessions/day to 33.5k/day. This spike lasted for a couple of weeks and got us super excited for the potential of timely, actionable content.


• We published a series of posts focused on Facebook's F8 conference during the week of the event and brought in around 60,000 visits to these posts.

Our news experiment has provided us with some great learnings and intuition about which topics and trends we should jump on and write about as soon as they break.

Some areas I feel we could do more with include:

• Video


• Short-form / snackable content


• Opinion and thought leadership

There's always a bit of unease and discomfort in trying something a little out of the ordinary when you have a recipe that you know can work. But we're excited to continue trying new things.

Talking point: I'd love to hear what you'd like to see more of from Buffer? Please let us know in the comments below this post.

4. Depth

After over five years of writing about social media, you'd have thought we might have covered every topic in as much depth as possible. But the great opportunity with depth is that social media continues to evolve as does our perspective on social media and marketing.

We're seeing many of the established social platforms switch from organic to paid networks. We are continually having to learn new things and test new techniques. Everything changes, constantly. First, it works, and then it doesn't.

We have a lot still to explore when it comes to depth. Maybe we need to expand beyond our blog posts; create more downloadable guides, more videos, more courses.

What would you like to see from Buffer? Let us know in the comments