Electrical and gas fail

Romex through the right side of furnace, out the left side, then back in with no Romex connectors. And the gas flex through the cabinet is awesome!!!

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Mayor John Tory? Meet Mayor Boris Johnson

Toronto and London mayors talk about Rob Ford, Uber and Bixi bikes.

We’ve Lost Nearly Half Our Social Referral Traffic in the Last 12 Months

This is a little tough to admit.

I’ve been failing at social media marketing.

It feels weird admitting this, too: We as a Buffer marketing team—working on a product that helps people succeed on social media—have yet to figure out how to get things working on Facebook (especially), Twitter, Pinterest, and more.

And that’s super scary to admit.

What’s happening? I wish I knew! We’ve got lots of theories as to what’s behind our decline, and we’re in the midst of new experiments to see if we can move the needle on social media. Moreso I have some thoughts on what’s at play here for Buffer on social media—and maybe for you, too.

We’ve lost nearly half our social referral traffic in the last year

Yep, you read that right!

Almost half as many people find our blog from social media as last year at this same time. 

Twitter is down 43 percent.

Facebook is down 53 percent.

LinkedIn is down 45 percent.

Google+ is down 72 percent.

Here’s the overall traffic graph for social referral traffic, with the orange line representing last October and the blue line representing this October. For 29 of the 30 days in the period, last year outperformed this year — and often waaaay outperformed!

All told, we’ve lost nearly 100,000 people who no longer get to the Buffer blog from social media.

What happened?

My best guesses at what’s going on here

I don’t have the answer for what’s gone wrong. I wish I did!

I’ve run through so many different scenarios about what could be at play here.

Maybe we need to hire a full-time social media manager to really devote some time and energy to doing great work on social media. (I often fail to prioritize social media sharing and treat it as an afterthought, which is no good at all.)

Maybe I’m no good at social media marketing. (Impostor syndrome to the max!)

Maybe our sharing ratio is off: Too much  content, not enough conversation.

Maybe everyone else is failing, too! (I sure hope not.)

Maybe we need to post more often.

Maybe we need to post less often.

Maybe, maybe, maybe …

It’s quite the spiral!

A pretty significant change we’ve made to our social media sharing is a move away from the productivity and lifehacking content that did so well on social media in the past (articles like The Origin of the 8-Hour Workday and Ways to Be Happier). We now share mostly social media tips and strategies, which are great and helpful but maybe not quite as virally shareable.

The one area that seems to stick out most in my mind is that maybe social media itself is changing and I’ve simply not yet figured out how. Could be, right? Technology changes so fast and social media changes even faster, with new networks popping up constantly and new strategies being discovered daily. I’ve noticed that the best practices we share and research studies we report on for many of our Buffer blog posts can be old news almost by the time we dig them up.

And if it’s true that social media is changing, my hunch is that the center of these changes lies one thing we tend to create a lot of here at Buffer: content.

The content crush and what social media is doing about it

There is just so much content out there now.

Consider the hundreds of thousands of quality blog posts that are published daily (on WordPress sites alone last year, the daily average was 1.5 million new posts). Then add in all the multimedia content: photos, videos, GIFs, and graphics to support the original posts.

And then add all the user-generated content as well. Status updates and personal pictures shared to social networks sit right alongside Buffer blog posts and BuzzFeed articles in your timeline.

It leads to scenarios like this:

Every time someone visits the Facebook News Feed there are on average 1,500 potential stories from friends, people they follow and Pages for them to see.

And this stat is over two years old. Imagine how things have grown since!

Mark Schaefer of the {grow} blog has called this content shock, the idea that we’ve passed the point where content consumption has peaked and content creation has continued taking off.

And it seems we’re feeling this so acutely on social media now.

This crush of content eventually leads all social networks to a huge decision:

Should the feed be filtered with an algorithm?

Facebook arrived at this point years ago and has been fine-tuning its algorithm ever since. This Time article has a great way of explaining the algorithm:

automated software that tracks each user’s actions to serve them the posts they’re most likely to engage with

In essence, Facebook is guessing—highly sophisticated, very educated guessing—about what you’ll like.

And they’re guessing because they have to. They’ve found it to be a really tough user experience when people log on to see what’s happening with their friends and end up sifting through dozens of page posts to see the ones they most care about. Likewise with those who just want to see what their favorite brands and personalities are up to.

Facebook reached the point where it simply couldn’t show you everything.

Other social networks are getting there, too (if they haven’t already).

What this means for the future of social media marketing

Whether it’s a highly-filtered feed with an algorithm at its core or an overflowing feed full of anything and everything, it’s getting harder and harder for traditional social media marketing to keep a foothold with its audience.

And rather than blame the algorithms for my poor performance on social, I think a better way of thinking about it is this:

I’m failing on social media because I’m failing to adapt as fast as the social network themselves are adapting.

I see a couple roads forward:

1. Pay for more reach on social media.
2. Get better at connecting with your audience.

The first one sounds easy—costly, but easy.

The second one feels enormously difficult—free, but hard.

1. Pay for reach

You can improve your reach right this minute with just a few dollars. For $5, we reached 787 more people on Facebook—less than a penny a person!

Reach seems easy.

And that’s often the road that many marketers will take by default. If organic reach is down, then paid reach can help fill it back up again.

By the same token, there’s so much more at play here. Paid ad professionals are worth every dollar they earn because doing paid ads well—advertising to people who aren’t expecting you, and getting a positive reply—is so tough.

Watching our steady decline of social traffic to the Buffer blog, I’d prefer to get more engagement along with more reach on a Facebook or Twitter ad. I’d love for people to not only see our post but also to click on it and to engage with us.

So my option becomes learning how to do social media ads really well—messaging, tactics, technical, everything.

2. Get better at connecting with your audience

These are a couple of my dreams:

What if we had a Twitter feed so compelling that people wouldn’t just hope our tweets showed up in their timeline but they would go directly to twitter.com/buffer all day every day to see absolutely everything we tweeted?

What if we had a Facebook page that felt so uniquely valuable, personal, and intimate that our posts arrived in the News Feed as frequently as birthdays and baby announcements?

I truly believe it can happen.

(And I truly don’t know if I’m the right person to make it so!)

There are examples of pages and brands who are succeeding on social media without needing a paid boost. How? Why? Where? I feel like I’m watching a magic show, and I’m so inspired and stupefied at how it all happens.

But it does happen.

Brain Pickings has over 3 million likes to its page.

Gary Vaynerchuk gets over 7,000 views per video.

I believe there is a way to get organic reach on social media, and as soon as I figure out how I will race to share it with you.

We’ve seen it in fits and starts with some of the strategies we try. We’re going to keep trying more and more (paid ads included). Here’s a plan.

What we’re going to try

Everything is on the table for us at this stage to try. We’re hiring a full-time social media manager, which we feel will make a huge difference. In addition, these are a few actionable tips we’re looking to implement:

1. Make it easy for people to share our content

This involves showing share buttons to both desktop and mobile visitors (HT: Sumome plugin for the mobile buttons). We’re also looking at adding “Click to Tweet” quotes in new articles.

2. Design beautiful, shareable visuals

Have you seen the social media share numbers on the Canva blog? They’re knocking it out of the park!  This one, for example, has been pinned 26,000 times!

Seems like we could make a lot of headway on getting our articles share-ready for social media by asking for some design help from the Buffer design team. I may have maxed out my design skills!

3. Share just to share

This is kind of a weird one. Whenever I look through the stats of some of our top users at Buffer, I notice that so many of their great social media updates are simply photos and text. No links. No cta or purpose other than to connect with their audience.

In the short term, this won’t do much to change the social media referral traffic (we won’t be getting any traffic from non-link updates). But maybe it’ll be enough to support the community and build a more engaged audience over time?

What are you trying?

Does this decline in social media engagement resonate with you at all?

What are you currently up to on social media? What’s working? What’s not?

It’d be amazing to have the chance to learn from you here. Feel free to leave any thoughts at all in the comments below, and I’d love to jump in and join the conversation!

Image sources: Pablo, IconFinder, Unsplash, {grow}

The post We’ve Lost Nearly Half Our Social Referral Traffic in the Last 12 Months appeared first on Social.

Drip for water heater extra feed vent means replacing boiler system?

I recently moved into my house and through the summer there were no issues. Now that the heat has been turning on, I noticed there is water coming from the extra feed vent on the water heater. Both are gas powered and the boiler (Hydrotherm 125k BTU and 30+ years old) is connected to the water heater.

Had a plumber out who said a backflow and expansion tank needs to be added to the water heater. The boiler already has an expansion tank. The cost for this is 500 and I have already spend 200 changing the feed vent.

He was pushing a Navien tankless water heater boiler combo to replace the existing units at a cost of $6k. I've noticed that once the boiler comes to 180 it starts to cycle very frequently so clearly its not very efficient and can expect that to become worse as the cold gets worse.

Given my options not sure what is best to do to maximize where I spend.
Just spend the 500 for expansion tank, backflow and risk the heater continues to function as a hog.
Spend 6k and install a tankless combo.
Any thoughts greatly appreciated from a confused homeowner.

Weil Mclain popping noise

I recently went on a no heat service call on a Weil Mclain hydronic heat system. It is an older system and the thermocouple was bad. Replacing that got the system working, but the homeowner also said it pops a lot. I am not real familiar with these systems so I am looking for a little guidance. The systems pressure looks good. The area I am in has hard water. Also I could only find one bleeder valve on the system and it has three zones, two on main floor and one in the basement. does this sound like an issue of buildup in the system? If so any recommendations on how to treat?

Check out most experienced Furnace Installation Kitchener Waterloo Technicians https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMxVtly89hc

http://www.aircorheatingandairconditioning.com

Call us 519-220-0701

Furnace Repair in Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge

Expert & Professional Heating Advice for Homeowners in Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge.

With the frigid winters and sizzling hot summers yearly, nothing affects the contentment of people moving into Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge, Ontario areas greater than a disturbance within the Heating and Cooling systems.

The sad thing is the fact that unless the heater fails to work in the heart of a blizzard or ones air-conditioner breaks down in the midst of a heat wave, many people completely ignore their heating unit, air-conditioning or in other words their heating and cooling system.

Whenever they usually are not kept in great shape, these systems become extremely costly to homeowners. The costs will primarily be determined by the type of Cooling and Heating system utilized in a home, along with the environment in and around the Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge areas.

Clogged filters, sooty flues, non functional thermostats, unlubricated fan motors and leaky ductwork can end up minimizing the efficiency of your Heating and Cooling unit by as much as 25%.

A few of these maintenance procedures are quite easy while some must be performed by a professional technician.

For very old systems, HVAC companies need to be hired to render their time tested skills.

Below are a few fantastic tips that one should consider when coping with HVAC units.

Routine Checking of the mechanical parts.

Most people often believe that working with heating and cooling systems is definitely a complex task.

However, this may not be the truth as many of them simply need a little attention. As an illustration, a heat pump only needs annual servicing by way of a technician.

He will likely look at the filters and belt, and replace them if you need to. The technician should also inspect the wiring and oil the moving parts.  

With experienced technicians, furnace repair in Kitchener, ON really shoud be a super easy task. The gas-fired, forced air heating unit also has a few simple requirements to function at full capacity and with the greatest efficiency.

The furnace filters need to be changed after a couple of months throughout the heating season. The circulating fan ought to be oiled on a yearly basis. The technician should then be called to alter the burner, confirm the heat exchanger, and also the flue and ducts once every 12 months.

Other typical units such as the oil-fired boiler require regular annual maintenance in terms of flue cleaning, adjustment and cleaning within the jet, and fuel-filter change simply to mention a few components. Such effort are really best handled by a esteemed professional.

In relation to air-conditioning units, maintenance is not as intensive as those performed on heating systems. At the end of such a cooling season, filters must be cleaned or replaced, the system vacuumed, along with the motor lubricated. When the unit is not cooling properly, a tech ought to be called to evaluate the correc level of the refrigerant.

It is advisable for homeowners to arrange for servicing ahead of the heating or cooling season beginning. It is because they will get better attention and will also be more flexible when scheduling to have an appointment.

Furthermore, it can be important to be aware of when searching for a company that maintains such systems in Canada, one should be happy with a contractor that designs, installs and services the mechanics used in the house.

The full-service company will likely be up-to-date in relation to the most up-to-date advancements for sale in the area.

used up until here in HM description!!



Homeowners should check if perhaps the company features a workers’ compensation plan along with a coverage plan. Together with these, they ought to also consult with neighbors to have in mind the nature of work with the maintenance company.

A quality supplier will usually have an unexpected emergency number which is reachable all hours through the day and night, all week, and adequate technicians which will respond even if your weather is horrible and the calls have piled up.

Choosing a whole new heating unit.

An average HVAC system posseses an understood average lifespan of between 15 and two decades.

People which might be old systems which have been used for over 2 decades, should have their own equipment assessed.

Just as much as replacing an HVAC system could be a costly affair, modern systems run considerably more efficiently and offer impressive services. Most contractors working with HVAC, have committed to installing and designing the systems. It thus remains necessary to watch out for a trusted service-oriented and knowledgeable contractor in Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge.

This search can begin with family, friends and neighbors, asking which companies replaced their Cooling and Heating system. Whenever they were pleased with their installation, the homeowner may now call the contractor to approach him about the heating and cooling situation that is happening in his home.

The homeowner must also ensure that she hires a business that installs products from at the least two manufactures.

When scouting for a specialist, homeowners absolutely need to keep in mind that skill and experience is fundamental in order to size an HVAC unit by matching it with a house and existing ducting.

Poor design makes a system that won't provide a constant temperature in the rooms and ends up costing more when operating.

In other instances, the problem could be much more serious, poor design in very tight houses that are with duct work my cause backdrafting. This can be a very dangerous situation whereby the flue gases get sucked into the home.

Heat-loss calculation.

Contractors should offer heat-loss calculation, a process utilized to estimate the Btu capacity needed to heat or cool a house. The calculation includes the type and volume of insulation in walls, floors and attic and placement of windows and doors in the home.

Your data will be combined with the regional weather conditions of Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge or anywhere in Ontario to discover the size and configuration of the unit required.

Various software made vid not too difficult calculation. Technicians who don't perform this often wind up specifying oversize equipment which will make the homeowner incur unnecessary costs.


Take a Look At Furnace Repairs in Kitchener Waterloo video in following link:
https://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata&v=c_EoBnlGvqQ

Energy advice from a specialist.

Throughout the sizing of your HVAC unit, a specialist will advise the homeowner concerning the various energy upgrades he can invest in like adding a different layer of insulation around the attic.  

Such advice will allow him to buy a smaller system.

For all our HVAC Contractors Kitchener Waterloo click below;https://goo.gl/nZ9PKl

Hello. See the Best Furnace Maintenance Kitchener Ontario Professionals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hSg-FqZg2Y

http://aircor.ca

Ph (519)220-0701

Heating Contractor in Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge

Expert & Professional Heating Advice for New Home Owners in Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge.

Combining the frigid winters and baking hot summers each year, nothing affects the comfort of individuals moving into Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge, Ontario areas greater than a problem in the Heating and Cooling units.

The sad thing is that unless the heater fails to work during a blizzard or even the air-conditioner stops working during a heat wave, many people completely ignore their heating unit, AC or in other words their heating and cooling system.

If they are not kept in good shape, HVAC systems become extremely expensive to residential owners. The costs will primarily rely on the sort of Heating & Cooling system found in a home, and the environment in the Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge areas.

Dirty filters, sooty flues, non functional thermostats, unlubricated fan motors and leaky ductwork can wind up minimizing the efficiency of a Heating and Cooling unit by as much as 25%.

Many of these maintenance practices are very easy although some must be achieved by a trained technician.

For older systems, HVAC contactors have to be hired to render their professional services.

Below are a few great tips that certain should know while coping with HVAC systems.

Routine Maintenance of the mechanical parts.

Many people tend to feel that managing these units is a very complex task.

However, it isn't really the situation as some of them really only need a small amount of attention. As an illustration, a heat pump only needs annual servicing by the technician.

He will most likely check out the filters and belt, and replace them if need be. The technician also needs to inspect the electrical components and oil the mechanical parts.  

With experienced specialists, furnace repair in Kitchener, Ontario should be a quite simple task. The gas-fired, forced air heating unit also has a few simple requirements to function at full capacity and with the greatest efficiency.

The furnace filters must be changed from a few weeks within the heating season. The circulating fan should be oiled on an annual basis. The technician should then be contacted to alter the burner, look into the heat exchanger, and also the flue and ducts once each year.

Other technologies including the oil-fired boiler need regular annual maintenance with regards to flue cleaning, adjustment and cleaning of the jet, and fuel-filter change only to mention a few components. Such tasks are best handled by a trained professional.

With regards to cooling units, maintenance seriously isn't intensive as those carried out on heating systems. In the end of the cooling season, the filters must be cleaned or replaced, the device vacuumed, along with the motor lubricated. When these systems are not cooling properly, a tech must be called to check on the correc level of the refrigerant.

It is best for homeowners to rearrange for servicing prior to heating or cooling season beginning. The reason being they will get better attention and are more flexible when scheduling to have an appointment.

Furthermore, it's important to make note of when you are evaluating an organization that maintains such systems in Canada, one should be satisfied with a specialist that designs, installs and services the system being utilized in the house.

A full-service agency will be up-to-date with regards to the most recent advancements available in the area.

used up until here in HM description!!



Homeowners should check if the company carries a workers’ compensation plan and a liability insurance plan. Together with these, they ought to also consult with neighbors to know the nature of work from the maintenance company.

An excellent supplier will usually have an urgent situation number that is reachable all hours during the day and night, all week, and adequate technicians who'll respond even if your climate is horrible and the calls have accumulated.

Choosing a fresh heating unit.

An average Heating system has an understood average lifespan which can be between 15 and over 20 years.

People which may be old systems which have been used for longer than twenty years, might need to their very own equipment assessed.

As much as replacing an HVAC system might be a costly affair, modern systems run considerably more efficiently and still provide impressive services. Most contractors working with HVAC, have specialized in installing and designing the systems. It thus remains necessary to look for a professional-oriented and knowledgeable contractor in Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge.

This search can begin with family, friends and neighbors, asking which companies replaced their Furnace Heating system. If they were delighted by their installation, the homeowner may now call the contractor to speak to him concerning the hvac situation in their home.

The homeowner should also make sure that she hires a company that installs products from a minimum of two manufactures.

In choosing a contractor, home owners should keep in mind that skill and experience is prime so that you can size an HVAC unit by matching it to some house and existing ducting.

Poor design produces a system that will not give a constant temperature in all the rooms and incurs more costs more when operating.

In other instances, the problem can be much more serious, poor design in very tight houses which might be using duct work my lead to backdrafting. It is a very dangerous situation whereby the flue gases end up getting sucked back into the home.

Heat-loss calculation.

Contractors should offer heat-loss calculation, a process utilized to estimate the Btu capacity required to heat or cool a house. The calculation includes the type and quantity of insulation in the walls, floors and attic and placement of windows and doors in the residence.

The info may then be combined together with the regional climatic conditions of Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge or anywhere in Ontario to discover the size of the unit required.

Various software are making this a not too difficult calculation. Technicians who don't perform this often find yourself specifying oversize equipment which make the homeowner incur unnecessary costs.


Take a Look At Furnace Repairs in Kitchener Waterloo video in following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=c_EoBnlGvqQ

Energy advice from a professional.

In the sizing of the HVAC unit, an authority will advise the homeowner about the various energy upgrades she is able to invest in including adding yet another layer of insulation surrounding the attic.

Such advice will allow him or her to buy a smaller unit.

For all our HVAC Contractors Kitchener Waterloo click below;https://goo.gl/nZ9PKl