If someone were to ask me “Which tool do you wish you had known about at the beginning of the Internet?” it wouldn’t be that difficult to answer. It would almost certainly be NameChk.
NameChk does pretty much one thing. You put in a username, and it checks a very large group of social media sites to see if it’s available or taken. If your library is trying to standardize its presence across many online channels, it should definitely have the same username across the Internet, whenever possible. It makes your library easier to find in searches, as well as adding to its credibility.
What does this mean to me, Laura?
- Claim your library’s brand. Even if your library isn’t planning to start pinning any time soon, it should claim its space on Pinterest. Same goes for any other social media channel that is reasonably popular. It protects your library from the nightmare of having someone else brandjack the username and start posting things, posing as the library. Or, even if the person isn’t pretending to be the library when they post, they could be posting anything…and think about that anything showing up in searches for the library’s name.
- NameChk adds new services periodically. So, if you haven’t checked in a while, it might be worth another look.
- Here’s a screenshot, to give you a clearer idea:
