Social media isn't just for students anymore. Some schools are utilizing Facebook, Twitter and blogs to keep in touch with parents, community members and alumni. Since it is easier to reach these constituents where they are instead of getting them to visit the school websites.

"It's what the kids and parents are at home with, and it's really important to be able to meet them where they are," says Marlene Nesary, a spokeswoman International Society for Technology in Education, an Eugene, OR based nonprofit group that supports the use of information technology in learning.

Schools are realizing that the simplicity of social media status updates and opening up two-way communication are real and relationship-building benefits that social media platforms provide.

"If you can read a blog and can see pictures and watch video clips, all of a sudden you have some insight into what's going on," says Adrian Murphy the teacher at Green Acres in Rockville, MD that is responsible for the school's new blog. "You've been invited to the conversation, and you can participate on your time."

Reading a blog about interesting goings-on with the students and school can take as little as a minute or two, but getting parents to visit the school for a parent-teacher conference is very time-consuming. The instant and always-on nature of social media enables better, more consistent communication while preserving the precious commodity of time.

Its been an interesting week in Twitterland with Ashton Kutcher, @aplusk, challenging CNNBrk, @cnnbrk, to a race to 1 million Twitter followers. Kutcher revealed his challenge via this YouTube video where he promised to “ding dong ditch” Ted Turner’s house in Atlanta where he’s filming a movie, if Kutcher beats CNN to the punch.  At the time of the taunt, @aplusk had 842,550 followers, give or take a ... Continue Reading

We really feel the love from many Twitter users, with whom we’ve shared some “tweet” reparte.  Thanks to these and many others: @mashable (thanks for the article), @scobleizer (thanks for crashing us), @josh (the first to write about Namechk at C|NET), @zaibatsu, @pitchengine, @Orli, @weblaunches, @guruvan, @Djchyk, @wendytimmons, @autismfamily, @upicks and @CharissaCowart.  And so, so, so many more!!!

Our goal, first and foremost, ... Continue Reading

We took the opportunity to launch an official press release about yesterday’s launch of Namechk.  The release has received a lot of impressions in the last 12 hours which is exciting.

Excerpts from the press release are below. Read the full release at PRWeb.

Like a vanity domain name, establishing a personal or corporate brand via a strong social media presence or vanity URL makes it easier to be found ... Continue Reading

Acknowledging today’s official launch of Namechk, the web’s newest social media username checking service, Go2web20 added the service to its directory.

Go2web20 is one of the largest web 2.0 directories, indexing over 2,700 services. It’s aim to is help people stay current with the new web services. The company constantly updates it directory, keep only active sites listed for its users.

Our appreciation to Orli Yakuel, founder of Go2web20, ... Continue Reading

Namechk’s speedy response time was highlighted in a CNET article written today by Josh Lowensohn, associate editor for CNET’s Webware.com blog:

“What’s really impressive about this service is the speed. In a few sample searches, it averaged about 8 seconds from start to finish. And you don’t even have to wait to see all the results because they stream in as it does its business.”

Thanks for the shout out, ... Continue Reading

Welcome to the newly launched namechk.com website. We decided to launch it April 1, 2009 just for fun. We will definitely be adding additional features to the username look-up service over time, but we knew that a lot of users were looking for an application like this and that a better option was needed in the space.

Please feel free to send us your comments, suggestions and any bugs you ... Continue Reading

We think it is important to brand yourself or your company consistently across the major social network websites. That means getting the same username identity/URL as often as possible. It makes it easier for others to find you, but it also builds a cohesive marketing strategy that eventually does make it into the main search engines.  It also keeps others from tapping into your success and brand jacking your efforts ... Continue Reading

In a recent article by TechCrunch, Michael Arrington discusses the rising importance of vanity URLs at the major social media network websites. To date, Facebook has not made vanity URLs available to their entire member base, only to key celebrities type users rumored to have over 5,000 or more fans. If you are connected or popular enough, Facebook has begun to issue vanity URLs to specific bands, brands or ... Continue Reading

Social networking is the fastest growing trend online right now. Staking your claim on the web requires setting up your user account at multiple social sites before someone else registers your desired vanity user name. It is important to know what username is still available at all the top sites before you start the process and that is why we setup namechk.com. You type in the desired vanity user name ... Continue Reading

• Home
• Blog
• About
• Connect on Facebook
• Follow us on Twitter

• Give Life to Your Social Media Accounts After Your Death
• Username Verification Site Namechk Celebrates Its First Birthday
• Your Personal Brand: Define, Network, Maintain & Evolve Your Best Self with Social Media
• Schools Begin Using Social Media to Keep In Touch
• The race for followers and the importance of maintaining your brand’s identity