I love Facebook, for many reasons. One is that it helps me keep track of friend’s birthdays and other events. But after the last Facebook update, the Events & Birthdays box has been moved to the bottom of the right-hand column, and as a result I’ve been missing some events I would like to have participated in or contributed to.
Well, thanks to Wezz, there’s a solution. You can move the Events box to the top of the column in three easy steps:
1) You need to be using Firefox. If you don’t have it, you can get it at Mozilla.com.
2) Next, you’ll need the Greasemonkey plugin for Firefox. Using Firefox, click here to install the Greasemonkey plugin.
3) Install Wezz’s awseome Event Fix script. Again using Firefox, click here to install Wezz’s Facebook Event Fix script.
REVISED June 4, 2009
Facebook seems to have made an invisible change to their page layout. While most people did not notice, folks using the above script were disappointed to learn that their Events box was back at the bottom. Hence, this fix …
4) Once installed, there will be a small Monkey icon at the bottom right of your Firefox window. Right-click it and select “Manage User Scripts”. The “Manage User Scripts” window opens.
5) In the “Manage User Scripts” window, highlight “Facebook Event Fix” (top left) and click the “Edit” button (bottom left). Though it’s a little tough to read, the script code opens.
5a) If you’ve never edited a Javascript file before, you may be prompted to find an editor for that file type. “Notepad” is a good choice. Turn on Word Wrap too.
6) Look for a piece that reads
'UIHomeBox'
Change this to read
'UIHomeBox UITitledBox'
Capitalization and spacing matter.
7) Save the file. This should do the trick … till Facebook changes something again.
It started with a message from my old Youth Group Director to my brother. “Hey, I’ll be in your area soon. How about dinner?” My brother said “Sure!”
Then Facebook happened. The word spread like wildfire. The director was well known, and in very short order a collection of 30-40 people were possible attendees at what shaped up to be an impromptu reunion of sorts. The result was that 22 old and dear friends gathered for the first time in (a well overdue) 30 years and a good time was had by all.
Much of the credit goes to my brother and the director for seizing the opportunity. But this could not have happened without everyone’s participation on Facebook. Our initial “investment” in the time to reach out to old friends opened a window of opportunity. That window would not have been there and the reunion would not have occurred if we were not already in touch with each other. Do you business folks see a parallel here?
Status? Social Net Working.
If you are into Social Networking, you know that you have to give in order to receive. If you put up a Facebook page and never reach out with it, plan on being a Wall Flower; no one will pay attention to you. On the other hand, if you are in the habit of regularly sharing a new post, status, story, etc., you are more likely to be closer to the center of action and people are more likely to interact with you. Sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn (and perhaps hundreds of others) are Social networks folks, and to make them work for you, you need to socialize.
Businesses in particular are rapidly taking advantage of Social Networks to keep their face in front of what they consider to be a pool of potential customers. From their standpoint, the more the merrier, and it makes a good case for signing up for as many Social Networks as possible. The downside is that the more Social Networks you sign up for, the more you need to tend to.
One of the most common ways to participate in Social Networks (and to keep yourself in front of people) is to update your Status regularly. A Status is generally a one-line description which answers the simple question “what’s up?” A status might be “Writing my next Blog entry”, “Looking forward to the weekend”, or “Mention my status and get 20% off a website ranking analysis” (What’s up with that? I already offer that to selected businesses for free!).
Update many, update often
That’s all well and good, but there are tens (perhaps hundreds) of Social Networking sites out there. How do you keep up your appearance on ALL of them? There must be a better way. And there is.
PING.FM is a super-site of sorts. You sign up once and teach it about any of the thirty or more sites it knows about. You update your status once with PING.FM, and it in turn updates all your favorite SN sites. They accept updates via their web interface, SMS (mobile phone/text), Instant Message and a host of other plugins and apps.
If you’re on a lot of Social sites and update often, PING.FM can be a real time saver.
Social Network sites supported by PING.FM
