Visual Tour: New Facebook Page Redesign

Facebook pages have been rumored to be the new websites of today. But the new Facebook Page upgrade corrects it. Because Facebook’s new page layout has adapted the new personal account layout – 3 columns, no tabs, it feels more like Facebook again. In other words, a social network.

In addition, it’s to curb Facebook users from opening 2 profile accounts – personal and corporate. If you’ve done this, it’s against Facebook Terms of Service.

New Layout for your Facebook Page

The first notable change to your Facebook page is without doubt, the layout. As mentioned earlier, it’s adapted your personal profile layout. Based on Facebook’s email introduction, the objective of the redesign is to have your Facebook page feel and act like how you’d network with your personal profile, but for Pages.

Review Facebook Page Notifications and New Likes

If you own or admin a Facebook Page, you can take the new Facebook Page tour to show you around. From the tour, it illustrates to you how your Facebook Page will behave like a Facebook profile than just a promotional tool. For example, step2 hints that you can search for other pages and comment on them, as if your personal profile.

And if you were wondering this, you can’t post on personal profiles as your Facebook Page. In other words, you can’t look for a person and post on their wall as your Page – I’ve tried.

Comment on Your Facebook Page as Yourself – FINALLY!

It’s been really challenging to manage a Facebook Page which you can’t reply as yourself. Especially, when you’ve more than 1 admin maintaining your Facebook Page. But now, you can finally comment on friends’ replies as you – no more sign-offs required.

The Admins are Back

At one time, we could actually see who were the admins of a page. I’m not sure why Facebook removed it in the first place, but it’s back, with control. You can feature admins or select pages which you want to appear in your sidebar. Think of it as making your page a Favorite. This setting along with the posting preference above is accessible when you click Edit Page.

Start to Use Facebook as Page

I guess you may have already jumped into Facebook and tried out the new Facebook Page features by now. But here’s something to note, if you haven’t.

Previously, if you wanted to manage your Facebook Pages from your personal profile, you’d click on the Manage Pages link. Facebook has renamed it - sigh. Now it’s called; Use Facebook as Page. And instead of managing, you now switch between accounts – per se.

New Facebook Page Roll-out March 10, 2011

As usual, Facebook has rolled out this new feature to select Facebook Page admins only. Don’t ask me how they shortlist because I too wouldn’t know. Though it would be kind of awesome if they said it’s based on influential analysis.

So, what do you like or dislike about the New Facebook Page?

It Started With The Why

I was attending a BNI workshop one weekend and the speaker reminded every business owner in the room, it all started with why.

Why did you start your business?

Besides to make money.

The difference was those who answered the why before making money would have more passion and drive to the why. For example, Simpleet was created to consult clients on realizing their full website potential. At the same time, openly share our ideas with them on what they can do to make their business succeed. Because every website has their own objective, targeted user, concept and approach.

The solution was the why

I had a short meeting with Izuddin from KreativThemes today. From our conversation, I realized a lot of the highly potential and future driven youths like himself have the passion but never asked the why.

And simple enough, like the speaker that day, the why is also the answer to the solution you want to provide.

So, what is or was your why?

Come WebampKL on Wednesday, January 26, 2011 to find it!

Well, here’s a small plug for WebcampKL. After our initial committee meeting today, we’ve decided to set the upcoming Alpha episode in January 2011 to be about; entrepreneurship.

Come and be enlightened. You just might find your why.

My 5 Must-Install Browser Add-ons or Plugins

It was good to use Internet Explorer back in the early 90s. Simply because there wasn’t any other recommended browser, until Mozilla Firefox came about. Then when it did, I discovered add-ons which I now can’t live without. These are my must-have browser add-ons or plugins whenever I re-install my browser.

Adblock Plus (Adblock+)

Without explanation, this plugin automatically hides advertisements on the webpages you browse. So if you’re irritated by pop-ups or noisy advertisements, install this and be done with them.

However, it’s not completely perfect. I’ve noticed this plugin weirdly block a stylesheet which doesn’t affect the content but the layout. So, it’s still livable with.

Delicious

This is a social bookmarking plugin. Storing your bookmarks locally in your computer today is passe (dated). Because the main danger is if you had to format your computer or in worst cases, if your hard disk died, all data including your bookmarks can never be retrieved. This is where social bookmarks come in.

Web Developer

Being a website designer, this plugin has a few nifty tools. One of them is the ability to only View Image Information. Meaning, I can see all images used in a website. Plus, I can disable website stylesheets as I wish to check on certain source code. And speaking of source code, disabling right+click will not protect your website because viewing it is only a shortcut away with this plugin. Muahahahaha.

Firebug

To date, I only know Firebug runs in Mozilla Firefox. Google Chrome has its own internal browser investigator which near similar to Firebug. The tool I love most about Firebug is the Inspector which allows me to select any element in the website which I could then see it’s source code. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is another plugin I can use to access your source code.

Awesome Screenshot

This plugin was built for Google Chrome. Why I wanted to highlight this plugin was because it’s got internal editing tools after I screenshot a website. Tools like crop, shapes, lines, arrows, text and even color controls. In addition, I can even upload the screenshots like a Twitpic for easy sharing.

There a couple more add-ons or plugins I could highlight, but these are definitely my must-have installed if I ever did need to re-install my browser. They’ve become a part of my common user experience when I use the browser.

P.S.: And if you hadn’t noticed, I no set Internet Explorer as my default browser.

Speculative Design Work, Yes or No?

When I first started to freelance in college, it was tough having to work for peanuts because  clients didn’t know value of design then, and now. Plus, I was from a design college. And funny how real life experience bites you in the ass when it happens, since you never did learn it in college.

My freelance work always went through the same process, somewhat:

1. Ask client a few questions.
2. Provide speculative design.
3. Finish website.
4. Collect money.

Yes, at the time, being a newbie, I never did collect a deposit. Until it bit me in the ass. In addition, clients always requested speculative design work before a project began.

Thinking back about it, I’m wondering why clients requested it?

Was it to gain my confidence?

Both designer and client have something to risk. If the client won’t have faith in me, how could they hire me? But we can argue, if the client doesn’t have faith in my work, then why approach me in the first place?

Was it to borrow my ideas?

This nightmare or horror story has been told by all designers. The client liked it but didn’t buy it. However, you later kick yourself in the nuts because the client used it. Bummer.

Was it to disrespect me?

Okay. Maybe this is crossing the line. But it is possible right?

Whatever it was, I’ve replaced speculative design work with website references. Personally, I’d only do speculative design work if I’ve worked with the client before, or if I feel confident and comfortable giving them speculative design work.

AIGA (formerly an acronym for “American Institute of Graphic Arts”) backs designers in the decision to politely decline requests of speculative design work and to educate clients on the reasons behind it. And, they even now provide members the rejection letter templates for to use!

Although you and I may not be in AIGA, I believe it’s a healthy practice at best to discourage clients when they request speculative work. Otherwise, you may want to suggest charging them a “preview” fee for a taste of your work. LOL!

But to do speculative design work, yes or no?

Why You Can’t Judge a Job Applicant from Facebook?

It’s not the first time I’ve heard stories of employers researching applicants using Facebook. Or the extremists, who fired the employee because he found out the employee is a party-holic after browsing her profile.

But come on. Can you seriously judge a person this way? Already employers know a resume is a piece of paper the applicant had most likely buttered up. And when you go for an interview, applicants are expected to dress formally because it’s the expectation. So, what’s real?

Just because she’s going to party may not always mean she’s going to come in late and sleep in the office. Just because he’s a great farmer in Facebook doesn’t mean he’s a Facebook gaming addict.

I personally think judging a person by their Facebook profile is too extreme. Heck, if you wanted to do it like that, don’t get anyone to work for you. Or better, buy a factory and manufacture robots to work for you.

Source: Tim Burton’s 9 The Movie

Right now, I believe Facebook can be used to assess a person. But not judge them. If you continue judging a person from Facebook or any social network, it’s like asking them “God, should I hire this person?”

And by the way, there’s a professional network called LinkedIn which focuses on the skillset and working experience of an individual. You might not see the applicant’s friends but if the applicant was endorsed or recommended by his past employers.

So stop using Facebook to judge an applicant. It’s irrelevant unless you hire them for the real person they are.

Imagine if Albert Einstein was on Facebook and this was his profile picture. Would you have hired him?