Making someone an admin for a Facebook event is tougher than you thought, huh?  Here are the steps.

Details:

I’ve gotten this question from 3 friends in the last month, so I figured I’d write it up, since it’s non-intuitive.  You’ve created an event, but you want others to be able to administer the event (and be a Facebook admin for the event), so someone else can

• change the description about the event
• allow/disallow people to comment on the wall
• delete comments on the Facebook event wall (if inappropriate)
• do the annoying work
• make more people admins so that they can share in the nasty work

It’s tough to figure out how to do it, so here are the steps:

• Go to the Facebook event page for the event
• In the upper right hand corner, under the photo, 3rd line down, it says “Edit Guest List”
• Notice that for each person, on the right, you have the option to click “Make Admin”

Here’s the tough part.   Not everyone is listed there. Notice in the top heading, “Attending” is highlighted.  Facebook is only showing you people that have confirmed that they will be attending the event!  Look at the other headings, which include:

• Attending
• Maybe
• Declined
• Not Yet Responded
• Blocked

To make someone an admin if they are in one of the other lists, click that heading.  If you just invited them, click “Not Yet Responded”.

However, it’s still not easy.  Facebook makes it difficult for a bunch of reasons:

• They may not show up yet if you’ve just invited them!! It sometimes takes a few minutes.
• You can’t easily and quickly figure out which list someone is in if you have a big list
• The list isn’t sorted, so you must click slowly through the list
• You can’t set up the size of the list on your screen, so you can only see 6 at a time

This is all understandable since no one at Facebook has more than 6 friends in the world.

It’s all a pain in the ass, but someday Facebook will make it better.  If this helped, please email me at patweb@patrickomalley.com and let me know

Summary:

Yesterday, Twitter may have helped to save a 1 year old girl who was kidnapped and in serious danger. Here’s the best Twitter story ever, (short version).

Details:

The long version is available at Twitter helps solve Amber Alert (long, but worth it).

Yesterday was the best day in Twitter’s life because yesterday was the day when Twitter may have helped to find a kidnapped one year old baby girl named Jaylin Boudria. We won’t know for a while if Twitter and cell phones helped, but the girl is safe, and that’s the important thing.

The Amber Alert spread like wildfire through Twitter. People from all over the world ReTweeted it in the hope that somebody might be able to find the car containing this kidnapped girl.

Here’s the chronology from my point of view:

11:30 AM

Baby girl kidnapped in Swansea, MA. It would be hours before it’s investigated, confirmed, et cetera, and it hits the radio.

2:30 PM

As I was listening to the radio, the state police broke in into the broadcast and said that there was an Amber Alert, and a one-year-old baby girl was in serious danger. I looked at my computer to find the story from my friend, news reporter Ted Daniel (http://twitter.com/TedDanielFOX25), and sure enough he had Tweeted the information. He had a pointer to a Fox news webpage with more detail. I re-tweeted it immediately with the hope that some of my 20,000 followers would ReTweet it, and it would be passed on to many others.

I then kept ReTweeting the same information periodically and saw that tons of my followers were ReTweeting it also.  Their names are listed in the long version the story Twitter helps solve Amber Alert (long, but worth it).

Hundreds of their followers tweeted it also.  Other original tweets were ReTweeted as word of mouth spread to thousands in seconds.

Sara Underwood (http://twitter.com/sara_underwood), anchor for Fox news, tweeted about it. It was picked up and ReTweeted by the actress Alyssa Milano, who passed it to 600,000 followers in a moment.

The Twitter community was in a frenzy sending it to people on the highways.

5:00 PM – The best Tweet ever

The little girl was found in a rest stop in Connecticut, and she’s safe. Absolutely awesome.

The “world village” saved one of its children, and Twitter users may have helped.  I still get choked up thinking about it.

• Amber alert ended.
• Baby girl saved.
• Total time – 5.5 hours
• Not having to see her picture on a billboard for 10 years? Priceless.

I was lucky enough to be interviewed about it on Fox TV news last night with Sarah Underwood. The video is posted above.

Future generations will find a better way to do this. When I say future generations, I mean myself and others in the next few months. Some day, when I run the world, cell phone companies will be required to figure out a way to broadcast critical information in certain geographical regions to people on their cell phones.

However, for now, a three year old named Twitter may have helped us find a one year old named Jaylin.  It will be a long time before she realizes that if she was born a few years earlier, there may have been no way to save her.

Thanks to all of the people who ReTweeted, posted on Facebook, called people, or did anything else to help save her. You are all heroes in my book.

Summary:

Yesterday, Twitter may have helped to solve an Amber Alert, and saved a 1 year old girl who was kidnapped and in serious danger.  Here’s the best Twitter story ever.

Details:

The short version of Twitter solves Amber Alert is here if you don’t have time for this.

Yesterday was the best day in Twitter’s life because yesterday was the day when Twitter may have helped to find a kidnapped one year old baby girl named Jaylin Boudria.  We won’t know for a while if Twitter and cell phones helped, but the girl is safe, and that’s the important thing.

The Amber Alert spread like wildfire through Twitter.  People from all over the world ReTweeted it in the hope that somebody might be able to find the car containing this kidnapped girl.

Here’s the chronology from my point of view:

11:30 AM

Baby girl kidnapped in Swansea, MA.  It would be hours before it’s investigated, confirmed, et cetera, and it hits the radio.

2:30 PM

As I was listening to the radio, the state police broke in into the broadcast and said that there was an Amber Alert, and a one-year-old baby girl was in serious danger.  I looked at my computer to find the story from my friend, news reporter Ted Daniel (http://twitter.com/TedDanielFOX25), and sure enough he had Tweeted the information.  He had a pointer to a Fox news webpage with more detail.  I re-tweeted it immediately with the hope that some of my 20,000 followers would ReTweet it, and it would be passed on to many others.

My vision was that we would try to develop a huge “human chain” of people using Twitter, Facebook, and cell phones who could all be looking for the Silver Ford Focus that contained little girl.  If just one person could find the car with the distinctive Minnesota license plates, they could quietly follow the car and call the state police.

I realized, though, that most people with cell phones on the road wouldn’t have time to read the full webpage that most TV stations had dedicated to the cause.  I called Ted Daniel at Fox news and said that they should post a specific type of webpage that was just convenient for cell phone users with iPhones, Blackberries, Droids, et cetera.

There was no easy way to do it, but Kyle Bishop at Fox was willing to bend some corporate rules and create a “quick hack” page that would contain just the most critical information so that it can be read easily (in one or two screens) by people with Smartphones on the road. The info included:

• The time and place where she was kidnapped
• License plate number
• Pictures of the kidnapper, the child and the car (brilliant ideas, Kyle and Fox)

I then kept ReTweeting the same information periodically and saw that tons of my followers were ReTweeting it to, including:

@NEMultimedia, @ZinoClassic, @socialcap, @NEMultimedia, @TimMCahill, @JessicaHanson, @pretty_peace, @PoshMom, @RussBenoit, @yolandafacio, @DJDeja, @eXapath, @CaronElectric, @JonMichaeli, @cielyn, @MichaelFina, @LisaRFrank, @The420Fairy, @deb_lavoy, @MojoCaster, @Lynnelle, @WellnessWebGirl, @KristinEDziadul, @embracegracie, @stevedragoo, @ConstantContact, @JackInChicago, @snhparents, @BillyMacDonald, @capegirlindc, @Manage_Kelley, @RedHeadMeag, @reviewingcigars, @smoketherev, @FlyTheSky, @billshander, @DrSES, @PeytonACraig, @joeckmrc, @kizerandbender, @ldg1109, @AllergyProne, @chupieandjsmama, @chupieandjsmama, @gothamli, @DavidAtNavigate, @stales, @airjan23, @PeytonACraig, @codeYogi, @TimDineen, @AlMcGourlay, @meghanwelborn, @Bloodslave78, @JudeNewcomb, @naked_beauty, @taojoannes, @sammeem, @BrightEndeavors, @helphandrewards, @hinda_incentiv

Hundreds of their followers tweeted it also.

I also had the idea that if I tweeted people with huge followings (like the celebrities that had three or 4 million followers) that if they re-tweeted it even once, the viral effect could help spread the word to millions of people.  Therefore, I sent tweets to Ashton Kutcher, Oprah, Shaquille O’Neal and others who had over 3 million followers.

I also monitored  the story on Tweetdeck  to see how many people were ReTweeting the story.  As you would hope and expect, people began to help by ReTweeting the story to their own followers. I also broke one of Twitters unspoken rules by ReTweeting the same information multiple times.  Throw me in Twitter jail if you want.  I’ll sleep well on that metal bed tonight.

The story changed, as the state police found out new information like

• the fact that the car was actually a Silver Kia Wagon
• the license plate might not have been accurate, but was a Minnesota license plate

and as they did, I updated my tweets.  The Twitter army ReTweeted the most current info to others.

I also used Twellow to find the people in the Boston area that had the most followers, and I sent tweets to them, hoping they would ReTweet it to their Boston following.

Sara Underwood (http://twitter.com/sara_underwood),  anchor for Fox news, tweeted about it.  It was picked up and ReTweeted by the actress Alyssa Milano, who passed it to 600,000 followers in a moment.

Every news station was running a text banner at the bottom of the page giving info about the little girl, and the Twitter community was in a frenzy sending it to people on the highways.

5:00 PM – The best Tweet ever

The little girl was found in a rest stop in Connecticut, and she’s safe.   Absolutely awesome.

We still don’t know exactly how the girl was found, and that probably won’t be known for days, so we don’t know if Twitter nation helped.  However, the fact is that a combination of Twitter, cell phones, radio, TV and the good nature of millions of people may have helped to find this girl in a way that was unimaginable a few years ago.  The “world village” saved one of its children.  I still get choked up thinking about it.

• Amber alert ended.
• Baby girl saved.
• Total time – 5.5 hours
• Not having to see her picture on a billboard for 10 years?  Priceless.

I was lucky enough to be interviewed about it on Fox TV news last night with Sarah Underwood.  The video is posted above.

Future generations will find a better way to do this.  When I say future generations, I mean myself and others in the next few months.  Some day, when I run the world, cell phone companies will be required to figure out a way to broadcast critical information in certain geographical regions to people on their cell phones.

However, for now, a three year old named Twitter may have helped us find a one year old named Jaylin.  It will be a long time before she realizes that if she was born a few years earlier, there may have been no way to save her.

Thanks to all of the people who ReTweeted, posted on Facebook, called people, or did anything else to help save her.  You are all heroes in my book.

Want to see only status updates on Facebook so that you don’t have to see every time one of your friends buys pizza for someone else in Mafia Wars?  Here’s how…

Details:

Facebook tip – see only status updates

In February of 2010, they changed Facebook again, and it was designed by people who assume

• you have all day to look at Facebook
• you have to know when one of your friends makes a new friend
• you have to know someone pokes another person
• you know what a poke is

You can do Facebook much faster if you just see Status Updates, and they made it harder to do it.

Here’s the new Facebook trick

On the left hand side of your new page, if you click on Friends, you’ll see your friend lists, and just below it, it should say Status Updates.  Click on that.

The URL at the top should say

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=app_2915120374

but may have some other stuff in the middle.  The fact is that if you use the string above, and bookmark it, it should show you status updates (until the Facebook nerds do another one of their redesign/scavenger hunts).

Video demonstration

The problem

The big problem with this is that if you only see Status Updates, you won’t see when every one of your friends picks up a piece of cow shit in Farmville.

To see only status updates on Facebook:

• In the upper left menu, under the Facebook logo, at the bottom, click More (in blue)
• Drag “Status Updates” to the top of the list.
• Click on it.

Aaaaaaaahhhhh.

Quick video actually shows you….

NOTE – I just discovered that this feature only allow you to see someone’s LAST status update (discovered 10/29/09).  Wow, Facebook makes this difficult.

If you have Facebook friends who post their status 20 times a day, you can make them disappear, and they will never know about it.  Ironically, Facebook hides the Hide feature.

Details:

Everyone has at least one friend that posts every insignificant move of their day onto Facebook, like

• … is making coffee
• … is adding more sugar
• … is adding cream
• … is stirring

and on and on.  It gets worse if they are having a full breakfast.

Want to make all of their statuses disappear?  It’s easy to do using the Facebook Hide feature, but ironically, and idiotically, Facebook hides the Hide button.  Learn the solution by text (below) or by 60 second video here:

or if that video didn’t work, click Youtube Video – hide annoying Facebook status updates and applications

If you are looking at a status update from one these self-absorbed, narcissistic, ego-centric people, do the following:

• Move your mouse to the upper right hand corner of the “box” that contains the status update
• A button will magically appear that will say Hide
• Click it to see a drop down box
• One of the choices is to say Hide <annoying_friends_name>
• Click it, and you will feel so much better

All of their statuses on your page will disappear now and forever, and they will never know.  That is, until you see them in person and they say, “Hey, did you hear that I added sugar to my coffee this morning?”  It’s a shame you can’t click the button when you see them in person.

If you ever decide that you do want to see their posts again, you can

• go to the bottom of your Home page
• click “Edit options” on the right
• choose to add them back into your news feed

You can also use the same feature to remove all of those annoying quizzes like

• What Flintstones character are you?
• How well do you remember 90210?

However, you have to remove them one by one.  You can’t click a button that says “Remove all stupid quizzes”.

Someday, I promise you, Facebook will give in to the angry masses and have a button that that allows you to

• Remove all quizzes
• Remove all mafia wars updates
• Remove all the other things other than status updates

I just hope they don’t hide it.

I’m going to start giving tips on other areas of social media, like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, et cetera.  This is an undocumented tip that will double your speed when you are looking through Facebook pictures.

The key is to use the right and left arrows.

Details:

Let’s try to help you see Facebook pictures faster.

What you probably do now:

If someone posts a picture, or if you decide to look at the pictures from someone’s profile, you probably go to the first picture, and then click the Next button in the upper right hand corner.  If you want to go back to a previous picture, you move the mouse to the Previous button and click it.

The new way, using the right and left arrows:

If you are looking at any picture in Facebook, you can actually use the right and left arrows to move to the next picture or the last picture in a series.

The odd thing is that it doesn’t always work the first time.  Sometimes, you have to use the mouse to click on the first picture in a series of pictures, which is another way of clicking to the Next picture.  However, after that,you can use the right and left arrows!  For some reason, Facebook doesn’t bother to tell you that.  You can even hold down the right arrow to have Facebook speed though the photos.

Also, if you go to a picture and use the right click and nothing happens, it may be that the picture is the only one in a photo album.  If you look in the upper left hand corner , it will say “Photo 1 of 1″.

Cool, huh?   Happy faster Facebook foto finding.