As many of you may already know, my day job is a programming analyst for Sentry Insurance, which is a mutual insurance company headquartered in Stevens Point, WI. I work on one of the larger projects in the company as a Guidewire and Java Developer, which allows me to dabble with some pretty fun and advanced things, like writing middleware using JMS or implementing complex design patterns and understanding their practicality in a real world setting.
Since I started working for the company in early 2010 as an intern, I’ve seen the company come a long way in terms of how they market themselves and what they are doing to become a better insurance company. Very recently, Sentry Insurance has re-launched their main website, and has adopted a high level social media campaign strategy. Dairyland Cycle, one of Sentry’s niche companies, has a head start in the social media game, as it was one of the first areas of the company to utilize social media.
Generally a more conservative company, Sentry has decided to follow suit and get into the social media game. Is it too late for them? I don’t believe so. I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with some of the people working in this area of the company, and I’ve been very impressed with what they have to offer the company. I think if the fervor and excitement continues to stay with the people working in the social media and marketing department, the potential for Sentry to engage and build a lasting relationship with their customers is very strong.
To kick off their Facebook initiatives, Sentry Insurance is donating $1 to the United Way for each Like they receive on Facebook up until the first 10,000 likes. $10,000 can go a long way for non-profit organizations, and Sentry Insurance is one of the largest contributors to the United Way in the area.
Give Sentry Insurance’s Page the ol’ Facebook Like and help a good cause at the same time!
I’ve come to accept and realize that Facebook is contstantly changing and updating its website. One of the more recent changes included a revised version of the Facebook chat sidebar. Facebook decided to make the decision for you to dynamically create a list of people who you interact with the most. The users on the list show up whether they are online or offline. For me, Facebook’s dynamic way of generating the friends list is nowhere realistic for me. Since chat is something I use frequently to stay in contact with people on Facebook, I found it challenging to find people I regularly talk to and resorted to using AIM and connecting my FB account through that application.
Realizing that AIM is still not the best solution for me, I looked to userscripts.org, where I have found a number of invaluable scripts for making everyday browsing more productive for me. After some searching, I found a script called Facebook Sidebar Chat Reversion that gave me the solution I needed.
The script rewrites the UI of Facebook chat to mock the old version before it was changed. It works beautifully, with the exception of a few hiccups from time to time. Usually, when the chat window stops working, it typically means the developer of the script has an updated version already ready for users experiencing the problem. This has happened to me twice since I started using the script.
For Google Chrome users, simply click the install button on the script’s page. Firefox users must install the Greasemonkey add-on, which will manage scripts for you. Opera users should visit this article on User Javascript to learn more. Check out this forum thread if you use Safari 5. Internet Explorer users… try reading about Trixie or IE7Pro (which does work with IE9, apparently).
I cannot guarantee this script will work with all browsers mentioned but I do know it will work with Chrome and Firefox. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment.
In the rare occasion when I am trying to mass promote an event or fan page on Facebook, I always find it tedious to have to select all of my friends for the invite. Granted, I have a very good idea of who I should invite to the event or page, but sometimes I forget or assume that certain people wouldn’t take interest what I am promoting. Like anyone else, I’d much rather have the daunting task automated for me.
Facebook is constantly changing their website behind the scenes, and with these changes, old code tricks do not seem to work anymore. Fortunately, I was able to find this script and it works out great with the current version of Facebook (July, 30, 2011).
By pasting the following code into the URL box and hitting enter, this will execute a loop that will check all unchecked boxes. You can even see the process occur in realtime:
javascript:elms=document.getElementsByName(“checkableitems[]“);currentFriendClick=0;friendClickTotal=elms.length;friendClickInterval = setInterval(“clickCurrentFriend()”, 15);
function clickCurrentFriend()
{
if(elms[currentFriendClick].type=”checkbox”) elms[currentFriendClick].click();
currentFriendClick++;
if(currentFriendClick >= friendClickTotal) clearInterval(friendClickInterval);
}
Also, it’s important to check for the javascript: before elms= in the URL box. I’ve come to find that FireFox and Google Chrome strip out the declaration.
If you are having problems with copying and pasting this script, please read the update below.
When using this script, though, you must understand that when the the invite window appears to invite your friends, not all of your friends have been loaded. Facebook uses a lazy loading function to optimize performance. To ensure that you are actually inviting all of your friends, keeping scrolling in your friends list until the scroll bar is at the absolute bottom and doesn’t jump. You’ll know because your friends are arranged alphabetically by last time. Below are some visual examples of what I am trying to convey.
The initial screen that pops up for event invites.
To reiterate, you’ll notice the scroll bar constantly moving up a few notches as you get closer to scrolling to the bottom until you reach the end of your friend’s list. Once you hit the bottom of the list, paste the provided code into the URL bar and watch the script do its thing.
I tested this using Google Chrome 12.0.742.122 and it worked flawlessly. Let me know how it works in other browsers.
Update: If copying and pasting the above text does not work, please visit this text file and copy and paste the code from it instead.
I also noticed that Google Chrome now strips out the javascript: portion at the beginning of of the code. Make sure you manually retype this back in for the script to work. Otherwise, you will be taken to a Google search result instead.
An interesting infographic sent to me earlier today that I felt like sharing. I know for a fact had I been a high school student, social media would have done an excellent job as a distraction from my studies. My college years are a prime example of this. I don’t think I would be here today had I been introduced to social media in my earlier academic years. 
So what do all of you think? For those of you that are students, how does social media influence your academic studies? Do you agree with the verdicts mentioned?
Hello all!
First off, what a great summer it has been! I’m really pleased with the increase in traffic my site has accrued over the summer months. Thank you all for making it possible. As you may have noticed, I’ve done some site re-vamping over the fast few weeks. One of the first things I did was remove the Links sub-category from the site in response to my observations on posting links in bulk. While not a major change, it did remove a whopping (sarcasm) 10 posts from my site. While many of you did enjoy the link posts, it was simply too excessive and broad for the average, content hungry reader.
I’ve also temporarily set up my portfolio page to re-direct to my projects category because I am going to be implementing SlideShowPro to my site within the coming weeks. I decided that this awesome utility would be the best way to capture some of my past work. Not only is it fully customizable, but it makes for a solid framework for any developer needing to implement a powerful slideshow solution to any site. As for the social media and SEO sections of my portfolio, I’m still up in the air about it, but have a few ideas that I’ll toss around and revise. Previously, I was using a plugin called WP Portfolio that sufficed for the time being, but I wanted more of a “wow” factor that this plugin just simply couldn’t provide. If you’re searching for a reasonable, no hassle solution, then I highly recommend WP Portfolio, especially for last minute job interviews. 
