Win a Stress Free Christmas Treat

Fancy a stress free Christmas? I know I do.... which is why I'm telling you about this great comp from LighterLife to win an exclusive London break.

The prize includes a £1500 pre paid shopping trip, a chauffeur to drive you around for the day so you don't have to worry about carrying all of that shopping before whisking you back to the Ritz hotel for a night in luxury accommodation with your loved one and a luxurious hot stone massage. I've had a hot stone massage - it is lush!

Visit and 'Like' their Facebook page to enter. I've checked it out. It's a properly run Facebook comp so go for it and good luck!

How To : Get the New Facebook Profile

You must have been hiding under a bush for the last week if you haven't heard about the new major Facebook update. Most of the  talk is pretty negative but I have to say that I absolutely LOVE the new look and usability. Finally your Facebook profile looks like a real page rather than an outfit that was thrown together in the dark. 

The update will be rolling out from next weekend but if you're keen to get ahead of the game, here's how.

Difficulty rating : Easy
Time : 10 minutes

Step 1
Log into your Facebook account.

Step 2
Go to the Facebook Apps Developer page.

Hit allow to confirm permission.

Step 3
After confirming permission you land on the Apps page (below).

Top right corner - click 'Create new App'.

Step 4

Name your new app.

It doesn't matter what name or namespace you give to your app but the namespace does need to be at least 7 letters.

Hit continue.

Pass the security check by filling in the Captcha.

If you haven't already confirmed your Facebook account you will be asked to do so now. If your account is already verified tick 'I agree to the Platform Privacy Policy' and move on to Step 5.

You can confirm with your mobile number or with a credit card.

If using your mobile, put in your number and wait for the confirmation code to arrive by text.

Put in the code and confirm.

Step 5

Once verified you get this screen.

Click 'Open Graph'.

Step 6

You have landed on 'Open Graph: Getting Started'.

You need to define an action here but it can be anything. Here's an example you can use. 

In 'People Can' box write 'Read' and in the second box write 'book'.

Hit 'Get started'.

Step 7

Page 'Open Graph; Action Type: Read'

No info to add to this page. Scroll to the bottom and hit 'Save changes and next'.

Step 8

Page 'Open Graph; Object Type; Book'

No info to add to this page. Scroll to the bottom and hit 'Save changes and next'.

Step 9

Page 'Open Graph; Aggregation

Scroll down and hit 'Save'.

Step 10

Takes you to the following page.

Wait a few minutes for the changes to take effect. 

Step 11

Go to your Facebook Profile Page. 'Introducing; Your New Profile'

Hit 'Get it Now'.

Choose 'Take tour' to see your new profile in action or hit 'Publish Now'.

And here's how mine looks...

Have a go and if you get stuck give me a shout.

Please do come back and share a link you your snazzy new page in the comments.

Facebook competitions Can Seriously Damage Your Health

Your social health that is, because unless you're in line with Facebook's (recently updated) Promotional Guidelines your fab, feel good competition could actually result in your beloved page being removed from the site without a single word or warning.

It's hard to take the guidelines seriously given the sheer number of regulation breaches you see on Facebook every single day - but if you own (or worse) administrate a page for a brand, can you really risk logging on to find out that 'this page no longer exists'?

Here's a rough guide to the rules but please do subscribe to the Facebook news feed!

WHAT YOU CAN'T DO

• You can't run a competition where you have to 'LIKE' a page to enter.
• You can't run a competition that allows people to enter by checking in at your location, liking a status update, message, photo, video or link.
• You can't run a competition on your Facebook wall. It HAS to be via a third party app or on another website.
• You can't notify your competition winners via Facebook AT ALL. No status updates, wall posts, comments or direct messages.
• You can't ask people to join Facebook to enter a competition.
• You can't ask people to upload content for a competition (pictures, videos or other content) to your Facebook wall.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Run a Facebook competition using a third part app.
• Ask people to 'Like' you page before entering your competition using a third party app or on another website.
• Collect contact information and data from your entrants when using a third party app for your competition.
• Run your competition from your website or blog and promote it via your Facebook wall.

WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO

• Include a disclaimer on your competition app or wherever your comp is hosted stating that your competition is in no way related to Facebook.
• Disclose to the entrants that they are sharing their data with you and not with Facebook.
• Ensure that competition entrants aren't staff, sponsors or associates of Facebook.

All competitions should comply with country specific laws and regulations which means that the burden of responsibility is in the hands of the page owner or administrator.... Yes YOU.

Please take time to read through the official guidelines, not knowing is not a valid excuse.
You may also want to check out the 9 best social media tools for small businesses from Digital.com.

How to hack your Facebook profile

I have to admit I hated the new Facebook profile and it's taken me ages to get used to it but then I hated it last time they changed it too. Which means I'm either stuck in my ways or that I've been on Facebook for way too long.

Then I came across a French artist called Alexandre Oudin who started the craze for customising your profile page to make it look like one large single image. Have a look at his Facebook profile to see what I mean. 

I love it and have spent this afternoon tinkering around to try to re-create the effect. After loads of errors I worked it out - and being the nice blogger that I am, here is my step by step guide on how to hack your profile page too!

You do need to know your way around some basic photo editing techniques to achieve this - but don't be put off as I've made all the mistakes already.

This was my Facebook profile page before I started.

And this is the image that I chose to work with to create my new profile.

This picture actually isn't great for this purpose but now that I have all of my measurements in hand and I can see how it works I'm going to trawl my archives for something better. I guess what I am saying is that for your first attempt it doesn't really matter what pic you use, just give it a go.

I edit my images in Photoshop - but if you don't have a program like this on your computer you can use a free online editor like Pixlr Express or Photoshop Express.

Step 1

To begin you need an image that is 682 pixels wide, this is the width of your Facebook page. Open your photo editor and crop your pic to this size. I'm going to call this your original image.

Step 2

The left hand portion of your image will become your main Facebook profile image. 

On my before pic above my profile photo is the small square but my new profile my image will extend right down the left column in a strip that is 180 pixels wide by 540 pixels high.

There are a couple of ways to do this. You can either take a crop of your original image (starting at the top, left hand corner and dragging down and right till you get the desired size), or what I did was create a new photoshop file 180 x 540 pixels and then I copied and pasted my original image into my new file - see below.

As you can see, this is the left hand side of my original image.

Save this, it will become your new profile pic.

Step 3

The next step is to create the five images that go across the top of your profile to make your photo strip. To do this go back to your original image and put in a ruler guide line 20 pixels from the top (you need this because your profile image sits slightly higher than your film strip).

Step 4

Then starting from your new guideline (20 pixels from the top) on the right hand side of your original image take a crop that is 492 pixels wide by 68 pixels high.

You now have a long image that looks like this.

Step 5

Next we need to turn this into your photo strip which is made up of five pics with a 2 pixel gap between each image. 

Each picture needs to be 96.8 pixels wide by 68 pixels high but make sure that you leave that 2 pixel gap between each one. 

I used the ruler / guides in photoshop to mark out my images and then deleted the gaps.  

Next, I copied each segment, created a new file, pasted the pic in and saved so that I had five new images - each one 96.8 x 68 pixels.

Step 6

That really is the end of the tricky bit. Now you just need up upload to your Facebook page.

Log into your account and click the 'Edit my Profile' link in the left hand menu.

From your 'Profile edit' page click 'Profile Picture' from the left hand menu.

Upload your new profile image (this is the long picture that you created back at step 2) and save it but don't tag it with your name. 

Your new profile image will now grace the left side of your profile page.

Step 6

Upload the five images that you created for your film strip. You do need to tag these images with your name but to make them appear in the right order you need to tag the image that is to appear on the right hand side of the strip first. Take a look at the order I tagged my images below.

And that is it....

My new profile page looks like this.

My image now extends across my profile and despite not being the right picture for the job it still does look pretty cool and will surfice until I choose a better one.

Have a go and let me know how you get on. Then come back and leave a comment with your profile url if you create something fab.

Happy hacking!

Can your baby follow in ModelGirls footsteps?

My girls have been modelling since they were very small babies, they've worked for some huge brands including Nokia, Halfords, Asda, Annabel Karmel, Joules, Adams and NEXT and with this fab new baby model comp that NEXT are running your little one could become a star too.

The NEXT Baby Boutique Model Competition, in association with Prima Baby magazine is looking for the UK's cutest and most photogenic babies and toddlers to star in a forthcoming photoshoot for NEXT and Prima Baby. The winners will also bag a modelling contract with leading children's agency Urban Angels and £500 worth of NEXT vouchers.

There are two categories, birth to 18months and 19 to 36 months - so if you have a beautiful little one - and I know that lots of you do, head over to the NEXT Facebook page for full details on how to enter.

To wet your appetite - here is a vid that ModelGirl did for the NEXT website last season.