Well, this morning I logged into Facebook and checked in on my Facebook page. To my surprise, I was greeted with a message regarding upoming facebook page changes, so I quickly previewed the design and published it on our page. I have been exploring and assessing the changes this morning. Here is what I have discovered thus far...

• If you are used to the Timeline on your profile, this will be familiar to you. Pages will have the same design and layout as the Timeline.
• Cover Photos - Profile pictures are small squares, but we have an 851px X 315px of webpage-real-estate at the top of your facebook page. This will allow your page to be better branded. Be sure your cover image is in compliance with Facebook's guidelines.
• The location of the left-hand menu. Previous the menu with all your apps (ie. Photos, About, any other apps) would have been on left under the profile picture. This has now changed to upper right of page. They are boxes or "favorites". The first four are shown and can be swapped out according to your preference with the exception of the Photos box, which is first.

• Messages. Visitors and fans of your page can now message you via your Facebook Page. You can respond to messages you have received. At this point,it does not look like you can send messages without first receiving one. You must have this feature enabled within your page settings.
• Handy Admin Panel. There is now a new handy little admin panel at the top of your page, which you can hide if you choose. It gives your recent notifications, likes, messages and insights all right there.

• Wider, cleaner App Pages. If you are using any app services (for example, custom facebook pages, fbml or html apps), this will be quite pleasing! You nowhave a width of 779 instead of 500 and the layout is much cleaner.

• Pin Posts. You can Pin a post (click on the pencil to edit a post) and choose "Pin to Top". This will keep your post at the top and allow your visitors to easily find it when they visit. You can also "highlight" a post, which causes it to be full-width on the timeline. To highlight a post, you click the star icon on the top right of the post box.

Click here to read Facebook's Guide to the new Facebook Pages.


View our Facebook Page with Timeline Upgrade here: on.fb.me/shekinaharts

We are proud to reveal the new site for Comfort & Compassion Ministry, Home of U2HaveHope.

U2HaveHope Radio launched on DFW's KDKR 91.3 last Saturday, November 5th. If you are not in the area or cannot listen to the radio Saturday evenings at 4 pm, you can always listen online or subscribe to the podcast!

We are so happy for Carrie and for everything God is doing in this ministry.

Here is the ministry website. She has a blog team that contributes to the blog on comfortandcompassion.com. In addition, you can find out more about U2HaveHope Radio and listen online. 

U2HaveHope is one of our Facebook Solutions clients, too! Here is her page. 

QR Codes are becoming more and more popular, being spotted anywhere from coupons to commercials, from ads to postcards. If you've ever been concerned or hesitant to use them because of the lack of ability to edit the link to it (QR Code services probably exist but will cost you), then I've got a tip for you!

NOTE: As a webhost and designer, it is easy for us. If you are not such, you will need access to your hosting cpanel that allows subdomains and forwarding or domain registrar.

1. You will need to create a subdomain* for your website. I'm using my client, U2HaveHope, for an example.; the subdomain I created for her is qr.comfortandcompassion.com.
2. Create your QR Code with your preferred generator.
   1. Mine is through using goo.gl url shortener. Directions to follow:
      1. Go to goo.gl (sign into your Google account)
      2. Enter your long url (your qr subdomain we created in #1)
      3. It will generate your short url and give you a qr code for it! 
      4. You will receive a page that you can access any time and keep all of your urls managed within your google account. My client's example is here: http://goo.gl/info/VqEiW  PLUS: You will have the ability to check stats and view some analytics as well.
      5. There is a link directly under the QR Code to view the code alone. (client example: http://goo.gl/VqEiW.qr, from there you can right click and save the image for your use.
      6. Go back to your CPanel and redirect your subdomain (or back to your domain registrar and set up URL forwarding for the subdomain) to point to the page you want your QR Code to take you.
      7. My client's QR Code is currently directing to her youtube page.
      8. So, when you scan the code, it goes to qr.comfortandcompassion.com which forwards to youtube.com/u2havehope.
      9. Any time you wish your QR Code to go elsewhere, go back to your CPanel or Domain Registrar and edit the link to which you are forwarding!

*You could create a whole new domain for this instead of using a subdomain -- but we are working on an already established domain here.

Here is U2HaveHope's finished QR Code!

HIGH RESOLUTION QR CODES:

For printing these codes, take your png Google provides into Adobe Illustrator, live trace with these settings:

• Black and White
• Threshold: 128
• Blur: 0
• Path Fitting: 0
• Min Area: 0
• Corner Angle: 0
• Tick the checkbox for Ignore White. 
• Trace and Expand.
• Save as .ai or .eps and place onto your publication for print.

BY THE WAY -- plug for Carrie Cooper with Comfort and Compassion Ministry -- Her radio show, U2HaveHope is launching November 5th! You will soon be able to visit www.U2HaveHope.com to be able to listen online or subscribe to the podcast! Way to Go, Carrie!!