May 12 for Social Media “Newbie’s” / May 20 for SM Veterans

Social media consultant and hyperlocal writer Chuck Welch ( Lakeland Local and Metro i4 News) has graciously offered to conduct two professional development sessions in May. Both will be held at the new campus of Webster University and will take place from 8 a.m. – 10 a.m.

An ex-journalist, Chuck “retired” to Florida to concentrate on being a father, husband and writer. His online presence is primarily through as the editor, writer and occasional photographer for the news sites, Lakeland Local, a sampling of the news, concerns and events for Lakeland and Metro i4 News, which covers the Interstate 4 corridor. Both sites feature Chuck’s work and that of other contributors. Chuck is an early adopter of social media tools to discover their faults and best uses. He works to find tools best suited to connect citizens and small businesses to their community.

The first session will be Wednesday, May 12, for those with little to no social media experience. It will be an introduction to the concepts of social media as a viable tool for Public Relations professionals to use for their clients and/or employers. During class, participants will create a personal or hobby social media presence.

The second session will take place Thursday, May 20, for those with some social media experience and include an introduction to the five tools and one cardinal rule when using social media for clients/employers.

Webster University is located at 1479 Town Center Drive, Suite 202, at Lakeside Village. That’s the second floor of the building that houses New York and Company and Fish City Grille, around the fountain area. Parking is located at the rear of the building and the Hampton Inn.

Cost is $10 for FPRA members, $5 for students and $15 for non-members. Coffee, OJ and light snacks will be served. Reservations are on a first come, first served basis. Seating is limited for both sessions.

For reservations, email Jim Frankowiak, jim@cprg-web.com.

Our special thanks to Chuck and Webster University for this opportunity.

photo credit: Tom Hagerty

However, Facebook needs your information to lure advertisers. The more you share – 35, Single, Impulsive Buyer — the better they can direct ads you may fall for, er, enjoy. Now, Facebook will tell you they don’t give that information to advertisers. That doesn’t mean they don’t aggregate it to better deliver you those ads for dating services.

In response to this dilemma, Facebook recently made a mess of the privacy settings. Excuse me, they “improved user control.”

In this short article, I’ll point you to two easily set fixes to improve your privacy. After, you’ll want to spend some time reading the official Facebook explanation of privacy settings.

The Gist:

Most Facebook privacy options are now split to three setting Friends, Friends of Friends, Everyone. Each is less private that the one previous.

However, that’s just the basic options. In many cases you’ll find “Custom” is available. Always take a look at that option. “Custom” often allows a much finer control over what you allow to be visible. You can block specific friends or Lists from accessing or sharing parts of your profile.

Why bother making your settings more secure? Read an important pop-up from Facebook you might have missed:

# Information you choose to share with Everyone is available to everyone on the internet.
# When you visit a Facebook-enhanced application, it will be able to access your publicly available information, which includes Name, Profile Photo, Gender, Current City, Networks, Friend List, and Pages. This information is considered visible to Everyone.

Let’s fix those two privacy settings….

1) Log into Facebook. In the top bar, next to your name, is the Settings link. Hover over it, then choose Privacy Settings from the drop-down menu.

In the resulting screen choose Applications and Websites. Then look at the second option, What your friends can share about you.

Click “Edit Settings”. Facebook helpfully explains the reason for these options:

When your friend visits a Facebook-enhanced application or website, they may want to share certain information to make the experience more social. For example, a greeting card application may use your birthday information to prompt your friend to send a card. If your friend uses an application that you do not use, you can control what types of information the application can access. Please note that applications will always be able to access your publicly available information (Name, Profile Picture, Gender, Current City, Networks, Friend List, and Pages) and information that is visible to Everyone.

Uncheck what you don’t want shared. Note that any applications you use will ignore these settings for your friends. Even if you disallow Friends from letting applications see your birthday, if you let Birthday Card Sender know your birthday, it can access the information when your friend uses it to send you a card.

2) Again, hover over the top bar Settings link, then choose Privacy Settings from the drop-down menu. This time chose the Search option

This time Facebook pops up some damage control:

Worried about privacy? Your information is safe. There have been misleading rumors recently about Facebook indexing all your information on Google. This is not true. Facebook created public search listings in 2007 to enable people to search for your name and see a link to your Facebook profile.

Remember the other Facebook pop-up? “Information you choose to share with Everyone is available to everyone on the internet.” Sounds like more than a name and a link to me.

There are two Search settings. Internally on the Facebook network, or externally through Bing and Google.

Under Facebook Search Results, your only options are: Friends, Friends of Friends, Everyone. If you want to make yourself easily found by other Facebook users, set to Everyone. If you’re satisfied with your current 1,154 friends, then set it to Friends.

The more important settings is the one below. Public Search Results (Allow search engines to access your publicly available info and any information visible to Everyone)

You’re either in or out with this setting. It defaults to Enabled, but if you want Facebook to be a private repository of your your love of LOL CATZ pics and Dick Chaney, then you might want to disable Search Engine Indexing.

If you don’t care who sees knows you collect Hello Kitty figures and AK-47s, then keep Search Engine Indexing enabled.

photo credit: Spencer E Holtaway

1) Close Tweetdeck, Seesmic, Hootsuite or any cell apps that check your Twitter account.

2) Log into Twitter directly on the Web at http://twitter.com

3) Open “Settings” (It is on the top menu.)

4) See if you have a tab labeled “Connections.” If so, click it and deauthorize everything you find there. If you want, note and reauthorize later.

5) Go to the “Password” tab and change your password. Make it longer and stronger.

6) Clear your Browser cache and exit.

7) Restart the browser and log back into Twitter. Make sure you no longer have a “Connections” tab under settings. If you do, go back to step 3 and repeat.

8] If you use Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Seesmic or other such third-party apps, you will need to give them the new password. I recommend you not do so for 24 hours. The fewer sites that have your password during this problem the better.

If someone you know is sending out Twitter spam, send them to this article.

PS: You can follow me at @chuckwelch for hyperlocal journalism information and get social media tips aimed at not-for-profits and small businesses at @sitesmith