Alexander and Associates Inc.

Social Media Yak: Where Facebook is the backyard barbecue, Twitter is the cocktail party, LinkedIn is the business meeting and MySpace is the smokers in the alley.

Social Media Yak features some of the best thinkers, advisers and creators in social media today. Below is a list of past and upcoming guests. If you’re interested in being on the show, contact us! Social Media Yak shows run from 7:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. on KIDO AM 580.

Saturday, May 19: Teenagers and social media Part 2. Connie Benke, a counselor at Vallivue High School and an adjunct professor in George Fox University’s Social and Behavioral Sciences Department, is back for Part 2 to help us understand some of the issues surrounding teen use of social media. According to a recent survey, 76 percent of teens ages 12-17 use social media sites, making them the spaces where much of teen life is developed and amplified – in ways both good and bad. Adding to the complexity of teenage life, social media offer new opportunities for teens find recognition for their talents, praise from their peers and arrange activities, but there’s  also a darker side that involves bullying, abuse, fighting and rumor amplification. As a licensed Professional Counselor, Benke also enjoys a private practice, working with clients as well as teaching classes on a variety of topics including relationship health, emotional intelligence, and building a better Self.

Saturday, May 12: Teenagers and social media Part 1. According to a recent survey, 76 percent of teens ages 12-17 use social media sites, making them the spaces where much of teen life is developed and amplified – in ways both good and bad. Adding to the complexity of teenage life, social media offer new opportunities for teens find recognition for their talents, praise from their peers and arrange activities, but there’s  also a darker side that involves bullying, abuse, fighting and rumor amplification. Connie Benke, a counselor at Vallivue High School and an adjunct professor in George Fox University’s Social and Behavioral Sciences Department, will help us understand some of these issues As a licensed Professional Counselor, Benke also enjoys a private practice, working with clients as well as teaching classes on a variety of topics including relationship health, emotional intelligence, and building a better Self.  Podcast

Saturday, May 5: Social media creating philanthropy. Giving away free dry cleaning and car washes, holding innovative fundraisers and sponsoring events – these have long been a part of businesses, but there’s some evidence social media are making local businesses more philanthropic. Social Media consultant Martin Johncox of Alexander and Associates Public Relations explains why local businesses are doing more good deeds and how your club or nonprofit can best work Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media. Martin also updates us on some unusual social media-related news. Podcast

Saturday, April 28: LinkedIn for sales and competitive intelligence. Whether you’re in sales, prospecting new leads, or looking for more information about a new business in town, LinkedIn a good resource for competitive information. Learn how to strategically grow your network of contacts to open doors to new business and improve your competitive intelligence. Doug Metzgar, owner of Meshwork Marketing, provides some answers. Doug helps businesses get the most out of social media tools, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and others. Podcast

Saturday, April 21: Engage or die. Facebook is trying to pull people and businesses out of their shells and Timeline is the latest example of it. The wall of a business page is now front-and-center and the interaction between customers and business – for better or worse – is getting more play. Today’s guest is Dave Clark, owner of Social Media Gurus, a company that specializes in assisting small businesses with Facebook pages. Clark will help us understand how businesses and customers can better use Facebook, as well as other social media. Podcast

Saturday, April 14. No, you can’t have my social media passwords! Martin Johncox, consultant at Alexander and Associates, riffs on a variety of topics: New platform overload, what is relevance and the obnoxious trend of prospective employers asking for your Facebook passwords so they can log into your account and see your personal messages. Podcast

Saturday, April 7. Keeping up with changes Just blink once and it seems as though a couple of new social media have appeared and Facebook has changed its settings and format. Many people find the constant change overwhelming and we’re getting some guidance from Dana Pethia, Pacific Northwest regional development director for Constant Contact. Dana will share some up-to-the-minute best practices for small business social media marketing, good content development, connecting with your fans and how email can amplify these efforts. Dana’s advice will help local businesses, nonprofits, clubs and even individuals seeking to use social media more effectively. Podcast

Saturday, March 31. Unbanning Facebook. Does your boss let you access Facebook at work? More than half of all employers block at-work access to Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, but St. Luke’s Health System is going the opposite direction. Ken Dey, St. Luke’s social media manager, explains how he persuaded Idaho’s largest hospital group to embrace social media as a way to improve the company’s outreach and image. With properly trained employees, social media can benefit a business. Ken explains the risks and advantages of this approach and what local businesses and employees might want to consider. Podcast

Saturday, March 24, 2012. Manners. Are you a social media oaf? Used to be, manners were clearly defined, but social media create new ways for people to offend each other. How do you handle defriending and blocking on Facebook or Twitter? And how obnoxious is it when your business adopts a personal profile? Etiquette expert, certified life coach and author Marie Dubuque examines manners in the digital age with Martin Johncox, whose beloved sixth-grade teacher rejected his friend request and left him crushed. Podcast

Saturday, March 17, 2012: Safety. So, you just updated your Facebook status with a photo of your family in the Bahamas and you’ve got two weeks left on your vacation. Depending on your privacy settings, tens or even hundreds of thousands of people can see that – and a few might be looking for a house to burglarize. Lynn Hightower, communications director for the Boise Police Department, helps us understand how to use social media more safely. Podcast

Saturday, March 10, 2012: New social media. Pinterest? Foursquare? GetGlue? If you feel like you’re being pelted with new social media platforms, help is on the way. Jennifer Harris, Internet content specialist at D&B Supply, will help us make sense of some of the newest platforms. Since 2005, Jen has been helping businesses and clients adopt new social media with BlueLine Marketing, Caffeinated Marketing, MPC Computers, T-Sheets, Consilio and Citadel Broadcasting. Jen and host Martin Johncox will discuss a few of the new social platforms attracting the most attention and how to figure out which you might want to try out. Podcast

Saturday, March 3, 2012: Personal branding with Justin Foster, a brand strategist with plenty of lift-the-top-of-your-head-off-and-expose-your-brain concepts. Branding isn’t just for soda and cars; each of us is a brand and others judge us on our relevance . His book “Oatmeal vs. Bacon” should be required reading for all humans. Podcast

Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012: Social media and legal issues Can you really get sued for shooting off your mouth on social media? And what can your boss do if you say something bad about the company on Facebook? Is it really legal for employers to monitor your social media use? We get the facts from Saundra McDavid, who teaches classes on law, technology and business strategy at several universities. Podcast

Saturday, Feb.18, 2012: Facebook for small business How can you make your Facebook business page relevant, grow your fans, deal with customers and use your page to conduct business?  Doug Metzgar, owner of Meshwork Marketing, provides some answers. Doug helps businesses get the most out of social media tools, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and others. For the Facebook Agitation Report segment, he’ll provide some advice on Facebook’s new Timeline feature. Podcast

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/05/06/2105276/paul-backers-seek-second-opinion.html

Mashable has a very good blog entry about a security problem in Facebook. I had noticed this myself but not thought much of it – a new admin can boot old admins, effectively stealing the page from its creators. Social media and public relations consultants need to be aware of this and be very, very careful in grant admin permissions. Apply this standard: If any one admin booted off all the other admins, would your client still be in good hands?

A Facebook security flaw — or, perhaps, a misunderstanding — lets Page administrators boot original Page creators from admin status, effectively enabling new admins to hijack Pages, the blog Naked Security reports.

One could argue that this is working as intended. If the creator of a Facebook Page lets someone else in as admin, they should have equal administrative rights, correct? Wrong. Facebook’s FAQ clearly states that “the original creator of the Page may never be removed by other Page admins.”

Unfortunately, as evidenced in the video embedded below, a newly appointed Page admin can remove the Page creator’s admin status, which can be very nasty in certain cases. Today, Facebook Pages are more than fun, they’re a serious part of business promotion and losing administrative access to a Page can lead to host of problems.

Is it a security flaw or simply an error in Facebook’s FAQ? According to the Register, it’s the latter. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter, because the discrepancy between the FAQ and reality creates confusion either way.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for further clarification on the matter and will update this post accordingly.

In the meantime, we’d like to hear about your experiences with the flaw. Have you ever had a Facebook Page hijacked by another admin? How was it resolved, if at all?

Thanks to the Idaho Statesman for recently publishing our advice column on Facebook for businesses. This column was in the Feb. 1, 2011 weekly Business Insider. The Insider is a subscription-only publication so this column is only available online to subscribers. To assist, I have republished my column here. I will be submitting these columns

How to avoid common Facebook business mistakes 2-1-11 by Martin Johncox

“I love your salon! Great prices and employees.”

“Thanks for being there when I needed you. I am a huge fan of your auto shop.”

“I feel much better now after my treatment. Thanks for taking care of me!”

These are great comments on the Facebook pages of businesses in Boise and elsewhere. Unfortunately, it is very unlikely anyone will see them.

That’s because the business Facebook page had its default view setting at “only posts by page.” In other words, when visitors come to the page, all the wall has are posts by the business (page admin). In order to see comments from fans, visitors have to click on the small box at the top of the page that says “Business page + others.” Many don’t know to do this, or don’t bother. As a result, the love from fans is hidden and largely unnoticed. As public relations and social media consultants, we administer dozens of Facebook pages and we always set them to display comments by fans and the page.

If you’re concerned about getting too many customer complaints on your wall, get off of Facebook entirely until you fix your customer satisfaction problems. To do well on Facebook, a business needs a fan base of people who love its brand. If people don’t like your business, you’ve got much deeper problems. You shouldn’t mind an occasional customer complaint or concern, and indeed, it will make your business seem authentic and engaged if you handle it correctly. Only delete comments that are obscene or in bad taste.

I think Facebook should make “posts by page + posts by others” as the default. Until then, Facebook page admins will need to make sure the page landing setting is at “Business page + others.” To do this, the page admin needs to go to the top of the page posts (below the comment box) and click “settings” to the right. Under “default view for wall,” make sure the setting is “all posts.”