Well, this last week Facebook updated their privacy controls to more easily allow people to share their information more broadly.  Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg described the changes at length in an online letter to Facebook members.

Time will tell whether this was a smart move or not.  At least Facebook has kept the old privacy controls around, at least for now.  It will be interesting to see how this develops.

You might have considered using social media to help your school nutrition program better-manage relationships with both parents and students.  We know it’s not always easy to get started, so we created this report.

Inside, you’ll find helpful information about how people are using social media to talk about school and child nutrition.

Download the report today – it’s FREE!

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Here’s a preview of what you’ll find inside the report:

We took a look at three major social media websites, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, to see how people were using them to talk about school and child nutrition.  We found that industry professionals, schools, students, teachers, parents, mom bloggers, nutritional experts, interested business organizations, celebrities, and more are using social media to share information about school and child nutrition. Everyone is talking about what they are eating, reading, learning, and writing. They are sharing information, pictures, reports, lunch menus, and links to blogs, articles, tools, and videos. It’s clear that people care about the food they eat, and especially about the food that children eat.

The report can inform your strategy and help you connect with customers

Industry professionals can use this report to discover how their customers are using social media platforms. The data presented tells a vivid story of what is being said and how people speak about the industry.  It shares unbiased and unfiltered data, rich with insight. For those interested, it will help inform and educate, pointing the direction to a foundationally strong social media strategy.

The report is FREE to download – you don’t need to provide your email or even sign up for a list.  Download it today.

Traditional forms of communication don’t usually allow for dialogue – information usually flows in just one direction.  Email, your website, even letters you send home don’t make it easy for parents or kids to give you feedback or share their opinion about what you are doing with others. Today, that’s changed. Facebook is the 4th largest website in the world – everyone is using it.  And they’re using sites like Facebook and Twitter to share ideas and opinions with their friends.  They’re talking about what their kids are eating (and the kids are talking about lunch, too).

But you know all this.  That’s why you’re thinking about using using social media.  This doesn’t mean they’re not sharing their opinion, though.  You just weren’t part of the conversation.  Before social media, if someone liked or did not like your program, there wasn’t a venue to express this opinion. All a person could do was tell a few friends over a casual dinner conversation that they liked your program. Now, if someone likes what you are doing, they have a forum to communicate this. With the click of a mouse, they can tell hundreds or even thousands of people in a single moment how great your program is.

The same thing goes for negative comments. And despite your best efforts and intentions, there will come a time when someone will post an opinion of your work that is less than glowing. Perhaps the most common fear of using social media is the concern that someone will leave a negative comment, which will reflect poorly on your school nutrition program.

How do you handle negative comments – especially when you know that the whole world could be watching? We created the following list of things to keep in mind when dealing with negative comments.

1. Embrace the Negative.

More often than not, people who post negative comments are those who want to see your product improve. Embrace them. Get them involved in solving the problem. By demonstrating your openness to deal with the situation, you will boost their confidence in you. They may become your biggest advocate.

2. Face the Inevitability.

You are always at risk for negative feedback; yet at the same time, users expect to see it. If you have 99 positive comments and only one negative – the negative comment validates all the positive ones. Your followers will know that all the positive feedback is not propaganda.

3. Gain Home Court Advantage.

People are going to leave negative comments whether you like it or not. So why not give yourself home court advantage? If you deny your followers the forum to speak, they will leave the comments in places where you cannot easily reply and deal with the situation. Consider social media for own free alarm system. You will be alerted every time a parent or student has problem.

Negative comments offer the opportunity to improve your product and engage in meaningful conversation. “Home court advantage” creates an environment where your company has control of the situation and can easily minimize the impact that negative comments may have.

4. Patience is a Virtue.

It is important to remember not to react impulsively to a negative comment, although it may be very tempting. Take the time to fully understand the commenter’s position and formulate a reply.

By taking your time you are also allowing your other followers to react to the negative post. This can help you refine your response and they may end up fighting the battle for you.

5. Lost in Translation.

Humor and sarcasm are commonplace in our daily communication. But, it is important to remember that these expressions are often lost in translation in social media. Sometimes we perceive a comment as angry or negative, when in fact that is not always the intent. Remember to keep your communications clear, succinct and simple.

Social marketing is about engaging your customers and making them feel as though they are part of your organization. You shouldn’t be afraid of negative comments. They are part of the dialogue, and if handled correctly, they can lead to something positive. Everyone expects to see something negative and if they do not see it, they will search elsewhere for the real story. Embrace the negative. It’s not about controlling the discussion – it’s about joining it.

Twitter is a new, up-and-coming technology that allows people to share information and opinions through brief messages (under 140 characters). Twitter is ranked as one of the 50 most popular websites worldwide  and is the third most popular social networking tool.

If you are thinking about joining twitter, here are a few simple tips that will help you get started.

Step 1: Understand the Lingo

If you’re just getting started on Twitter, everything will seem like it is in another language – because it is!  Once you understand a few key terms, it is easy to know what is going on.

Step 2: Create your own Twitter Account

To get started, go to www.twitter.com and click on the “sign up now” button.  This will direct you to a new screen where you will be prompted to enter your personal information.

Your username is the name by which you will be identified on Twitter.   Pick a unique name; it is recommended that you use your own name so that others can easily find you. If you need additional help choosing a username, here are Eight Twitter Username Tips.

Next, you will be prompted to search your email address book (Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail or AOL accounts) so you can begin following them if they’re already on Twitter.  If you prefer to manually search for people to “follow,” simply click “skip this step.” Twitter then presents you with a list of popular groups or celebrities you can choose to follow.

Step 3: Personalize Your Account

To do this, click on the “settings” tab in the upper right hand corner of your profile.  This takes you to a tab based menu where you can edit your personal account information, create a bio, add an image of yourself and choose whether or not you want your profile to be public or private.

Perhaps one of the more important fields is the “one line bio” found under the “Account” tab.  The one line bio allows you to describe yourself in 160 characters or less.  It is common to see people use their professions and then something outside of work that interests them, as well.

Step 4: Start Looking for People to Follow

When you click on the “follow” button, it means you have signed up to receive any information that person publishes – you want to know what that person or organization is doing.  You can choose to follow or un-follow a person at any time.

Start searching for people you find interesting.  In the upper right hand side of your profile, click “find people.”  This takes you to a tab based searching tool where you can find others by username, first or last name, business or brand.  Here you can also invite friends to Twitter and search the Twitter’s recommended followers.

If you prefer to search by topic, try http://search.twitter.com/

Step 5:  Tweet, Tweet, Tweet

Start posting tweets.  Share your thoughts – your knowledge.  Share articles you find that will be useful to your followers.  If you find something interesting posted by a person you follow, share it with your followers by “retweeting”.  To do this, type RT@USERNAME (the username of the person who originally posted it) and then type their tweet.

Once your account is complete, you may feel out of place.  There is a lot to learn about Twitter – not to mention a new language.  However, once you start tweeting and become familiar with the network, you will begin to realize how powerful a tool it can be and the benefits it can bring.

I Don’t Want My Co-Workers to Know About My Personal Life

• Problem: How do you separate your personal connections with those of your professional network?
• Privacy Setting: Facebook allows you to create “lists,” which, in essence, categorizes your Facebook friends into groups. This allows you to differentiate the information that your professional network can access compared to your personal network.
• Where can I learn more?
  
  1. Here is a detailed video of how to separate “lists” inside of Facebook
     

I Don’t Want Everyone to See My Pictures

• Problem: What if someone takes an embarrassing picture of me and has tagged me in the photo for all to see? I don’t want my co-workers to know about my personal life.
• Privacy Setting: Facebook allows you to control and monitor what pictures are available to your friends. 
• Example: I want everyone to see the pictures of our family Christmas card, but I only want my family to see the album of our recent vacation.
• Where can I learn more?
  
  1. Facebook explains how to protect your pictures here.

I Don’t Want to Share My Contact Information with Everyone

• Problem: Facebook is asking for my personal contact information like phone and email.
• Privacy Setting: Facebook allows you to make your contact information private. By editing this setting, you have the ability to individualize who can see what specific contact information you have posted.
• Example: I want to share my email address with co-workers, but want my phone number restricted to close family and friends.
• Where can I learn more?
  
  1. Facebook explains how to protect your contact information here.

I Don’t Want Inappropriate Comments Linked to My Profile

• Problem: Facebook allows other people to write on my wall. I don’t want people to write inappropriate comments on my profile.
• Privacy Setting: Facebook gives you control to monitor and restrict permission for who can write comments on your wall.
• Example: I want to post how happy I am for the working week to be over, but I don’t want my boss to read it.
• Where can I learn more?
  
  1. Facebook explains how to moderate comments.

I Don’t Want to Know Everything That Some of My Friends Post

• Problem: Some friends spend too much time on Facebook. They continually post time wasting links and information. But, I don’t want to unfriend them/
• Privacy Setting: Facebook allows you to “hide” people, events, topics, and links that show in your news feed.
• Example: My cousin is always posting quiz results. I’ve “hidden” his comments and no longer see those posts.
• Where can I learn more?
  1. Facebook explains how to do this here.