As founder of SocialNewsDesk, I work with dozens of stations and on-air journalists who have concerns over security with social media. Some are afraid of the technology, some are afraid of offending viewers and some are even afraid of compromising their own personal safety. To help allay some of these fears, I recently interviewed four anchor/reporters to find out how they would answer some of the most common questions about Facebook best practices for on-air talent:

1. Should I have a personal profile or fan page?

Tammie Fields, Anchor/Reporter WTSP: “I have a personal (profile) page and a professional (fan) page – my personal Facebook (profile) is only made up of people I know well, family, news buddies, and less than half a dozen viewers who are trusted contacts.” NOTE: This is the prevailing suggestion for how best to set-up your Facebook accounts.

Jennifer Bauer, Reporter KPRC: “When I first joined Facebook I joined as “Jennifer Bauer” and accepted all friend requests. I didn’t feel comfortable posting “personal” things on that (profile) with so many strangers as “friends.” So, I separated the two. “Jennifer Bauer” remained my professional page and I created a maiden name page. I try not to use my maiden name on the Bauer page at all so viewers can’t connect the dots and discover what my legal name is. But a few friends who are friends on both pages have tagged me in some pictures as both Bauer and (maiden name), so I’m afraid my secret is out now!”

Staci Spanos, Anchor WJXT: “I basically don’t have a personal Facebook page. I’ve let viewers onto Staci Spanos (profile) and WJXT Staci Spanos (fan page). It’s just easier that way.”

Lauren Freeman, Anchor KPRC: “I honestly never had a Facebook account until the station recommended we all get one. I wasn’t crazy about the idea but now I love it. It does give you a chance to reconnect with old friends and communicate with viewers.”

2. What should I post?

Tammie Fields, Anchor/Reporter WTSP: “Out of fear of offending anyone, I have opted not to post anything on my personal profile. I just feel there’s too much at stake and once you post your personal opinions on some things you can never take them back. I do not post party pics or anything that shows me in what could be viewed in a negative light. I feel like when you’re a journalist it’s critical that you try to remain as neutral as possible. I really do care more about learning about other people’s opinions instead of posting my own.”

Jennifer Bauer, Reporter KPRC: “I will post a couple of personal pictures, (and) I’m not afraid to talk about my husband or my family. But I keep majority of the content business related. On my personal (profile) page it’s exactly opposite, I’m much more open about what I post.”

Staci Spanos, Anchor WJXT: “I make it a point to attempt to limit the amount of pics of the kids. I rarely post photos of them and occasionally I’ll un-tag some that make their way onto the page. I will say that for me, it’s important to have some pics of the kids because people identify with you more. And gosh darn it, they’re so cute!!”

3) Should I accept viewers as “friends” on my personal profile page?

Tammie Fields, Anchor/Reporter WTSP: “For some time I would not accept any friends on my personal (profile) page that were not my family and close friends. But that has changed. Today I have less than half a dozen viewers who are trusted contacts who I allow on that page. But again there is nothing on that page except for a message that directs them to check out my Fan Page. The reason I still don’t want most viewers and people I don’t know on my personal (profile) page is because I do cover stories in which the subjects don’t like me and might come after me. I do not want my friends, family and former co-workers to be targeted or even contacted due to me. I know how easy it is to try to contact friends of someone on Facebook because as a journalist I do it all the time.” (Ed. note: I think that’s an important safety tip.)

Jennifer Bauer, Reporter KPRC: “Right now I have about 40 friend requests from people I don’t know on my (maiden name profile) page – I won’t accept them.”

4) What details should I post about my story assignment?

Tammie Fields, Anchor/Reporter WTSP: “I post very little personal information. I almost never post where I am and where I am going unless I think it may help me with a story. For example I will post a movie review hours or even days after watching the flick. But if a tornado has just been spotted and I am being sent there to cover it, I will post a short message on Facebook like “Headed to Lakeland. Tornado spotted. Did you see it?” in hopes that someone who lives in the area or knows someone in the area will reach out to me to provide details by phone or talk on camera.”

Jennifer Bauer, Reporter KPRC: “One thing that concerns me with privacy is revealing exact locations. For example, if I’m doing a live shot from a particular intersection or at a specific business I try not to tell people where I’m going to be and at what time to avoid getting visitors.”

5) How should I deal with inappropriate contact from Fans on Facebook?

Tammie Fields, Anchor/Reporter WTSP: “Yes, I have had inappropriate contact from so-called fans on several occasions. I have had to tighten my security controls and I have had to block a handful of people from posting directly onto my fan page. For example after a recent series of stories on a former Klansman running for mayor of Lake Wales, I received quite a few hate emails. Then the contact spread to my Facebook page, where viewers were posting articles and comments directly to my page. They have since been blocked from weighing in on my page and their comments have been removed. I have also had a few men make inappropriate comments on my page and one has sent numerous messages to me through Facebook that were inappropriate. I have blocked those viewers.”

Jennifer Bauer, Reporter KPRC: “In this crazy world, I don’t think we can be too careful. I do get some strange, over the top messages from people on occasion. It’s tough. Sometimes I feel rude if I don’t reply to a message from a viewer. That is the point of Facebook right? So I will reply. But often that’s when it starts to get creepy.”

6) What happens if I switch stations?

Jennifer Bauer, Reporter KPRC: “I did have a fan page at (my former station) WJXT (because it was required) and I will soon have a fan page at KPRC too (also required.) The reason I didn’t get rid of my Jennifer Bauer Personal Profile was because I had so many friends. I didn’t want to leave them. Now, I’m glad I didn’t, because when I left WJXT my fan page was deactivated but I still had my 2,000 friends on the profile page. I brought them with me to Texas!”

Suzanne Geha, a former anchor at WOOD-TV used her personal profile to connect with viewers after her sudden departure from the market she worked in for 30 years. For more, check out Lost Remote’s article on Suzanne.

If you’re still not sure if your Facebook fan page is secure, here are some tips about on-air fan page security settings that might put your mind at ease. And the journalists I spoke to also shared their Top 3 Tips for On-Air Talent and Facebook Fan Pages which include how to share personal photos with only a select few of your “Friends,” and how to get the best engagement with your fans.

If you’re interested in writing a guest column for Lost Remote, send us a tweet @lostremote.

There are times with clients when you get on the same page within minutes. Great conversations. Birds of a feather. The conversation always turns to the station/newspaper outlet’s brand. And here is where Brand Marketers have a window of opportunity the observe the gap and do something about it. So we come to the point of the conversation of “we all, more or less agree,” If we can’t get here, the process ends. There can, of course, be more research to bolster the side you’re supporting.

I once consulted for a substantial, traditional midwestern newspaper, charged with analyzing whether the company should start a 24-hour regional news channel We had some very early numbers that the market would support ad sales to make a 24-hour regional news channel spring forward and establish itself as the new, hipper news organization. Here is where the discussion dropped off: The paper’s big boss was all about his newspaper’s brand. I tried to give an example from history: I spoke of how a video-centric local media usually exceeded our expectations (And our expectations were on the order of improving traffic by two-to-three times within 8 weeks. We saw these kinds of number.)

The News Boss said “I don’t want to have any product that doesn’t have our newspaper’s name as the banner product.”

I asked “Even if it could make money?”

He didn’t quite respond, but I’ve spoken enough to know when I haven’t had my point.

This week, the local Blockbuster around the corner from One LR Plaza, East Coast Division, is holding a GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE. Blockbuster should have been Netflix. But they were worried putting movies online would result in channel eruption – that they would piss off the bricks and mortar franchisees. Borders is shutting down as well, one of the major book companies that couldn’t wrap its arms around the next step.

Now we get back to the problem of The Brand vs The Slogan. Let’s see: is the “Live Local Breaking News” tag more compelling than “Your number one news station?” Whatever the successful stations are doing, you can argue they have a top brand in local media. HOWEVER, that brand is a very limited eyecatcher. Imagine if NBC decided that the NBC NEWS brand was huge. Every show out there should be branded “NBC NEWS’S Who Do You Think You Are?

Then there’s this: your online audience is different that your broadcast audience. If you had a radio station and a TV station, you wouldn’t run the same programming. You’re trying to get to different people. If you decide that you will only replicate the broadcast experience on your website, then you’ll only get – at best – part of your existing TV audience. Wouldn’t you like to do better?

Oh – and let’s talk “Core Competency.” It’s amazing how many ideas can be shot down by a single voice that tsk tsks and says “That’s not our core competency.” Maybe that’s true. But should that end an initiative? Companies add disciplines regularly. They evaluate an idea, build out a business plan and if it looks like a winner, the project is a GO. Your core competency is not “making a newspaper.” It’s developing new ways to collect and disseminate valuable local media information. (As they put in that wonderful National Car Rental Ad: “Your Core Competency is… Competency!)

Another example comes from Coca-Cola. Coke has dozens of sodas for sale across the world. When Coke added Canada Dry Ginger Ale to its offerings, Coke didn’t insist the beverage change its name to Coca-Cola Dry Ginger Ale Each product stands on its own brand, and each contributes to the Coca-Cola Company’s coffers.

I fear things about my business all the time. Don’t let the TBD mess serve as anything more than a single data point. Its radical change came about because of intractable culture changes, not because the finances flopped within four weeks. People need local news and information. No – not in the way they used to. And we may mourn that. But then we can see that we have to program and daypart content and advertising because we’re trying to hit different audiences. Be Bold. And when you do so, give it more than a few months, especially if the public feedback and online social media is pulling for you. (Which you can also build online via social media.)

Some examples: “Now you see her, now you don’t,” “She clears everything up,” and the usual more adult responses. Participants then get to vote on the winner. And there is perfect symmetry for “The Social Network” star: to participate on the site, you need to log in through… that’s right… Facebook Connect.

OK, maybe that’s overstating the point. But not by much. You can still hear the “thud” from Groupon‘s ads coming-out during the Super Bowl. The ads scored the lowest on the Brand Bowl‘s “Sentiment” rating with a -4.8. Only two other companies out of 39 went into negative numbers. (Sentiment is calculated as the percentage of positive tweets about the ad versus the negative tweets.) In pie chart form (everyone loves a pie chart), it looks like this:

Via Brand Bowl 2011

Another interesting note: the number of tweets about the Groupon ads is actually climbing this morning. It’s watercooler stuff today, only not in a good way.

This article isn’t about how the ad campaign failed. It’s about how it could have succeeded. And I really only have one question:

How did Groupon, a company rich in understanding of social media, not use social media to co-produce an ad campaign with the audience?

I’m not pioneering an idea here. Doritos has had fan-made commercials for a few years. The company puts the ads up for a vote and runs the winner during the Super Bowl. This year’s winning ad cost just $500 to make. (Puzzlingly, the Doritos ad on YouTube has disabled sharing functionality.) Volkswagen, as Cory pointed out, had the great idea of posting “The Force” on YouTube before the ad appeared on television. There were 12 million views of “The Force” before it even hit TV. Does anyone think the TV audience thought: “Oh, I’ve seen that on YouTube. I’m going to the bathroom.” My guess is that the opposite happened, and that people who had seen the ad on YouTube were saying “Quiet! You have to see this ad!”

I suspect it’s not a coincidence that the Doritos and Volkswagen ads finished first and second, respectively, in the Brand Bowl ratings. Groupon had a shot at being at the top of the pack, too. Its product is well-known and very popular. Instead, Groupon went the usual route: hire an ad agency, make some ads, focus-group them, and put them on TV. That can work. But there’s a better way, especially for a socially-savvy company.

Groupon should have led the charge of social advertising. It could have used the millions of dollars it spent on TV ads and come up with a first-rate online campaign. You want a mass audience? Volkswagen has 15 million views of this writing for a campaign which cost exactly zero to post. Now, that’s not hundreds of millions of people, but it’s a dream target audience: people online who like to share social media. Sounds like Groupon’s key demographic to me.

Groupon would be smart to issue a self-deprecating statement today. You can diffuse a PR problem with humor and humility.

Online, the world is a focus group. You’re not stuck with the views of 20 people in a sweaty room watching ad after ad and rating them using those round meter knobs. You have unlimited potential for creativity, feedback and even production. If you have an ad that fails, you’ll know before it hits TV. The upside of Super Bowl ads is that you’re exposed to hundreds of millions of people. Same goes for the downside.

UPDATE: Arkansas’ Fayetteville Flyer has put together a Twitter and Flick aggregator for its community, using the hashtag #nwasnow11 (Northwest Arkansas Snow 2011, I’m guessing).

UPDATE: Check out our poll

“Scribd is the world’s largest social reading and publishing company. We’ve made it easy to share and discover entertaining, informative and original written content across the web and mobile devices. Our vision is to liberate the written word, to connect people with the information and ideas that matter most to them.”

The site also allows websites to embed documents a la YouTube and the information is easily shared on Facebook, Twitter and the usual social suspects. It would be a great service if you or your station were to put up your own documents on Scribd.

“Julie DeTraglia (VP of Strategic Digital Research at) NBC said her network is paying attention to the social engagement that occurs during TV shows. Specifically (NBC is looking at) tweets that are happening and trending during their broadcasts… Kay Madati (VP of Audience Experience at) CNN said his network is trying to be very aware of the viewers’ experience. (It is looking at) how tweets look on screen (and) what value they add. (It is also investigating) how people can interact and get value from the integration of data.”

Check out the video of the Q&A with DeTraglia via LR Pal Steve Garfield:

(HT to our friend Stephanie Kord-Miller.)

You Tube’s World View is a “series of monthly interviews with the world’s foremost leaders, where you ask the questions.” The questions are already flying and, as you may imagine, they reflect the rich variety of opinion online. Obviously, the president will only have time to answer a few of the more than 20,000 questions asked so far. Still, it gives webbies a chance to ask questions. The number one question right now is about the legalization of pot. YouTube will stream the event at 2:30 pm ET on Thursday, January 27th. (YouTube is also live streaming the State of the Union speech at 9 p.m. tonight.) What would you ask the president?

“(Facebook is) not our main driver of traffic, but we’re seeing a steady increase over the past few years. I can only expect it to continue. I don’t have the raw statistics to show that increase, but we still get the vast majority of traffic through our home page, whether it’s people who type out the NYTimes.com URL or bookmark it.”

(Later in piece) “I think the jury is still out in how much benefit we get from those efforts. We’re still trying to figure out whether it’s worth our while. My gut instinct is it’s definitely is worth our while and that if we can do that on subjects from politics to sports, we’d like to do more of that.”

It’s interesting to me that getting 50-60% of visits to your homepage is still considered a good number. When social media was driving 2-3% of traffic, plenty of people scoffed at it. Now that it’s in double digits, it’s clearly a part of any successful website strategy.

Also worth noting: The goal of being on Facebook and Twitter is not just to drive traffic. Just as we can’t prove web visits increase viewership, using social media is not only for getting bigger visitor numbers. It’s a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison to see visitors coming directly to your site vs. numbers driven by Facebook. The goal is to meet the audience on their own terms and engage them. In the long run, that will help your image tremendously.

I don’t want to take too much from Glaser’s excellent Q&A, so here’s just one more nugget.

Those are serious numbers. And when you consider that the average Twitter user has about 140 followers, and the average Facebook user has about 130 “friends,” the potential reach of your audience is massive. Remember: people don’t just retweet – they retweet retweets and so on.

Social media is not a panacea for local media web traffic. But it is more more piece of the overall strategy. The New York Times looked at its initial social efforts, adjusted its staff accordingly and is now moving on with a new strategy. That’s what we’re talking about. Experiment, experiment, experiment.