Facebook’s recent enhancements to the functionality and features of Facebook Groups include several key security features. With new administrative powers and exclusive group content, you can now expand how you use these small Facebook communities – and feel more at ease in the process.

Check out these latest changes:

Admin approval

When Facebook launched Groups in October, anyone could add new group members. The updates released earlier this week change that feature so that now a Group administrator needs to approve any additions to the group. This gatekeeper function should make members even more comfortable sharing within these trusted networks.

Sharing photos

You’ve probably heard a horror story about someone losing his or her job over an inappropriate photo posted to or tagged on Facebook. Now that photo albums have been added to Facebook Groups, such stories could be a thing of the past. Today, Group members can post photos to a group and tag people in photos that show up only within that group. The tagged photos don’t transition to a person’s profile for people outside of the group to see.

Although we’d never advocate it, if you’re the type of person who goes to parties and posts wild pics on Facebook, you might want to consider starting a Group for sharing those images. That way you can share your crazy night – but only with the appropriate friends.

Personal questions

Imagine you’ve got a unique medical condition, nothing serious but distinctive enough that it’s not something your friends would understand. Other than your doc, where do you turn for advice or to learn how others cope with the condition?

Well, Facebook has brought its new Questions functionality into the Groups setting. Now you can ask or answer a question posted inside the Group without it posting for all your friends to see. This feature allows you to open up about topics too personal to post to your entire network.

Social Media Intern Search a Success

In December, we announced our search for a few great high school students to land a gig working with jhP as social media interns for Safe Streets Coalition. The high schoolers chosen would not only get paid to build the Safe Streets social media presence, but would have the opportunity to work at an advertising agency and learn digital strategy from professionals.

We’re excited about the response we received – more than a dozen students from five schools applied. The application process required candidates to write a blog post and prepare a multimedia component that brought out several creative executions: videos, photo essays and a few interactive slide presentations. The applications showcased so much talent and creativity that it was difficult for us to narrow down the candidate pool. We asked six students to come in for an interview, and ultimately selected two for a spring-semester internship.

And the winners are …

We’re proud to introduce Hannah Helmke, a senior from Shawnee Heights, and Riley Ringgold, a junior from Washburn Rural, as our Safe Streets social media interns! These two bring great energy and creativity and are passionate about making sure their peers know there are a lot of fun things to do that don’t involve alcohol.

Riley and Hannah have already participated in some background research and focus groups while preparing to launch the Safe Streets Topeka teen Facebook page “Remembering Last Night.” They will maintain the page during their internship, with oversight from the jhP social media staff. Our goal is for area students to see the site as a resource and a safe channel for communication about underage drinking. The jhP staff will also work with Hannah and Riley to create photo and video content for the Facebook page and collateral materials to support their efforts.

We want to hear from you!

If you’re interested in reducing underage drinking – or have ideas of ways we can reach out to more students – please let us know. We’re very interested in making this social media internship a great experience for everyone!

Last week’s updates to Facebook Groups make the tool more useful and efficient by bringing content directly to you.

Originally, groups were developed with a pull-strategy. End-users had to physically go to the group page to learn new information – limiting communication within the group. Facebook’s new groups rely on a push-strategy and increased vehicles for communication, so users can stay current on group activity without visiting the group page.

Here are the main highlights of the recent updates:

• Notifications: Members of a Facebook Group can receive notifications when something is posted to the group.
• Group Chat: Members have the ability to enter into a chat with any number of people from that group, even if they’re not Friends with them.
• Email: Members can arrange to receive emails when something is posted on the group page. Groups can even create a group email address that allows users to participate on the page even when they aren’t on Facebook. Emails sent from the group email address will show up as posts on the group page.

As with many updates, people have noted a few drawbacks to the new changes:

1. Opt-out issue: Just like with Facebook Places, friends can add you to a group without your permission, thereby making you a member. If you don’t want to be a member, you will need to go into the group and remove yourself. (Note that only your friends can add you to a group, not a random stranger.)
2. Noise: If you’re in a really active group, you could be overwhelmed by the number of notifications you receive. Also, in some respects, group chats are similar to personal chats. The only way to avoid or fully disengage from a chat is to change your chat status to “go offline.”

As the masses adjust to the changes, the new Facebook Groups should become a more effective way to communicate within Facebook. The updates allow you to share information with a select group of friends/family, instead of posting the details on your Wall for all your friends to see.

Have you created or participated in any new groups yet? If so, what do you think about them?

Although we infrequently work with political campaigns, jhP team members regularly follow local politics and greatly appreciate those who volunteer to lead our communities. To support their efforts, Jake Huyett recently spoke to those attending Candidate School at the Topeka Shawnee County Public Library. He discussed the marketing and advertising that a candidate should be prepared to do, and presented helpful pointers and guidelines. As an example, Jake explained how candidates should use social media as a key component of a successful campaign.

To help you set up a Facebook Page for your candidate – from local school board to statewide government – download these simple, step-by-step instructions and get started!

With location-based networks taking the social media world by storm, it’s no surprise Facebook was quick to develop its own version of social check-ins. Facebook Places was released late Wednesday evening in select regions across the country and became available in the Topeka area late last night.

Similar to networks like Foursquare and Gowalla, Places allows users to check-in at locations using the Facebook application (currently iPhone only) or accessing their mobile websites (available on any phone that supports W3 geolocation). Users can see if friends are nearby, view those friends who have previously checked in and receive notifications of nearby businesses that may be of interest. Check-ins will be posted on status updates on the Places page for that location and on the wall of tagged friends.

Yes, “tagged friends.” One major difference between Places and other networks is the ability to tag your friends when you check-in. So if Joe and Susie go to dinner and Joe uses Places, he can also tag Susie – thereby posting a comment to her wall notifying anyone who can see her wall of Susie’s exact location. This may seem innocent enough, but there could be any number of reasons why Susie (or you) doesn’t want to broadcast her location.

Here are four easy steps to hiding your location:

1. Access your Privacy Settings in the Account drop down tab on your page, then select the Customize settings link near the bottom of the page.

2. If you’re not comfortable with other people checking in and seeing you are also checked in, go to the ‘Include me in “People here Now” after I check in’ option and uncheck the Enable box.

3. On the same page, select the drop down menu next to “Places I check in” and choose who you’d like to share your location with: Everyone, Friends and Network, Friends of Friends, Friends or Customize. If you don’t want anyone to see your location, we recommend going with the Customize option and then selecting “Only Me” from the “These People” drop down menu. Don’t forget to save your settings!

4. Finally, if you’re not comfortable with the thought of friends tagging you, scroll down to the “Things others share” section on the Privacy page. Then select Disable from the drop down menu next to “Friends can check me in to Places.” Now you’re the only one that can check yourself into a location.

Stay tuned for an upcoming post about the opportunities of participating in Facebook Places.