Nail pops are a common problem with drywall and usually there are a few that need to be addressed every time you repaint a room.
Screws and Nails
Most drywall today is glued and screwed. Nails are sometimes used to tack the drywall in place. Once in place, the drywall is screwed to secure it to the framing. The two fasteners are treated a little differently upon repairing the "pop".
Repairing
Remove the loose drywall to expose the fastener, if it is a screw - tighten the screw into the wood framing until firm. If the fastener is a nail, usually the nail is removed and a screw is added an inch or two from the nail hole to replace the offending nail.
Depress or "dimple" the whole pop so that it is below the surface of the drywall using a hammer (tap lightly - do not tear or break the drywall paper face when dimpling), and fill with drywall compound.
It will take a couple or three coats of drywall compound to completely smooth out the repair. Often fast setting drywall compound is used to speed up the process so that the repair may be completed in one day. A hair dryer can be used to force dry the fast setting compound even quicker.
Once dry, sand the repair smooth, dust off or vacuum and prime.
What primer?
If spot priming
If you are painting over a flat painted surface I use a new construction PVA primer. If the nail pop occurred on a semigloss wall / ceiling you will need to degloss the area around the nail pop via deglosser or sanding so that the PVA primer will adhere. PVA primers are not known to have exceptional adhesion to glossy surfaces, so the deglossing is necessary on a semigloss or glossy surface.
If total priming
If you are intending to prime the entire wall / ceiling you may use a stain blocking primer such as Zinsser's Coverstain (oil). Normally spot priming with a stain blocking primer will result in shiners or flashing where you spot primed so I don't recommend them for spot priming, but they are excellent primers when used to prime in total.
Painting
Once the primer is dry through and through (see label for recoat time), you may paint. Often over a wall / ceiling you will need to double coat if there were repairs and spackling done on the wall / ceiling in order to achieve sheen uniformity. The exception to this rule would be for flat paint.
This video demonstration shows the repair process involved with nail pops. A note that I would add to this is: I would replace the extracted nail with a screw.
Repairing Nail Pops
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