College Units Should Utilize Facebook to Attract, Engage, and Inform

College Units Should Utilize Facebook to Attract, Engage, and Inform (http://wf2dnvr15.webfeat.org/)

            Colleges around the world continually work to increase enrollment, retain current students and connect with their alumni. While social media is not a replacement for traditional practices used to reach these goals, it does provide many features that are not available using previous strategies. Current and potential students are accustomed to institutions meeting them where they live, but now they are living online and on Facebook. Communication with disparate groups and programs can be achieved by creating and properly maintaining Facebook profiles.

Virtual social-networking tools should be implemented with the stated goal of enriching user experiences. “By highlighting events and ideas and asking questions, running contests, and linking news stories and other hot items on the Web,” “likers” are encouraged to explore the areas that interest them most. Visitors should be provided with dynamic postings of pertinent information on a number of items which most closely relate to the anticipated target market. By expanding posts to include information about more diverse hyperlinked topics, one expands the sphere of influence and increases engagement; this is in direct opposition to the practice of presenting only the information that previously would have been included in a department’s press release.  The most successful college Facebook pages subscribe to this view.

It's important to stay casual and connect with users on a personal level.”  That means being honest, millennial’s are experts at spotting pretenders. “Social media doesn't work if you try to be something you are not.”  Posting information that students crave will increase your number of followers.  In order to obtain the scoop, one must stay in touch with faculty, staff and professional organizations. Managing content is a common fear among facilitators, making a list of what will or will not be posted would prove extremely difficult, “but a rough outline of what we know needs to be said” is attainable.

“The power of social media is in its immediacy, but it can also be its curse.”  Be certain to appoint someone to watch over the profile page as “All social media outlets need some form of monitoring, or they can go bad very fast.” While the Facebook generation is very familiar with using the application for personal purposes, they often lack the mature ability to consider long term consequences of an unacceptable post. Damaging or offensive statements being posted by a guest are inevitable. Before a Facebook profile is created a model for approved responses should be created. “Many [administrators] monitor their sites and remove potentially threatening or obscene words. Some contact the posters to let them know why their post has been removed.” However, there are times that a point is well taken; this presents the department with a wonderful opportunity to prove that they are truly open to suggestions and willing to address issues. Remember, once a student has made the post, it has been immediately shared with their online friends and most likely the physical audience at the time of posting. This increases the number of individuals vested in the resolution process.

The traditional college experience includes formal and informal learning, and meeting new people. A properly maintained institutional facebook homepage can assist the student in achieving all of these, while meeting the goal of building a positive brand for themselves. The cost of implementing this type of campaign is less than traditional outlets, but the time investment is more notable. But one must also consider that a print campaign, once mailed out has a very short shelf life, while a Facebook profile will net results again and again.

Cameron, S.. "8 WAYS TO BUILD COMMUNITY WITH SOCIAL MEDIA. " Community College Journal  81.1 (2010): 22-26. Research Library, ProQuest. Web.  6 Mar. 2011.