The Social Side of College Admissions

On the Mashable website, there was an interesting article about the friendly Facebook rivalry developing between Texas A&M and LSU for the top spot among college Facebook pages. In the article, there was a great quote that got at the heart of two of the biggest selling points of social media... access and convenience.

Kathryn Greenwade, VP of communications for the Texas A&M alumni association was quoted saying that the university's social media strategy is "to go where the people are rather than creating our own network."

Don't Re-Create the Wheel

Are you going to build a better social network than Facebook? Unlikely. Are you going to be able to keep up with the innovations that Facebook is making on a monthly basis? Also unlikely. Are 250 million people going to have easy access to your social network from day one? Pretty much impossible. Through tools like Groups, Pages, and Applications, Facebook gives colleges and universities a number of options to reach prospects, admits, current students, and alumni on one site. Is it worth devoting your scarce resources to building and maintaining your own Facebook-like site and to driving users to that site?

Minimize Barriers to Participation

If anything, the Internet has made people expect more information and functionality easier, faster, and more adapted to their specific preferences. You can get stock quotes streamed to your Yahoo or Google homepage. You can update your Twitter account and Facebook status at once. You can pay bills with the click of a mouse. Basically, we've been conditioned to expect more while doing less.

A large percentage of your target audience is already on Facebook. Why make them sign up for a completely new social network? Why make them maintain a whole new set of online relationships? Why make them log in to another website to participate?

Convenience is one of the most powerful tools you have to encourage engagement with your school. If it is easy to join and easy to participate, people will do just that... they'll become fans of your Facebook Pages, join your Facebook Groups, and add your Facebook Applications. They'll post on your walls, upload photos, and watch videos. Ultimately, they will build stronger relationships with your school.

Labels: Facebook, Marketing, Pages, Social Networks, Strategy

Unlike the ethereal voice from Field of Dreams repeating "If you build it, they will come" to Ray Kinsella, your strategy for Facebook should not just stop when you create a Fan Page. That is just the first step in an iterative, evolving presence to establish a thriving community around your school.

Don't Just Recreate Your Admissions Website

If all you do with your Facebook Page is re-post content that is on your admissions website, you're missing a major opportunity. If all a student wants to learn about your college or university is the application deadline date or your admissions requirements, they'll go directly to your admissions website or they'll do a Google search and find it. I doubt their first thought is to turn to your Facebook Page. Don't waste a lot of space on your Facebook Page providing information that is easily accessible on your admissions website. Post a link to your admissions website so students who want to find this information can easily do so.

Don't Forget the Social in Social Networking

A Facebook Page should provide them a chance to make connections around your school, keep up with the latest happenings on campus, participate in conversations, and get their questions answered. These are all social activities.

Keep Them Coming Back for More

Just getting a Facebook user to become a fan of your Facebook Page should not be the end goal. You want them checking back periodically, building a relationship with your college or university, and, ultimately contributing to the community. Getting a user to become a fan should just be the first step in this process.

Take Advantage of the Hooks that Facebook Offers

Facebook gives you several mechanisms to re-engage fans of your Facebook Page. Understanding these mechanisms can help you make the most of your Facebook efforts.

Access to the Facebook Stream
When users become fans of your Facebook Page, your status updates (what you post in the box at the top of the page that says "What's on your mind?") show up in their Facebook Stream. The Facebook Stream is front and center on every user's homepage. It's the first thing they see when they log in. That's prime real estate to get your message out to your fans.

Notifications When People Reply to Comments
Make sure you allow fans to post on your Page's wall. If not, you are shutting off an avenue for them to interact with your school and you are losing an opportunity to get them to revisit the Page. When a fan posts a comment on your wall, they will receive notifications when others respond to that comment. It's like they're being given a little nudge to come back to your Facebook Page, and maybe even share another comment or respond to someone else's post.

Labels: Admissions, Facebook, Pages, Public Profiles

We're putting together a directory of college and university Facebook Pages. As a sneak peak, we've included the top 10 U.S. schools by fan count.

Drum roll, please...

10. The University of Oklahoma - 15,469 fans
9. University of California, Berkeley - 16,830 fans
8. West Virginia University - 18,490 fans
7. University of Florida - 20,087 fans
6. Indiana University - 33,490 fans
5. Stanford University - 36,719 fans
4. Texas A&M University - 36,907 fans
3. The Ohio State University - 37,611 fans
2. The University of Kansas - 43,898 fans
1. University of Michigan - 44,713 fans

The major athletic conferences are well-represented. All of these schools are in the Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10, or SEC.

Please note: These figures are as of noon ET on June 8, 2009

Labels: Facebook, Pages, Public Profiles, Rankings