To be or not to be on MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking websites? That is the question. With the growing interest in these online marketing and PR newcomers, higher ed leaders are wondering about making the leap and setting up a presence in such uncharted-and often described as dangerous-waters.
What the Numbers Say
MySpace and Facebook, the most popular of these websites, have been around for less than four years. But they already tout member bases of more than 100 million for MySpace and more than 19 million for Facebook, and MySpace got a profile boost when it was puchased by Rupert Murdock in 2005. Beyond these numbers reported by the companies themselves, independent surveys have confirmed a mere fact of life in America: Students are addicted to these new "social clubs."
The Noel-Levitz report "E-Expectations: The Class of 2007" labeled upcoming college freshmen "the Social-Networking Generation." A national survey of 1,018 high school juniors conducted by phone in 2006 found that 43 percent had created a profile page designed for prospective students using a site such as MySpace or Live Journal; the 57 percent who hadn't said they would if they could.
On these sites, the playing field among students, academics, and administrators is leveled.
According to Stephanie Geyer of Noel-Levitz, an update to the project will ask several additional questions to explore students' ideas about, and preferences for, college and university engagement on external social networking sites. She notes that many schools are considering or have built their own social networking communities within their own sites.
As the current report notes: "Today's college-bound students connect, communicate, and create collectively online. This trend toward online social networks presents dramatic implications-and new possibilities-for e-recruitment."
In late 2006, the Pew Internet and American Life Research Project surveyed a national sample of 935 youths ages 12 to 17 about how and why they use social networking sites. The report, "Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview," confirms that 55 percent of online teens have created a personal profile online; 55 percent have used sites like Facebook. Also discovered: 48 percent of teens visit social networking websites daily, with 22 percent visiting several times a day.
And "The 2007 Horizon Report," released around the same time by the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), concluded that social networking web services can't be ignored. "Increasingly, this is the reason students log on. The websites that draw people back again and again are those that connect them with friends, colleagues, or even total strangers who have a shared interest," explains the report.
Administrators Keep Out?
While these sites are widely used, they're seen as student-only spaces. Are administrators or professors even welcome?
Fred Stutzman-a PhD student at the School of Information and Library Science at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who has researched identity, social software, social technologies, computer-mediated communication, and more specifically Facebook-thinks social networks are key media through which students can be engaged. Conversations that level the playing field among students, academics, and administrators can occur. In other words, students and faculty/staff are equals on these sites. "Part of college is building successful relationships with those in power, and the humanizing aspect of communication in a space like Facebook goes a long way," he says.
Using Facebook, the
University of Florida
successfully drew more
students to three graduate
school programs.
That's just the idea behind an initiative at Mars Hill College (N.C.), which settled in MySpace and Facebook last year. Initially used for on-campus communications, Facebook has become an enrollment strategy addition. Once the MHC network reached a certain momentum with current students, more and more students from high schools visited by MHC admissions reps or who had been sent mailings started to join the Facebook "friends" group of the institution. "Now, many of those Facebook friends are enrolled to attend next fall," says Andy Mrozkowski, webmaster at MHC.
The University of Florida also started to use Facebook groups last year to promote three graduate programs to undergrads. The decision was based on plans developed by a graduate-level public relations class, on assignment for the University Relations office. Course descriptions, faculty and student bios, and research information were included on Facebook. Grad students and faculty members posted comments and responded when undergrads inquired about the programs. Each program was seeking 10 to 12 additional graduate students, and with that goal met by all three, Joe Hice, associate vice president for Marketing & Public Relations, says, "We believe the Facebook outreach helped."
