Born on Facebook
2008 February 9
In the 80s, kids were born with a mouse in their hand. In the 90s, they were born surfing the Web. In the 00s, they’re born with Facebook accounts. Sometimes they have them before they are born. There are baby profiles out there that are updated daily with more friend connections than I have. If you’re still not convinced that social media is an important part of the university media mix, it’s time to think different.
The fact that babies have facebook profiles doesn’t necessarily change the dynamic of facebook… social networks ! social media? Medium, yes. But for the same reason FB and social networks have incredibly had CTRs, they’re not always the best place to try to get a word in edgewise about your college…
We’ve found Facebook to be a great way for us to communicate with prospective UGs. We’re finding that our admissions profile is friended by hundreds of prospects who are communicating both with us and other prospects about questions they have regarding the admissions process, what it’s like to attend the University, etc. We use it more as a relationship management tool than an advertising tool. That said, it also seems like a natural place to advertise graduate programs. On a side note, MySpace is now offering targeted colleges for advertisers, and we’ve had some success reaching prospective grad students there.
Being accessible and reaching out are different; that sounds like a nice approach (though I would still see some trouble spots), as opposed to say, friending babies and then blasting them with messages when they hit the age of 13. It wasn’t clear originally, hence my dismay : )