The Student Affairs Blog

Facebook Page or Facebook Group?

What's the best way to represent your student club/organization or school department on Facebook?

Due to the number of questions received about this topic, I was about to write up my own analysis, but figured I should check with my blogging pals first. Sure enough Leigh Householder of Advergirl put together a nice post for businesses that is easily translated to Student Affairs. Here is a full repost:

There are a lot of choices – groups, pages, causes, fans, friends. And, none of the which and the why seems terribly clear.

To make it simple: There is one main choice. And, then a few other important options.

First pick: Page or group or both

Page
Who can create it: An official representative of the real public figure, artist, brand or organization that the page is for

Why page?

•     First up, pages are indexed on Google. A nice little add to your integrated social SEO strategy
•     Allows you to connect with an unlimited number of fans (personal profiles & groups support up to 5000 friends)
•     You can send messages to all your fans
•     You can use rich media and leverage Facebook apps (super customizable)

Why not page?

•     Little of the new content or activity you post is actually fed to your profile new feeds (the most visible? New fans. New photos or video uploaded by fans)
•     Messages to fans don’t go into their inbox; rather, they’re delivered as an “update,” which fewer people see.
•     Unlike being an administrator of some non-FB communities (like blogs or wikis),there’s no automated way to moderate activity. You have to manually check for new links, videos, etc.

Group:
Who can create it: Anyone (on any topic)

Why groups?

•     Most importantly, you can message all members and the notice shows up right in their inbox for maximum attention
•     All activities are picked up in the feed – posts, discussion, photos, etc., which provides a lot more visibility
•     Tend to be more informal, which can, in itself, feel more social
•     Lots of control over who to involve. There are three different types of groups: Open (anyone can join); Closed (the group owner/admins have to approve all members); Secret (only the members and invitees know the group even exists).

Why not groups:

•     There’s a 5000 fan limit for messaging. More people can choose to be fans of your group, but you won’t be able to directly contact them
•     You can’t add apps directly to a group
•     Customization is limited
•     Unlike being an administrator of some non-FB communities (like blogs or wikis),there’s no automated way to moderate activity. You have to manually check for new links, videos, etc.
•     Word is, these groups are also very tricky to delete (Editor Comment - Only way to delete a group is to ask everyone to leave the group, then it just closes. There is no delete button)
  

Then add:

•     Fan: both these pages allow administrators to turn on a fan function. Allowing fans lets your organization rack up contacts (just like a personal profile allows you to add friends)
•     Cause: Want to raise money, enable supporters to raise money, win volunteers, etc? Facebook’s new action-based app is Causes. It’s a good add for a group or page strategy. But, because it requires users to add an application, it’s definitely not a standalone.

Quick update in response to an offline discussion:

Q: What's the difference between a profile and a page?
A: Short answer: a profile is for people; a page is for non-people (or super people, i.e. celebs). Profiles are the basic building blocks of FB. They represent its millions of members. In a longer answer, I'd also tell you that pages allow a lot more customization and flexibility ... but, I think this whole person vs. nonperson thing gives you the talking point most people need.

How to Successfully Create a Digital Web Ambassador for Your College

As discussed many times on this blog and countless other blogs around the web, colleges need to be more active on social networking sites to engage new, current and former students. Not just the college as a whole, but individual departments within the college can benefit by having a web presence.

Often times the first question is whether to operate an account with a personal name so it looks more real, or use a school/department name so it looks more official?

Experimenting is happening both ways with various results. Here are two examples I’ve followed that might help your school/department develop a web presence.


The Personal Account:

Art Esposito is an academic advisor at VCU and has a personal Facebook account that he uses to engage his advisees. A quick browse through his profile and you can see him mixing personal and business contexts in an effective way.

He does state upfront his intentions with using Facebook for advising. It may not be needed down the road as advising on Facebook becomes the norm, but for now it’s good so students feel more comfortable engaging you with some predefined intentions that can dispel any worries they have in befriending you.

Remember to mix in personal information from time to time so it is not just business all the time. Otherwise it makes you seem stale and robotic. Use your best judgement as to what personal information to share. A rule of thumb is if you wouldn’t share it in the classroom with close students, don’t share it online.

Art currently has 855 followers on Facebook and through his use of posting videos, blogs, and links among many other tools he is effectively utilizing his personal account to be a better advisor.

The challenge with a personal account is what if Art leaves his job, switches positions, or gets a spot on Oprah’s show and becomes world famous as Art the Advisor? What happens to everything he’s built up on his account?


The School/Department Account:

Schools are not so good at creating a digital web presence that feels natural to both the school and the student, but it can be done. To find a good example, I had to turn to the corporate world.

The Chicago Tribune created a digital web presence called ColonelTribune. The first reaction of many, myself included, was that this was going to be lame. But CT fought back and through an amazing mix of persona building and valuable content, CT has become an effective PR tool.

I follow CT on twitter and am impressed at the Tribs ability to give a voice and personality to their fictitious character. Most of CT’s updates are links to articles on the Trib’s website, but ask CT a question and he’ll respond, challenge his thinking and he’ll respond. All of it builds up to a persona that is real enough to not dismiss as fake and valuable enough to want to follow.

The challenge with a fake persona is...well...it's still fake. Though I enjoy CT, I don’t feel as connected to him as I do Art and relationships go a long way in education.

If you aren’t already doing so, I think every school/department should experiment, like Art and CT, with using social media to engage new, current and former students.

What other examples are there of schools/departments effectively using a digital web ambassador?

Should I have a Facebook Account for my Class?

 

Once upon a time, Facebook used to be a student only playground as it was a closed system. But ever since Facebook opened up to allow anyone and their cat to have an account, well maybe not their cat as it's hard to be a fake person with a fake name on Facebook, many academic professionals have been signing up and experimenting with using Facebook as an academic tool.

 

   

Recently I read an article about how a teacher from the University of Maryland uses Facebook to get in touch with her students. She explained that with everyone on Facebook it was much easier to remember names and faces. Since Facebook is not a school controlled site it kind of sets an atmosphere of neutral grounds, allowing the students to experience a more casual interaction with teachers, enabling them to be more open with their communication. Due to the fluidity of personal information shared back and forth on Facebook, a certain level of familiarity is developed quicker than could be during precious classroom time.    

 

Not everyone is in agreement. There are many teachers that do not see a benefit in using Facebook for their class, some say there’s no classroom value in it and that it might even be an avenue for accessing inappropriate material, others suggest that it only adds to the many distractions in class. Many school districts agree and block these sites from school computers. Some unfortunate byproducts occur from this however; faculty computers are also blocked, students discover proxy sites, IT hires more personnel to block proxy sites, students access the sites from their cell phones. 

 

 

The article concludes with saying, Facebook can be an excellent virtual medium for building and maintaining real world social connections within a class, but only when it’s used informally and everyone understands its purpose and limits. 

 

 

Where do you stand on the issue? Do you use Facebook in your job formally or informally? Are you worried about TMI with your students? Do you separate your personal and professional online profiles?

 

 

Social Network Identity 101: Lesson Plan

Updating a presentation on social networks for my first-year seminar is my focus this week.  In past years, Facebook has been the primary topic and I have posted about it here. This year I will add a top-10 list of online identity considerations from technology/online media guru Chris Pirillo.

1.   It goes on your permanent record. Forever.
2.   Be mindful of your privacy.
3.   Don't trust implicitly.
4.   Own what you do.
5.   Engage. Leave comments.
6.   Be respectful, be respectable, and be respected.
7.   Be yourself.
8.   Watch out for flame wars and name calling.
9.   Learn how to communicate.
10. Remember that your future employer, spouse, and neighbors are all watching.

Do you discuss Social Network Identity with your students?

Beyond Facebook Applications

"A dot.com is on the computer. When you go there, you do something on it." 

Ahhh, the wisdom of a kindergartner describing my latest foray into Web 2.0. 

So what is that something?  What does it do for us in Student Affairs? 

I was an early adopter of Facebook on my campus.  By early, I mean somewhere in between the university rollout in 2004 and before high schools were invited to join in September 2005...early by Midwest standards.  Facebook became a novelty for checking the pulse of my students and colleagues.  It was humorous to argue its merits and always sparked interesting conversation among my student leaders.  When did facebooking became a verb?

The class of 2010 arrived on campus as the first group of students to have Facebook in high school.  They were networked, had added a truckload of university "friends", and expected me to be in tune with their needs.  Just as Kevin discussed in the Strange Power of the Go-Getter Freshman, they used Facebook Messages for email because it was easier than looking up my actual email address.   I had a responsibility to become a Facebook user, not just a guest.

Iowa State's Facebook network has 36,477 members up from 21,500 in January 2006.  There have been 222 Facebook story references in the Iowa State Daily.  Online identity is discussed in our campus orientation programs and is a lecture topic in my first-year seminar.  I am a frequent Facebook advertiser and have profiles pages for each of the programs I coordinate.  I also recognize the interpersonal divide that social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace may create for students seeking meaningful connections to peers and the university.

Searching for utility in student social networking, I helped initiate Red Rover on our campus to link new students to clubs and student leaders.  With nearly 700 registered campus organizations, our students need useful navigation tools.  I am now spending my summer tracking down our many student leaders (on internships in remote destinations without email access) to engage them in this new web tool. 

Applications like Red Rover build connections so students can move beyond Super Poke to actual networking through shared campus interests.  How cool is that?  A Facebook application where your students can do something besides stalk their friends. 

Statistical Data on the Growth of the 'Class of 2012' Facebook Groups

The idea that new students are orienting themselves on Facebook without institutional guidance is a reality as discussed previously on the Student Affairs blog. Search Facebook for "Class of 2012" and you can see with your own eyes the trend. But we are lacking the hard data such as what percentage of new students join these groups or how influential are these groups. It's an opportunity for interested academic researchers to investigate as I suspect this is not a short term trend.

Through a very simple study, Brad J. Ward from SquaredPeg has been tracking the activity of the Butler Class of 2012 Facebook Group. His three metrics are the # of Members, Wall Posts, and Discussion Posts.

This is only the current screen shot of Brad's data, but you can follow his latest by visiting his Google Spread Sheet.

I would love to see a series of data points like this one for a big enough sampling of 2012 groups so academia can get a better idea of when new students start engaging in these groups.

Can someone start this now or are we too late and needed to start back in January? I suspect the window of opportunity to track the activity is almost closed for this upcoming school year.

It would also be interesting to see when these groups were created. The group page doesn't say the creation date, but one way to get a rough idea of the creation date is to look at when the first comment was made. The first comment on the Butler group was Jan 4th 2008.

Other open questions I have:

1. Should an official of the institution (probably someone within student affairs / admission) create groups for 2013, 14, 15?
2. Will students use the group if it is school sponsored?
3. Are the students who create the groups student leaders in high school? What is their motivation?
4. Are these students willing to work with (or even be hired by) the institution to manage the group?
5. Are institutions willing to give up the control and outsource the work to an incoming freshman?

The Most Powerful Communicator in the Class of 2012: Jack Responds

In my last post, I mentioned that I had Facebooked Jack, who started a huge class of 2012 group for the University of Pittsburgh.

Despite the fact that Jack is in High School, and, if he's on East Coast time, he should probably have been in class, he responded in 20 minutes.

I copied my questions and indented his answers under each question:

--------------

1) Are you working for the university in any way? Or did you just do all of this work on your own?

I am not a part of the university in any way. I live in a suburb of Philadelphia. I did this on my own after being accepted as I was seeking other people who were also accepted.

2) If you did it all on your own, why? You found and posted a lot of great pictures, it must have taken some time. What motivated you?

At first, it was for me to find others in the same situation I was, then as the group became progressively bigger, I did some research about the school and added a few updates on some important events for accepted students. Most of the pictures are actually provided by the members of the group.

3) What are your plans with the group?

Just a place where people can get to know each other before actually going. I am not very certain whether I will even be attending Pitt, but I am glad a lot of people in this group are finding friends ahead of time.

4) Do you have history of student leadership in high school? Do you plan to be a student leader in college?

In high school, I am the president of a couple of clubs and participate in numerous others. When I go to college, I plan to continue being involved.

-------

Dear University of Pittsburgh,

Jack, despite possibly skipping 5th period to Facebook a random higher education guy, is a doer. He's responsible and proven himself extremely capable as a 21st century leader.

It would be a real shame to let him slip away.

Send him a fruit basket at the very least. Better yet, send him a friendly little "thanks for running our 2012 class on Facebook" scholarship.

He can be reached here.

My Best,

Kevin Prentiss

-----

UPDATE: Jack wants everyone to know that he's not skipping class, he's on spring break. My apologies for being suspicious : )

Self Orientation Begins on Facebook (What are you doing about yours?)

A number of Class of 2012 groups on Facebook are in full swing, do you know where yours is?

Five months or so before school starts and already there are almost 1000 students in this group.

Students don't need to wait for Orientation to socially integrate (Tinto style). This has been happening since Facebook first let in high school students back in September of 2005.

It's been widely reported in the Chronicle of Higher Ed(behind subscription, sorry) and the New York Times among others.

Yet many many schools still ignore it, either out of ignorance or confusion about what, exactly, to do about it.

Without any school participation, official or peer helper /ambassador style, the Facebook groups take on a cultural tone that sets the introduction for the college.

Sometimes the groups go down hill. Just check out the wall comments on this group from Greensboro class of 2011. This is probably not the introduction the school would prefer.

In the case of the University of Pittsburgh 2012 group, however, the conversation is currently exactly what the school would hope for - students asking questions about financial aid, information on official orientation days, discussions about majors, school spirit around sports, and 27 pictures of the campus and its classrooms that look great.

The person who put this all together?

Jack is a senior in high school, and I'm guessing he acted completely on his own and spent some time compiling the pictures and keeping the conversation going. (I sent Jack a Facebook message with some questions. If he responds, I will post his thoughts up on this blog in another post.)

Jack is good with the tools and did a huge favor for the University of Pittsburgh. If they haven't already, it would be very smart for the University to recruit Jack as a student leader. He's now one of the most powerful communicators on campus.

What You Can Do With Your Group

First, know that it matters for admissions. If you need a hard, short-term motivator to figure this out, admissions can be it. Students look to peers to develop their opinions and the impression of your Facebook Class Groups does matter in this process.

Sometimes the students just straight up ask, so getting your ambassadors in the group is a good start. The ambassadors do need training, if they come off as "too official" it will damage their credibility. As in the response above, when they present the pro and con, they are much more effective in the conversation.

I had a great chat with Staci Weber of Juniata college at the recent APCA conference about her terrific work with her class of 2011 group. She was playing with four goals for her incoming first years and Facebook. She plans on integrating these steps with the official Orientation process.

1) Get the students to join the Juniata network.

This is great for future alumni tracking and for assessment within Facebook. This is not the same as pitching Facebook, it's just saying, if you are already on Facebook, connect yourself with the school network.

2) Join the Class of 2012 Juniata group.

Staci is excited about clustering the students because she can then "Facebook" the whole class to make announcements, knowing that this will often be more effective than email. She is very sensitive to the spam issue, and plans to use the mass Facebooking the 2012 class very selectively. From her experience with 2011, she mentioned that 80% of that class was in the 2011 group on Facebook and this was a great way for her to get the word out. She felt that there were at least 15% more students on Facebook who were either not part of the Juniata Network or did not join the first year group, she is hoping to get 90% to participate in the 2012 group this year. (This, BTW, is already more than double the average participation in e2Campus emergency text messaging systems.)

3) Use Red Rover to segment the class by topic interest.

Staci is part of the Red Rover pilot program. [Full disclosure: I am with Swift Kick, and Red Rover is a Swift Kick project.] Red Rover is a free "orientation on Facebook" application that allows Staci to segment the first years by various keywords for better communication and to increase involvement.

4) Train peer leaders and student group leaders to participate in the group.

This is a continuation of what worked last year. She has some new ideas of directions to take the training.

If she can meet all four goals, Staci should be able to present the school in the best light for admissions and admitted students, increase social integration with her peer leaders and between the incoming first years, increase positive connection points and set herself up with multiple effective communication options within Facebook. (The key to maintaining these is to not abuse them, so definitely don't follow these steps and then mass message your first year class 50 times before schools starts.)

Easiest way to find your group is to simply search Facebook for your school name plus 2012. If one has not started yet, you may want to have one of your peer leaders set it up (probably better if it is not a staff or faculty member).

Just tell them follow Jack's lead!

Faculty Ethics on Facebook - The Collaborative Project

Mark Clague, a faculty member at Michigan State, created a Facebook group titled Faculty Ethics on Facebook. The goal of the group is to collectively define a set of guidelines for faculty members to use when entering into the social networking world.

Here's the current list:

1. Keeping official course activities in official online tools and not on Facebook.

2. Never requiring students to participate in Facebook or having Facebook participation influence a course grade. (An exception is for class projects that might use Facebook for research purposes [such as a statistical analysis of how Facebook groups grow and fade] and make their connection to a course explicit.)

3. Not friending students unless they request the connection. Not poking students. Never pressuring students to friend the professor (such as repeated mention of a faculty profile in class).

4. Accepting friend requests from all students (unless the instructor makes the decision not to friend students at all).

5. Not looking at student profiles unless the faculty member has been friended by the student and even then using Facebook information judiciously and for educational purposes. In short, not spying on students, but getting to know them better when invited to do so.

6. Faculty members should avoid association with Facebook groups with explicit sexual content or views that might offend or compromise the student / teacher relationship. This guideline must be applied sensitively within the context of a diverse educational environment in which both students and faculty practice tolerance and accept competing views.

7. Taking extreme care with privacy settings and faculty profile content to limit profiles to information relevant to educational purposes. A broad variety of information may be appropriate, however, given the area of expertise / subject, the local customs of an instructor's school, and the personal dynamics of his or her classroom. Content should be placed thoughtfully and periodically reconsidered to maintain this educational standard.

8. Exercising appropriate discretion when using Facebook for personal communications (with friends, colleagues, other students, etc.) with the knowledge that faculty behavior on Facebook may be used as a model by our students.

9. Never misrepresenting oneself by using a false name or persona on Facebook, unless that characterization is connected explicitly with the real identity of the instructor.

10. Considering that the uneven power dynamics of the academy in which professors have authority over students, continue to shape the online relationship, even when the network tool (such as Facebook) is apparently democratic.

11. Keeping wall posts and other Facebook communication in concord with standard ethical practices of the educational relationship.

12. Never posting official course communication (feedback on an assignment, for example) in a public area of Facebook. Feedback might be given through private Facebook messaging when the student has asked a question via Facebook or a previous friend connection exists.

I previously posted a similar set of guidelines and think the two compliment each other well. What do you think about the guidelines? Would they work for you? If you were to add or change a point, what would it be? Join the discussion on this collaborative list and share your two cents.

I'll See You on Facebook - Teacher Self-Discloser, Student Motivation

Steve Thompson at College of DuPage referred me to an interesting article titled, "I'll See You on Facebook" 

The article was a collaborative project to explore if and how teachers should use Facebook to engage students outside the classroom and what if any the effects will have back in the classroom. Even though it was written in January 2007 (which in technology terms is almost ancient) there are some interesting findings relevant to  student affairs professionals and worth sharing.

The results concluded that:

...teachers high in self-disclosure [on Facebook] anticipated higher levels of [student] motivation and affective learning and a more positive classroom climate.

The danger is in the details, as too much information turned out to be damaging to the teacher/student relationship:

...instructors must balance their private information to guide the boundary management process. Teachers decide what information they want to reveal to their students in an effort to create a comfortable classroom environment that fosters student learning.

The surveyed students suggested that teacher self-discloser on Facebook should not include polarizing issues such as politics, religion, and hot topic debates. At the same time the students said the teachers should be themselves. If they are not the same person online as they are in the classroom, the students reacted negatively.

The three big no-nos from the students were:

1. A teacher should not gossip about students online
2. Use personal information a student shares on their profile against them
3. Respect a student’s privacy, so if a student doesn’t want to be your friend online, don’t push it. (I've never sought out a student's online profile to be friends, instead I give them the choice to find and befriend me.)
   

A while ago, I wrote a blog with guidelines for academic professionals that compliments this article’s conclusions and might be worth reading.

I think this research is further confirmation that academic professionals should be actively using online social networking sites such as Facebook as a tool in education.


Other interesting findings:

•  As of May 2006,  297,000 Facebook members identified themselves as faculty or staff. I haven't seen an updated number, but I would guess that the number is now near 600,000+ due to the larger acceptance of Facebook. 

• Students felt more comfortable opening up online than face-to-face.
  "Scholars found that students who communicate via [social networking sites online] with other students use more direct uncertaninty reduction strategies (e.g. more intimate questions and self-discloser) than students in face-to-face converstaions (Tidwell and Walther, 2002)" (related blog)