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!
The article talks about how, in the past, the fight for human capital was comprised mostly of the United States, Western Europe, and Japan. Now the playing field is opening up to many more countries, such as Saudi Arabia, who are more serious about winning over the world’s top talent. 
