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?
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. 
