Why it is ok to love Facebook

If there is one piece of web2.0 that we use in both our personal and Student Services professional lives it is Facebook. Although as I found out at a conference recently there are still some institutions that don't permit the use of Facebook. It cannot be a bandwidth thing as it sometimes is with Skype and Second Life, perhaps its still the fear that Students will say rude things about their University. Well just google your institution or search for it on YouTube and you will discover that it not something that we are likely to stop.
If you want to see the benefits of Facebook and to gain an insight into how our students use it then try setting up a Facebook group for students planning to come to you this coming February or September. What you will see is that students may be time poor but they are network rich.  They will look out for others studying the same subject or housed in the same Hall. They will share common moans about lack of information but also share things that work. But don't expect this group to last too long. Facebook groups tend to die once the intial common reason for joining them has gone.
A few tips. Don't just create the page and hope. You have to send your future students the link to the page. However don't just put it into print. Send it as a clickable link either from your website ( but not buried too deep) or in any email sent to confirm a place or even an open day invitation or all of them. Monitor what is being said, less from fear of abuse but rather to spot things that are working or not. Don't get too depressed if it is the later - remember go to Uni is something the vast majority of these students have never done before and it is easier to blame ' the university' than it is to admit that they don't know what to do. Please avoid the grave danger of 'IT Dad dancing' and pretent that you are a student to try to correct something they have said. If you are going onto the Facebook group then do so as the Institution.

What the film 'Social Network' does not show is how Facebook has grown in just a few short years to having over 500 million users.One major factor has been its openess to links with other web 2.0 social networks. This has now developed to such a state that a Facebook 'page' where you don't have to join Facebook to access, is now effectively your own free website.

You can upload via text and email as well as online; video, photos, links to other sites . It links with Twitter and can be used as a chat room and a blog...what more could you want for free and it is not a pressure on your institutions IT servers!

Here is presentation I gave on texting and Facebook and how a Facebook page is the new website.

http://www.slideshare.net/Hipkin21/talking-txt-2010


(These views are my own and don't represent those of AMOSSHE or any other organisation)