Using Facebook can certainly offer some short-term cost savings. But it should also be understood that Facebook is a rickety sieve when it comes to data integrity, and that using these services allows your alums to be targeted by a broad range of operators that don't really care much about your organization's brand.
This December, a company was discovered creating bogus "Class of 2013" groups on Facebook. The details are available on the blog that broke the story: http://is.gd/cs4C ; and also on the belated Chronicle of Higher Ed summary: http://is.gd/czO2
The terms of services for app developers on Facebook should also be required reading for anyone considering farming out their community to Facebook: http://developers.facebook.com/user_terms.php -- My favorite section is 3a, where FB essentially says that app developers are a data-grab free for all.
So, while FB offers a short term gain, it will be fun to see the long term costs, especially among orgs who go full-in with FB without understanding the ramifications of this strategy. Generally, when advising orgs on web and outreach strategy, I recommend using FB as an outreach tool, one of many initial contact points, and as a place for ephemeral data/communication that does not need to be archived.
Cheers,
Bill
----- Original Message ----
From: Kevin McAllister <kevin@inresonance.com>
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 11:03:01 AM
Subject: Interesting milestone
All:
I thought this quite a milestone! Having gone to two large universities - USC and UT Austin - it has been interesting to watch them both build "communities" for their alums, which are very numerous. USC, at least, has come to the conclusion that financing and managing their own community is no longer worthwhile. The debate between "lack of control" vs. simply bowing to market numbers (I assume) has driven them toward LinkedIn and Facebook.
Makes one think about the financial and other resources schools are dedicating to creating their own communities through the website.
Will this be a trend? Certainly in these times using Facebook could save considerable funds.
Kevin
Kevin J. McAllister | President, CEO
inRESONANCE ... Solutions that resonate
kevin@inresonance.com | 413.587.0236 | http://www.inresonance.com/blogs/irkd
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO USERS OF inSCircle
Given the vast and ever-increasing popularity of non-university specific social and career networking websites, the USC Alumni Association has decided to discontinue offering inSCircle to alumni as of
April 30, 2009.
The alumni association is in the process of a two-stage project to enhance its online profile: stage one, currently in progress, is a redesign of our http://alumni.usc.edu website scheduled to launch in September 2009; stage two, to be initiated later this year, will focus on strengthening the alumni association's presence in the online social and career networking arena.
In the meantime, we invite you to check out and join our official USC Alumni Association groups onFacebook and LinkedIn.
Thank you and Fight On!
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