blog: Facebook Pages

Over the past several years Facebook has developed ways institutions and companies can connect with users of the popular social networking site.  Currently the most popular methods are advertising, Social Ads, Pages and Applications.  Advertising and Social Ads provide organizations a traditional vehicle for putting their message in front of targeted audiences on Facebook.  Social Ads bring tight segmented advertising techniques to the mainstream.

Like MySpace, Facebook developed a "Page" concept for institutions to have a presence in Facebook.  Pages are group-centric profile pages hosted on Facebook.  They can include pictures, sub-pages, videos, news feeds, events, online discussions and of course link-backs to sites outside of Facebook.  

In our "Leveraging Facebook" white paper we recommend institutions set up a Page on Facebook to provide an online presence which includes links back to their hosted site.  And as part of the company's very own, "Facebook Pages Insider's Guide" white paper, Facebook advocates using Pages as the primarily viral vehicle to promote and generate interest for institutions and businesses.

Unlike applications, users can "friend" a Page and automatically news and content updates from a Page are presented to Facebook users.  Pages can have an unlimited number of friends/fans and are easy to create and manage.  We've even created a "Overland State University" page on Facebook as an example of how institutions can add this online presence.

Applications written to the Facebook API are often fun games, quizzes, or activities that increase the amount of time members spend on Facebook. They generally do not drive traffic away from the site, rather they are designed to increase engagement on Facebook. Applications can range from the most popular including "SuperPoke!" and "iLike" to the more outrageous like "What drink am I?", "Bumper Sticker" and "Hug Me". Facebook users can range between the two extremes of plastering their profiles with applications such as "Scrabble" or "What kind of dancer are you?" to altogether ignoring every application invite they receive. 

Since applications are generally viewed as frivolous and recreational, it is no wonder that few, if any, educational institutions are using applications in their strategy to connect with users.  In order to position themselves opposite of the applications, well over 500 educational institutions have followed Facebook's recommendation and have incorporated the use of Pages in their strategy rather than applications. 

Several months ago we explored the idea of developing a Facebook application to link back to our hosted communities but given the current direction of the market we chose to abandon the effort.  Currently, creating a Page on Facebook, is the best practice for institutions wishing to build a presence on the youth-centered social networking site.

-- Mike