I have been watching Facebook for about 3 years now, from back when it was a duplicate MySpace that only my university friends used (and I glared at them for finally joining the networking revolution but on a different network). In the last 18 months, I have been watching Facebook from a marketer's perspective and have seen it become the #1 website in Canada (Fall 2007) and now tied with MySpace as the largest social network worldwide (TechCrunch).

Higher ed has always been on social networks, but as it becomes more and more mainstream participation is going through the roof (and those that aren't participating are still watching and thinking about participating). About a month ago I blogged that there were at least 420 Facebook Pages representing colleges or universities - these were collected by research staff in January 2008, just 2 months after Facebook announced the Facebook Page option in November 2007. We collected groups as well, but we capped the sample at 200 so I don't have an exact number for you. We're hoping to do another full audit of institutional pages and groups at the end of the summer - so stay tuned for that update.

As I said, in January 2008 there were 420 Facebook Pages that clearly represented higher ed institutions. Here's a quick breakdown of how they were being used:

• 307 were general school landing pages
• 62 were related to sub-communities within a school (such as specific programs)
• 22 represented a school's libraries
• 12 were student unions
• 8 were branch or satellite campuses
• 5 were campus bookstores
• 4 were alumni

73% of the 420 higher ed Facebook pages were general landing pages for the entire school. 14% were connected to sub-groups within the school community. 5% were for libraries and 2% were student unions.

I usually compare Facebook Pages to your institutional www homepage. It should cater to the same audiences (prospects, current, alumni, staff, community, etc). And it is my opinion that it should also serve the same purpose as your www homepage. Your institution's Facebook Page should be your homepage within the Facebook Network. It should link to all your other content, and likewise should be linked to by all as well. It should be the place where Facebook users go where they know they are speaking with the institution.

Recruitment themed pages and department pages and current student communities are all great uses for the Facebook Page product, but I cannot stress enough how important it is to also offer a general landing page. Can you imagine having a website without a homepage? Without navigation? When your school is searched for on Facebook (and consequently also on Google), your Facebook Page is going to appear in the results whether or not the user is an applicant or an alumni - so it is important to acknowledge all your audiences and then make it easy for them to get to the content they want.

So by my recipe, 307 colleges and universities world-wide have done this important first step to a certain extent.

Some quick thoughts on Facebook Pages & Higher Ed¹:

• There is no way for a student to contact you privately
• All administrators appear as "The College" rather than "Jen Brown, Liaison Officer"
• You will receive NO notification when users post on your wall, discussion boards, photo albums etc
• All user posts will go live without any approval by your staff
• Users can opt to become "Fans" and Fans can opt to receive updates from the page administrators

More on Updates: If a user chooses to receive updates from your Page, these updates will be dropped into a special folder of their mailbox - separate from all other messages received from contacts, groups, events, etc. The right column of the user's home page includes a notification of how many new updates the user has waiting to be read.

Take the number of users that visit your page (stats available conveniently from Facebook), cancel out all the people that don't become your fan, and also cancel Fans who opt not to receive updates. Now you've got a fraction of your original audience. Then, realize that your communications are labeled as different. They aren't wall posts, they aren't new photos, and they aren't messages from friends. They are messages from companies, bands and brands put into a special update folder. Now cancel out all the users who simply don't read their updates - why would you when there are wall posts and personal messages in your other folders?

This is one of the big differences between Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups. A group administrator can send a message directly to the inboxes of all group members. The message is dropped in amongst notes from friends, and is displayed as coming from "Jen Brown" with a display picture, just like your friends' posts. If your goal is to build community, or to push information to users - I strongly recommend groups over pages. Pages, like your www homepage, are a gateway that gets the message of the institution across and helps users find their way to deeper content (like your Incoming Freshmen group).

Acadia University (Nova Scotia) is doing some FANTASTIC things with their Freshmen group. (I currently am a member of 200 school groups pulled from a global search, so even though my mom is an Acadia alum, there's no bias here ;))

The school took the time to create a display image for the group that greatly improved its appearance, although this image is currently replaced with an event photo. You can get an idea of the banner image they were using originally by checking out the one on their Page. The group admins also did well to fill out the contact information fields, and upload photos, videos and other relevant content. For the first time visitor, this is a very active, current and informative group.

What really gets me about this group is how well it stays in touch with its members. I get a note from Shawna Garrett (Acadia staff) at least once a week. These notes go right into my Facebook inbox, which I check religiously every day like most Facebook addicts. Despite being incredibly frequent, the messages are well-written, warm and incredibly informative. Example topics include:

• Tuition fee freeze
• How residence rooms will be assigned
• Updates on Acadia's required laptop program (where to buy, model options etc)
• How to activate your new Acadia email address

I cannot even begin to explain how much I would have given to have this kind of day to day hand-holding in the months before classes started. I was constantly scrambling on my Registrar's and Housing websites, trying to figure out what was expected of me, when forms were due and what my life was going to be like when the dust settled after move-in. The Acadia 2012 group not only provides timely and helpful answers, but also opens a door for me to contact them with anything that is still confusing.

Acadia also has a Facebook Page that is in the "general landing page" category (woo hoo!). The page is pretty sparse on content, but it's enough to say "hello" to passing visitors and creates the opportunity for supporters to show their affiliation with the university on their own personal profiles by becoming a fan. My only note is that the page lacks a link to its super fantastic Class of 2012 group (but that kind of advanced functionality requires a third party application such as SkoolPool, or some quick work by your web programmers).

The last thing I will mention is that the entire database of higher ed groups & pages has been imported into the SkoolPool community. When there are groups/pages available for an institution, their titles and links are included in a separate Facebook Groups & Pages block. Just like Videos and Photos, users can also submit links to be added to profiles (we check each of these to make sure they are not spam or personal promotion etc). Similar to other content that may be on your SkoolPool profile, you receive admin permissions just by registering your institution with our free package - this lets you add your own content alongside user content, and also helps you keep an eye on what students are saying in the SkoolPool community.

More:

• "How Higher Ed is Using Facebook Pages"
• "Facebook finally welcomes Schools, Bands & Brands"

¹Third Party applications, either built by you or by a service such as SkoolPool, can help you overcome these limitations.