Back in November, Facebook opened the gates for non-individuals who wanted to create an official profile on the network. Until then companies, bands, and schools who wanted to jump onto Facebook had been using either the personal profile feature - or created a groups feature.

When Simon Fraser University's Work Integrated Learning project wanted to reach students via Facebook, they chose to create a personal profile under the name "Wil Fraser." (Wil is a fictional character named after Work Integrated Learning.) Wil took off quickly on Facebook and has hundreds of friends. The WIL program even has gone so far to have Wil Fraser host events that are attended by a cardboard replica of the onscreen character.

Personal profiles require a first name/last name combo. Schools are able to have their names show up correctly if they break their name into 2 parts, such as first name: "University of," last name: "Calgary." This can get a little awkward when Facebook reports "University of"s actions on the mini-feed -- where it refers to users by first name only.

Facebook, which originally allowed only student members to join, upheld strict rules that only individuals could create personal profiles on the network. I do not have any first-hand experience of a school's personal profile being deleted, but I have definitely heard such reports from other organizations such as bands or companies that tried to do the same thing. The worry here is that after investing time in setting up a personal profile for your school, and building a network of friends on the website, you might get deleted without any notice at all and lose your work.

If you don't have a catchy character, such as Wil Fraser, to create a personal profile for, or you don't want to take the risk of having your profile deleted, then the second option available to schools is to create a Facebook Group.

Facebook Groups

Facebook groups can be created by anyone. They include a display picture, description, contact information, photo and video albums, "Posted Items," discussion board and a "Wall."

Above: Screenshot of Acadia University's Facebook Group for the Class of 2012 Applicants

Let's talk about groups vs the Facebook Page product:

Groups have email addresses

Facebook Pages do not have an "Email" field. Facebook users therefore have no pathway to communicate privately with your institution. They can post public discussion threads, or post on your Wall -- but they cannot send private messages directly to the institution. Facebook Groups, on the other hand, do include a hyperlinked email field.

Pages are Official

Groups can be created by ANYONE. Pages can be too, but if you go on to create your "Brock University" Facebook Page and you find out that someone else already has created a page called "Brock University," Facebook promises to determine who actually represents the institution and delete all other pages that are not official.

Pages have Fans

The communication possibilities for Groups and Pages are slightly different. If you create a group, you can broadcast a message to all your members directly into their Facebook inbox. It is important to note, that this option is only available to Groups that have less than 1,200 members (source). Once you cross that 1,200 mark you lose the ability to communicate with your members in this way.

Pages encourage visitors to become "fans" rather than "members." When you join a group, a text insert shows up in your mini-feed, and the group's name is listed (again in text) in the groups section of your profile page. When a visitor becomes a fan of your Facebook Page, your logo and hyperlink are inserted into their mini-feed. Your logo and hyperlink are also displayed in the "I'm a Fan of..." section of the visitor's personal profile. This is a form of personal testimonial for your school -- whether it's from an applicant who aspires to attend, or an alum who wants to show their support and recommendation of the school.

Regardless of how many fans your Facebook Page accumulates, you can always communicate directly with them. Facebook Page administrators are able to send "Updates" either to their entire fanbase, or to a demographically-targeted group. Messages sent as "Updates" are filed under the "Updates" tab within a user's inbox -- allowing them to filter between page-generated and contact-generated messages.

Pages collect demographics

Once your page collects 10 fans, you will be given access to demographics and usage statistics for your fans. Your fans are broken down into age and gender. You will receive daily statistics of how many page views, unique visitors, wall posts, picture views and video plays your page receives. If you choose to promote your page with a social ad or banner campaign, you receive a similar "insight" report on your ad's click-through traffic.

Pages are marketing platforms

Pages combine the best of profiles, groups and your institutional homepage. A Facebook Page carries an official quality that groups do not. Rather than a display pic, it has a large bold banner in its wide column. You can add applications to pages, just as you can with personal profiles (this includes the Flash and HTML applications that allow you to insert custom code and media blocks into your layout). Every time I counsel an institution, I recommend establishing an official Facebook Page as your central landing point on Facebook.com. This is where you should push users from your website, and you should treat your page the same as you would treat your institutional homepage. (Push prospective student content first, but include prominent audience-based navigation to serve other visitor types such as current students, faculty or alumni).

Beyond the homepage

Once you have set up your Facebook Page, everything else is up to you. Some schools choose to set up a suite of pages and interlink them with each other (with the help of custom HTML produced in-house or through SkoolPool packaging). Other schools create groups and link them back to their Facebook Page in the same way. Some rely purely on groups. Groups tend to be more informal and are most suitable for clubs, communities and group efforts. Pages are like webpages or microsites, and are generally best kept in synch with your school's main marketing or communications department. Stick to your visual identity and messaging, but don't be shy to repurpose either of these technologies in new ways. Wil Fraser was created to get around Facebook's original restrictions, and this innovation is now incredibly successful within the student body.

Above: Screenshot of SkoolPool customized Facebook Page. (All sections circled in orange are available only by subscribing to SkoolPool)

Maximizing your Facebook Page with SkoolPool

When we originally created SkoolPool, it was to allow students to a) show off their post-secondary choices on their Facebook profiles, and b) keep track of their own school choices as well as those of their friends. With the emergence of Facebook Pages and increased interest from institutions to join the Facebook "conversation," our programmers have created a suite of custom applications built with the sole purpose of allowing colleges and universities to achieve their marketing goals via Facebook. We provide solutions that allow you to promote your logo, tagline, news releases, student blogs, video, online tours, viewbooks and more. I have mentioned above that Facebook Pages do not allow you to post an email address -- with the SkoolPool Contact Information application, this problem is solved. Not only can you post your general email, phone number and mailing address, but you can also publish contact details for departments (such as Admissions or Financial Aid), or even specific programs.

Beyond our custom iPSE Facebook solutions, SkoolPool packages also link your Facebook Page into our vibrant community of college and university applicants. With thousands of student users, and more than 6,500 institutions world-wide, the SkoolPool community is an exciting place to be and an important landing spot for both students and schools.

Coming up on my Blog...

Colleges and universities across North America have been extremely interested in our social media offerings, and so far we have launched SkoolPool Facebook profiles for about 100 colleges, universities and polytechnics, with more signing on almost daily. I am currently strategizing Facebook solutions for alumni with several institutions, and promise to bring the outcome of this work to my blog shortly -- so keep reading!

I'm working on a great factsheet documenting our learnings from social network ad campaigns, search engine campaigns, as well as our in-house experience seeding a viral spread.

The third topic coming up addresses the work involved in maintaining a Facebook presence. Whether or not you are officially "on" Facebook, your institution should still be monitoring its online reputation across Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia, blogs and personal sites. It can seem overwhelming, but with a few tricks up your sleeve, it can easily be done.