That’s the million-dollar question.
With more than 78 million registered members (according to the Wikipedia article about the social networking website at the time of this writing), it’s difficult to ignore myspace.com – especially when most of these users belong to our target audiences (prospective and current students as well as young alums)
From big brands to small businesses, more and more marketers have decided to get their own space by creating a profile and trying to befriend as many people as possible.
What about colleges or universities? Should our institutions try to follow the myspace marketing craze?
If the movie “Stick it” can make more than 11,000 friends with its myspace profile in just a few months (as blogged by Ken Ronkowitz at Serendipity 35), it doesn’t seem such a bad idea.
If the fast food character, Jack Box, has met more than 29,000 myspace friends through his myspace profile, it looks like something worth trying.
That’s probably why the Park School of Communication at Ithaca College has also decided to get its own space there: www.myspace.com/parkschool.
With already more than 770 friends (and counting), the school has chosen to showcase some videos produced by its students and tries to offer to its community of students a space to hang out :
“If you’re a future, current, or past Park student (or a non-Park fellow Ithaca College student who happens to be a sympathizer), add this profile to network and stay connected.
[…] The media world is as much about having friends as it is about having ideas. So introduce yourself.”
Park School’s friends have left lots of comments – some good, some not so good…
If you’re toying with the idea, you might want to take the time to read some of these comments to see if your VP, president or board could live with this type of feedback.
But, again, isn’t higher ed marketing supposed to become all about authenticity?
What do you think?
I just don’t see this as a good idea for any business. This is a “social” place, not a business place for this generation. It’s very difficult to befriend when you’re actually trying to “sell”.
I suggest admissions folks leave it alone. Except, search for comments about your school and ask your students to talk about their real experiences at your college on their MySpace account. READ: Don’t write or edit it for them.
Even if you’re not going to use it – I’d recommend grabbing the myspace URL for your college or university anyways, just to protect yourself. I registered ours a few weeks ago and have it, just in case.