Facebook has just released a new feature called “Share Links.”
This was announced on the Facebook Blog a few hours ago:
“Starting today, there are links to share on Facebook planted all across the Internet, from the articles at Time to the videos at Photobucket.
The idea is that when you’re reading or watching something that you think is cool, you don’t have to copy and paste the URL back into Facebook in order to share the link with your friends. Instead, with one click you get to check out a preview, choose how you want to share it, and then distribute it. You can share content with anyone, even people who aren’t on Facebook yet.”
As a result, Facebook users – our current and prospective students, as well as their parents now that the website is open to everybody – will be able to share web content by clicking on Facebook icons wherever they see them.
So, what are you waiting for to add the little blue icon to your admission, news and alum web pages?
(I’m actually wondering if it wouldn’t make sense to add it to all your website pages – although that might look like an endorsement for Facebook. So, I guess the jury is still out.)
The good news is that you don’t need to be a tech wiz to make this happens. Just grab the icon and the script from this page.
Obviously you need to read the Terms of Use before offering Facebook Share Links on your institution website. Once again, it all comes down to whether or not you are fine with the following excerpt:
By including a Share Link, Online Content Provider automatically grants, and represents and warrants that it has the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use the Share Service in order to link to, use, copy, publish, stream, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part), summarize, and distribute the content, links and other materials of any kind residing on any web pages on which Online Content Provider places the Share Link.
Considering the popularity of Facebook among our student target audiences, I think it’s a good idea to do it.
What do you think?