Risks of Admissions Marketing on Facebook

As admissions officers search for new ways to interact with Facebook and other social networking sites, the results have been slow in coming. Efforts to create popular user “apps” have found few takers. Admissions offices are finding that their stretched employees don’t have the time to monitor the myriad sites and pages – let alone respond to every negative remark that pops up on collegeconfidential.com.

And now, the “College Prowler” incident demonstrates the potential misuse of social networking in college admissions. As reported on this Web site, an online college guide called “College Prowler” created authentic-looking “Class of 2013” Facebook pages for over 200 colleges. Accepted applicants seeking to connect with potential classmates turned to those pages, and they (and some savvy admissions officers) noticed that these were designed not by admitted students, but by a higher education business interested in viral marketing.

Rather than a one-time scandal, this incident should be seen as a warning of potential pitfalls for admissions officers hoping to use social networking to attract the best prospects, and students who believe that social networks are a space they control. These cyber-squatters were probably interested in (the somewhat benign) goal of marketing specific products and services to targeted students preparing to enter college. However, it doesn’t take a large logical leap to imagine more controversial approaches — including concerted efforts to disseminate negative information about colleges. Despite the overall collegial relationships among admissions officers across institutions, that next step seems possible, if not likely.

Source: Inside Higher Ed

See also: Did Company Use Fake Facebook Groups to Market to Students? (Wired Campus/Chronicle of Higher Education)

This entry was posted on Friday, January 2nd, 2009 and is filed under Education, Information Literacy, Search News, Social Media, Web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.