Ever since Katherine from Tulane PR spoke to our class last Wednesday about Tulane's presence on social media, I have been thinking about how we could improve it. I started thinking about other colleges, like LSU, that have huge amounts of followers on Facebook and Twitter. My friends who go to LSU "like" every LSU page on Facebook as fast as they can, but we do not even follow our university's page. I do not think we can fairly compare Tulane to LSU because they simply do not offer the same things. LSU is known for atheltics, and people from all over the state support the school. Many Louisianians attended LSU or have family who attended/attend the school, and many just like LSU and support the university for state pride.
Regardless, Tulane is just not the same. Our students come from all over the country and the world, and we are a much smaller university. We are not really known for our atheltics to the extent that LSU is, but we are more known for our academics. I think it would be best to target our current students and our alumni to keep us updated on the university. Plus I think once I leave I will still want to keep in touch with Tulane. I also think the content on Tulane's Facebook page has to change. I think we should use it as a way to increase school spirit, not another outlet for the New Wave. As someone in our class mentioned, we already receive the New Wave through email every morning. In my opinion, I want to see the fun things that my friends are doing and I want to read humurous things that have happened on campus.
Also, I think many of us agree that we do not like being fans of many different pages because then our newsfeeds get blown up by stuff we do not want to see. I am not a fan of every club and organization I am involved in because I think it's a little ridculous. Like every other member of a club/organization on campus, I receive emails notifying me about upcoming meetings and events...so I really do not need to see these things on my newsfeed. I think it would be better if every club/organization submitted their photos, updates, or other entertaining content to the university's facebook page. Then again, I do not know how we could do that because we cannot tell clubs/organizations that they cannot have their own pages. Anyway, I think this would only require us to follow one page instead of many different ones (that just get in the way of the stuff we want to see on Facebook). Also, using more entertaining content and finding a positive way to promote the university would get Tulane's page more followers. Does anyone else have anything else they would like to see on Tulane's page?
3 comments:
Interesting ideas. Maybe what Tulane should be doing is to highlight the most interesting content from other university fan pages on the main page. That way, people who followed Tulane would see a curated 'best of' the university.
I also think that the university should decide on what kind of image it wants to have. I think humor is the best way to go, but I'm not sure that is the direction they want to go in. In class we talked about how companies can use negative reviews, videos, comments, or posts to make funny content that in the end promotes the company in a positive light. I think Tulane could do this by possibly using some of the content from Facebook/Twitter pages, like WTFTulane,that make fun of the university. Also, I think showing things that Tulane offers that other universities do not, like service learning or community service in New Orleans. If I just think about things that would get me to follow the page or check it often, I realize that I would like to hear stories or comments from other students, like why they chose Tulane, things that make them proud to go to Tulane, if they miss Taco Bell as much as I do. I'm not sure if any of those ideas would work, but I think there are ways to obtain more followers.
These are some good ideas. What the Tulane page needs is more people to interact with, so why not spread awareness to the newly accepted freshman class and transfer class? Surely these are the people that will need the page most since they are new. As a transfer student who came in this semester, I had to do tremendous amount of busy work (mainly emails to multiple people that I had to seek out myself) to enroll myself and get the classes I wanted, this could have been made easier by a fan page where I had the ability to use a facebook page to talk to an authority figure, rather than running from email to email.
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