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Office of Student Services in the School of Information Sciences

The Tao of Facebook: Uncovering the Potential of Social Networking in Academic Advising
by Wes Lipschultz


Basics

What is social networking?

Social networking is a human tendency that existed long before technology but has been made manifest in new, specific, and unique ways through social networking Web sites. Here is a video that captures the essence of this (brought to my attention by Joshua Gaynor, an advising colleague at Columbia). It was created by Common Craft Productions:

http://www.commoncraft.com/video-social-networking

Social networking sites can be conceptualized as computer-based means by which people can:

  • represent themselves in an online space using multimedia (photos, quotes, links, videos);
  • find others with similar interests along many different dimensions (food, work, music, ideology, religion, etc.);
  • form and/or belong to groups within the social network based on those interests;
  • interact electronically with each other in many different ways (IM, bulletin boards, blogs, voice, magnetic words, graffiti, post messages);
  • share/post resources with each other electronically (videos, documents, surveys, multimedia representations of interests).

Myspace, Facebook, and Bebo are some of the biggest social networking sites, but of the three, only Facebook has its roots in university culture:

  • Facebook started in early 2004, created  by Mark Zuckerberg (23 yrs old, a former Harvard student); 
  • Facebook began at Harvard and quickly was made accessible to all people with a college/university email address;
  • As of 2006, Facebook is open to any person with an email address within a certain age range;
  • The population at-large can self-select into Facebook networks other than universities (such as high school, town, etc.) or have no affiliation;
  • There is still some measure of security, as you cannot view Facebook profiles without first creating a Facebook account and logging in to it.

What are some of Facebook's features?

  • A profile - you choose to include any or all of a number of items to represent you (a photo, quotes, work info, interests, education, etc.) 
  • Photo albums - store, index, comment on, and share pictures
  • Post videos and comment on them
  • Post documents and comment on them
  • Private communications between users (send messages)
  • Public communications between users (post to user's wall)
  • Groups users can join and display on their profile
  • Causes users can join and display on their profile
  • Calendar features - birthdays, invitations to events
  • Friend window - users see how many friends you have, can view photos of those friends, link to those friends' profiles
  • Privacy features - control how much of your profile and info you want to be public vs. private, and who is in your private inner circle
  • Software applications - surveys, where you have traveled, magnetic words, PSU libraries search, etc.

How can I set up a Facebook account?

  1. Go to: www.facebook.com
  2. Click "sign up"
  3. Complete basic information asked for (do not have to be affiliated with a university, but must have an email address)
  4. Check your email for the confirmation sent to you.
  5. Click on the link in the email
  6. Follow online prompts for finding friends, populating your profile, etc.

In advising:

Advising articles written about Facebook:

Advising Without Walls: An Introduction to Facebook as an Advising Tool
Julie Traxler, Rutgers University
Academic Advising Today, Vol 30 (1), March 2007.
 http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/AAT/NW30_1.htm#10

Saving Face(book): Engage Through Facebook and Retain Relevance
Art Esposito, Virginia Commonwealth University
Academic Advising Today, Vol 30 (3), September 2007.
 http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/AAT/NW30_3.htm#8

These two articles are a quick read, they help advisers think about how to use Facebook in advising, and they offer further resources on Facebook for those interested in learning more. I used these two articles to corroborate the basics about Facebook and social networking that I gleaned from both my own experience and (cautiously) Wikipedia.


Examples of how advisers are using Facebook:

Art Esposito - advising at VCU http://vcu.facebook.com/profile.php?id=25510511

James Howell - Toxicology and IID advising at PSU http://psu.facebook.com/profile.php?id=9392742&hiq=howell%2Cjames

Wes Lipschultz -DUS advising at PSU (my former life) http://psu.facebook.com/profile.php?id=602600623

Julie Traxler - advising at Rutgers http://rutgers.facebook.com/profile.php?id=8824465&hiq=julie%2Ctraxler

Potential uses in advising:

  • Fast-track to personalizing you to your advisees
  • Providing you with a rich and honest snapshot of who your advisees are
  • Fostering a welcoming campus climate (if your profile highlights what diversity means to you, for example)
  • Socializing students to view education as an exciting and interesting endeavor - sharing videos, news stories, inviting them to social causes
  • Helping non-traditional students who may not spend as much time on campus to feel connected to each other and to the university
  • Tracking down students who do not keep appointments with you in a non-threatening way
  • Memorials for deceased students
  • A clearinghouse for advising information organized around content area - documents, multimedia, invite students to events, etc.
  • Personalized dissemination of information - students identify those areas of interest relevant to them, affiliate with them (by joining groups), and then check those groups when they want to and/or receive invitations to events only from those groups.
  • Finding out what happens to the students you advise after they graduate
  • Maintain connection with your students after they graduate (advice, letters of recommendation, etc.)
  • Belonging to and/or creating groups as venues to share ideas with advising colleagues (ex. NACADA Technology in Advising Commission facebook group)


 

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