Southeastern launches page on Facebook
Contact: Christina Chapple
10/16/08
HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University can now invite the 110 million users of the hugely popular social networking site to “Find us on Facebook.”
And since the university added an official page to Facebook in early October, more than 500 “fans” already have, just through Facebook’s continually mushrooming friend-to-friend networking.
The new Southeastern page on Facebook gives the university yet another online tool for communicating with current and prospective students, alumni and other supporters, said Erin Moore, executive assistance to Interim President John L. Crain.
“This is how today's students communicate,” she said. “We wanted to make sure Southeastern is a part of those conversations.”
The Southeastern page on Facebook includes event invitations, video, a RSS feed of Southeastern news, and links to a variety of areas on the university’s web site, www.selu.edu, including athletics, the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts and the Southeastern Channel. The page’s design was developed by the university’s web site coordinators.
It also links Southeastern’s Facebook fans to “Hot Spots,” a page added to the university’s web site earlier this year as a central online location for pride-related features. Hot Spots has links to custom-designed Southeastern screensavers, wallpapers, create-your-own MySpace backgrounds, buddy icons, downloadable versions of the university’s fight song and alma mater, a photo gallery, Southeastern traditions, and suggestions of “Things to Do Before You Graduate.”
Recently added Hot Spots features include “Hot Shots,” a photo gallery showcasing student events such as “Strawberry Jam” and “Mocktails”; directions for create-your-own MySpace backgrounds, and more ecards – online postcards for communicating or inviting friends and family to university events such as Homecoming.
Anthony Ranatza, assistant director of admissions, and Jason Leader, coordinator of the Campus Activities Board (CAB), which stages student events, said having a Southeastern presence on Facebook will be invaluable to their programming and recruitment efforts.
“I am excited about the Southeastern page. It looks great,” said Leader. “We will definitely utilize the page to get the word out about all of the CAB events."
“Our hope is to promote our special recruitment events such as Senior Day and Open House to a larger population of potential students,” said Ranatza. “We are very excited about the possibilities of this new online networking opportunity. We recognize a major part of today’s high school and college students spend a great deal of time on networking web sites. As a result, we are going out to find them where they spend most of their time – online.”
“According to Facebook,” Moore added, “one of their fastest growing demographic is users older than 25 years of age. Interestingly, we’ve already noticed that a number of the Southeastern page ‘fans’ seem to be alumni, who are happy to have another way to keep in touch with each other and with what’s going on at their alma mater.”
One of the first “fans” to comment on the page by “writing on the wall” of Southeastern’s page was 2004 graduate Eduardo Orellana, who wrote in from his native El Salvador, “Go Lions! It was an awesome idea to create this page.”
Another 2004 graduate, Meagan Lucas Anderson of Baton Rouge, chimed in with advise, “A word to all students, recent graduates, and soon-to-be graduates ... network, network, network!”
“Students are our greatest stakeholders,” Moore said. “It is important that the university continue to open new lines of communication and share information with them. We are committed to doing that.”
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