Using Facebook
Facebook has the potential to be a valued way to connect groups of Brown alumni. We encourage you to take the plunge if:
- You have at least 1-2 official volunteers who can devote the time to creating your Facebook page/ group, periodically adding content to it, and (if desired) periodically sending messages to members.
- A high percentage of your group members are already on Facebook.
Or,
- A fair number of people are already on, and lots more are talking about it.
Establishing such a group can help you promote your organization’s events, promote interaction among your members, and reach alumni whose current e-mail address may not yet be in Brown’s database.
See what your peers have done
Find links here to all the Brown alumni related groups we know about. Visit several different types to see what approach you think would work best for your group.
Decisions to make before you start
Page or Group?
- Facebook groups are the original mechanism for gathering people of similar interests. They allow their members more latitude in contributing content to the site.
- Facebook pages were more recently added for companies and organizations to establish a Facebook presence. Pages don’t have members; they have fans. Fans have fewer opportunities to contribute content to the site.
Most alumni organizations have elected to go the “group” route.
“Global” or on the Brown Network?
Setting your group up as “global” is the least restrictive and the easiest for alumni to join. The disadvantage is that you might be more likely to get non-alumni (or spammers!) joining your group.
Restricting the group to the Brown Network means only Brown students, alumni, faculty or staff can join it. Facebook governs this by your e-mail address: you must have a brown.edu address in order to be part of the Brown network. Any alumna/us can qualify by activating their alumni.brown.edu forwarding address (see more details), but it does create one more hurdle to get over.
To date, Brown alumni groups are roughly evenly split – there are about as many Brown Network groups as global groups.
Open or closed group?
Most alumni groups have elected to set up as “open” groups, that is, anyone (or anyone on the Brown Network, if the group has that restriction) can join. In a closed group, anyone can ask to join, but must be approved by the group administrator in order to actually become a member.
Attracting members
Once you’ve created your group, be sure to promote it in all your other communications (your regular Web site, e-mails, newsletters, etc.) and ask the Brown alumni office to add your Facebook page to its Web site listing.
Please let us know of additional suggestions or questions you may have.
