Your Facebook Network(Tips and Tricks)

07 Oct 2007

I’m sure by now you are fairly familiar with the Facebook interface. Many users don’t use all of Facebook’s features.

The Network page can be a very powerful tool, but the Facebook interface does not allow the Network page to reach it’s full potential. The reason? The only way to access your network is by clicking the network link at the top of the page.

It doesn’t really jump out at you. I think it would be a lot more effective if the News Feed dedicated a portion of the page to list Network Activity.

So what does the Network Page do?

The Networks page lists
Shows all the upcoming events in your network.
Shows all the recently posted items in your network.
Shows all the recently active groups among members of your network.
Shows all the items in your networks marketplace
Shows network statistics such as top music, movies, and Interests, TV shows, Books, and also displays percentages such as sex, political views, and relationship status
.
Shows nearby Networks
Provides a discussion board and a wall.

So what can I do with all this?

Let’s start with the groups.

While searching through the active groups in your network you may stumble upon one titled Fall 2007 Freshmen, or something of the sort. This is a great place to promote, and Recruit. Tom recently posted a blog discussing this The Strange Power of the Go Getter Freshmen.

There may be other great active groups in your network you can promote with. Take a look, just don’t over advertise, because nobody likes spam, and overuse of these groups will begin to look like spam.

Let’s move on to the people in your network.

Near the top of the Network page six random members of your network will be displayed. Above these six members will display how many people are in your network, and a couple links to search or browse within your network. I don’t see much use with the browse feature, as it only displays ten random people in your network.

Click the search link, and then continue on and click the advanced link. I’m sure you have seen the advanced page before, but have you ever used it for student affairs networking? The advanced search page allows you to search within every portion of a Facebook profile. From the basic info to contact info, personal info, education info, and work info. If you are looking for any particular characteristic to promote, or recruit from you can easily search it from here.

Have you ever wondered which staff and faculty members have signed up for Facebook? Well it’s fairly easy to find out. Scroll down till you see education info, and in the school status drop down menu you will see staff, and faculty. select whichever one you would like to search, and click the advanced search button at the bottom of the page

What do your students like to do? what are their interests? Sounds like you need to put out another survey. No not at all, Facebook already did the Assessment for you!! Check the Network Statistics page and you may find what you are looking for. The best part is you can click each particular interest and get a list of the people who have added that interest to their profile.

How can you use this? Look at each category, is there something that jumps out at you that you can create an event about? perhaps if there is a particular type of music that is popular you can have a dance focusing on that type of music. Maybe under interests you see a sport such as ultimate frisbee, why not host a tournament. Look under the movies category, why not play one of the top movies for your students? Be creative, and you can put together a great event.