 Define social networking  Options for using social networking in recruitment, admissions, and matriculants  Examples

 In the online world, social networking is the term used to describe the way users build online networks of contacts and interact with personal or business friends in a secure environment.

 In recruitment, social networking is another tool to reach out to prospective students  In admissions, social networking can be used to communicate with matriculants  Students use within their class  Some of the most popular social networking sites include…

 LinkedIn – almost exclusively for professional networking, self-promotion for career development, contacts  Twitter – 140 characters to share and discover what’s going on  YouTube – not a network, but can be used in admissions  MySpace  Facebook

 The sites are powerful communication tools  Can be inviting and intriguing  Used effectively, they can increase your presence in the online world  Quickly let users know about upcoming events, awards, highlight students, faculty, grads  Post online info sessions, Q&A sessions  Link to other related sites

 Upload videos of your program, university, students, etc.  Prospective students  Find videos on the PA profession, practicing PA interviews, and students

 Facebook  Provides the most options of the bigger social networks to create a space for your program  Personal Profiles  Groups  Fan Pages  Facebook Ads – text ads, relatively inexpensive, pay per click or per 1,000 views, targeting is FB ads best selling point

 Opportunity to market yourself and make business and personal connections  Indicate interests, skills, and more to meet people  You control privacy  You approve friends  A personal profile is most likely not the best route for recruitment

 Users join a group which allows them to:  Ask questions  Network  Share links  Share photos and videos  Events

 American Academy of Physician Assistants an+academy+of+physician+assistants&init=q uick

 PA Student Group Page +aapa&init=quick#/group.php?gid= &ref=search&sid=

 Users become your fan  Users can post questions and share info  You can add applications to your fan page  You can send an update to all your fans at once  Multiple people can be administrators of the page

 Stanford University  OHSU School of Medicine  OU Tulsa PA Program Physician-Assistant- Program/ ?ref=search&sid=

 Fan pages can be viewed by non- Facebook members  Facebook gives you demographics on fan pages  Gender, age, page views, adds, deletes, and more

 Fan Pages are generally better for a long-term relationships with your fans, readers or prospective students;  Groups are generally better for hosting a (quick) active discussion and attracting quick attention.

 Depends upon your program  For it to be successful, you’ll need…  a staff member or consultant who has a passion for working with these types of sites  to establish goals to understand if the time commitment is worthwhile  For instance, if you're trying to expand your community, how many new people linked with your program would make your time worthwhile?

 Perhaps your primary purpose with social networks is just to get your name in front of the other members of your audience.

 Permission to use photos, videos, statements, etc. for students, grads, faculty, staff – need a release form  Disclaimers  Monitoring – posted information is public information