Using Facebook can allow Puget Sound offices, departments, and programs to promote activities, highlight news and accomplishments, and engage an online community of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members.

Departments may elect to set up either a Facebook fan page or a Facebook group, each with its own purposes and features. Typically it’s better to create a fan page rather than a group as an organization, but see the comparison chart below to help you decide which might be better for your purposes.

Feature

Fan Page

Group

Allows distinct URLs

Yes

Yes

Indexed by search engines such as Google

Yes

Yes, but with spotty success

An administrator can access visitor statistics.

Yes

No

Discussion features and forums

Yes

Yes

It can be cross-promoted on other fan pages.

Yes

Yes

Ability to create events and invitations

Yes

Yes

Can be linked to Twitter or blog feeds

Yes

No

Visible to unregistered people

Yes

No

Fans can leave comments and “likes.”

Yes

Yes

Information posted on the wall will appear in fans'/members' newsfeeds.

Yes

Yes

Administrator’s personal information is listed.

No

Yes

Some notes for creating your fan page:

  • The university has a Facebook Business Manager account, which means we can create a department, group, or program page for you and give you and others administrative access to that page through your @pugetsound.edu email address. This is especially useful for student or temporary page admins, so the page is not tied to their personal Facebook accounts. To set up your page through Business Manager, contact Sarah Stall at sstall@pugetsound.edu.
  • If you choose not to set up your page through Business Manager, we recommend using a role-based email address at the university to create a "generic" Facebook account, such as webmanager@pugetsound.edu versus bweist@pugetsound.edu. (Contact the Technology Services Service Desk for assistance setting up a role-based email account.) This will allow for easier transitions when staffing changes. Be sure to use a person’s name associated with the account, rather than a general name like Web Manager. Facebook doesn’t like “fake” people and may flag or delete your account.
  • We recommend that you make more than one person in your department an administrator on the account. This is beneficial if one administrator is out of the office, unable to post for any length of time or make a necessary change, or unexpectedly leaves the university. (Another bonus of using Business Manager is that you have a built-in page admin backup in the university account admin.)
  • Be sure to choose a page name that clearly identifies your office, department, or program and the fact that you’re affiliated with University of Puget Sound. It is preferred that you use “Puget Sound” when abbreviating the university name rather than the more easily confused-with-a-shipping-service “UPS.” Choose and type carefully. Once you’ve confirmed the page name, it cannot be changed.
  • Once you have at least 25 fans, your page is eligible to create a username, a direct custom URL to your fan page. This is particularly appealing for use in non-Facebook promotional materials. For instance, the main university fan page can be found at our username of facebook.com/univpugetsound, a username we chose carefully as it matches our other social media handles: Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, and YouTube. Choose and type carefully. Once you’ve confirmed the username, it cannot be changed.

Tips for managing and building your fan page:

  • A good rule of thumb for Facebook posts is to average approximately 11 to 13 posts per month, roughly one every other weekday.
  • Wondering what to post to engage your audience? Recommendations from higher education social media experts BlueFuego.com suggest dividing your posts as such (approximately):
    • 50 percent call to action
      Example: This Friday begins Summer Reunion Weekend at Puget Sound, celebrating our fabulous Logger alumni. Will you be there? What are you looking forward to?
    • 25 percent conversation about the university
      Example: Biology professor Mark Martin was the guest blogger last week on Small Things Considered, the American Society for Microbiology blog. In his post, he reflects on what students take away from college classes… [with link to blog post]
    • 25 percent of personality posts
      Example: Holy smoke, the folks at Google have done it this time. Conspiring to prevent any of us from actually doing what we’re supposed to be doing, they’ve turned the Google doodle into a mini *playable* PAC-MAN game in honor of PAC-MAN’s 30th birthday. (Wait, PAC-MAN’s 30?!)
  • Wondering how you’ll know if your Facebook efforts are successful? Of course it’s nice to see the fan numbers go up, but one of the major goals with social media is fostering communication in the online community. Therefore it can be useful to gauge how many interactions you’re getting from your adoring public in a month. You can use the following formula to get an idea of how much interaction you’re getting from your fans, and then tweak your posts to try to increase the yield, if desired. A good target is getting 1 percent of your fans interacting.
    • Total Contacts for Month = public posts in a month (posts from your fans, not from you) + comments from fans in a month (on your posts or fan posts) + number of new fans/likes in a month
    • Divide Total Contacts for Month by the number of posts you made that month (how much you posted to get all those interactions) to get the Average Monthly Interactions Per Post
    • Divide Average Monthly Interactions Per Post by the number of fans on your site to get the percent of fans that interacted that month.
  • Considering using Facebook ads? Want to run a Facebook ad, but don't have a Facebook page? We can help. Contact the Office of Communications for more information.
  • Useful links to help keep on top of changing policies and information about Facebook: