A small success story

The quality versus quantity debate in social media will likely rage for years to come. But at The College at Brockport, we’ve been seeing a good argument for quality unfolding before our eyes. Our first year of students team has created a Facebook group for parents of Brockport students. While at last count it was holding at somewhere between 135 and 145 members, those parents are developing an active and interesting community. It’s proof your FB groups don’t need overwhelming numerical superiority to be a success..

Parent engagement is a good thing, the Noel Levitz folks tell us. Using social media for parental engagement is a growing need in higher ed.

But I have to say I’ve been incredibly impressed with the fervor that parents have embraced this form of communication. This week alone, we’ve had more than 100 comments posted. In the last few months we’ve had posts in our Facebook group everything from where to buy textbooks online and how to track down room assignments to how long an ethernet cord needs to be or how much space is under the beds in a dorm room for storage purposes. Now that move-in week is upon us, parents are even swapping restaurant recommendations for that post move-in meal.

It runs a little counter intuitive to how we might think about parents and the Internet. And as our numbers show, it’s not every Mom and Dad that’s running out to post on Facebook. But it is showing just how traction a few dozen involved community members can created. I’m excited to see how this group grows over the next year and how traffi ebbs and flows. 

If you haven’t started a parents group on Facebook yet, here’s one vote for doing it, no matter how small a school you are.

#parents #brockport #social media #the college at brockport #facebook