Facebook – uses and misuses

Chris Trace BVetMed MRCVS

RVC and WikiVet

What is Facebook?

Where have you been?

2.7 billion daily likes and comments…

What limitations do you feel

Facebook has had for use in

your institution?

What do you use it for?

What benefits do you feel

Facebook could/does have

for use in your institution?

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths:• Free!

• Easy to communicate rapidly

worldwide

• Can share what you like

• Opportunity to market

• Many people use it already

• Users generally know how to use

the platform, so no learning curve

Weaknesses:• Potential security problems

• Perhaps considered unprofessional?

• Users may not want to mix

work/learning and social

• Could be a major distractor

Profiles, pages and groups

Profile• Set up for a person

• Can become friends

with other profiles, can

join groups and ‘like’

pages.

Page• Set up for a cause,

topic or organisation

• Cannot become friends

with profiles, but can

comment on them. Can

‘like’ other pages

Group• Set up for a specific

purpose generally

• Cannot ‘like’ pages or

become friends with

people.

Profiles, pages and groups

Security

Collaborative

Dissemination

Profile

Group

Page

Identifying your need

Do you want to:

• Increase brand awareness?

• Get your message across?

• Create a brand image?

Do you want to:

• Work together on a common goal?

• Give people a place to discuss a topic?

• Limit who can join the conversation?

Increasing your impact

Key is to turn splashes into ripples...

Ways to increase impact

• Holy grail is to increase number of likes, comments

and shares – your fans then act as your ambassadors

• Quizzes

• Photo competitions

• Caption competitions

• Engaging content – drives traffic to your site

• Viral content

Using the analytics

• Facebook pages have built-in analytics

• Viewed

• Virality

• Demographics

• Example

Reached