The Teckki Says

I come from a large family on my mother's side, and I have dozens of first cousins. When we have a family reunion, the matriarchs have a meeting, make some decisions, tell all of the kids (us), and upwards of a hundred people come together and have a great time. But what if your family is not blood related, but part of an organization with members all over the country?

Kimberly Ransom, Director of Collegiate Scholars Program (CSP) at the University of Chicago, faced such a challenge. She is planning a reunion of alumni of the program, which is an academic enrichment program for Chicago Public School high school students. The program will soon experience its first graduating class finishing four years of college. A reunion involving this group will be a powerful experience for those who are in the early stages of the program. Ransom turned to Facebook for the challenge, with spectacular results.

Since Facebook was created for college students by college students, this medium was a natural fit. Collegiate Scholars is able to reach out to alumni across the country, 195 alums, explains Ransom. "[It was] the best way to contact [alumni] and cross-market our efforts," she says.

In building up for the event, which will take place this June, she posted memorable pictures, such as some of the students' eight-grade pictures, and communicated with confirmed attendees to get others to become friends of CSP, among other things. This helped build momentum for the event. It also builds a national network of alumni – ambassadors for CSP, those who are already in college, to be contacts and mentors, both for those in the CSP program, or face-to-face for those who attend colleges CSP alums are currently there. Current alumni at Yale University are building a Collegiate Scholars at Yale fan page. Efforts like this "will allow our alumni in seventy-one colleges across the country, seventy-one sites, to make connections", says Ransom.

When asked why she chose Facebook over other ways to advertise, she noted that an alumni reunion would be "much more difficult to do without Facebook." It saves on postal expenses, and can "quickly update a mass group at one time." She also noted distinctions over using email. The email recipient knows that they will attend, but with Facebook, everyone knows who's going to attend, and this builds momentum. This does not make her solely dependent on Facebook for marketing, however. CSP will be sending out "Save the Date cards - must use more than one medium" to advertise, she says.

While she is highly enthusiastic regarding Facebook, it did not come without its challenges. She is one of the earliest non-college student users of Facebook, just when it began to open up to users outside of the college community. CSP’s Facebook page started on Ransom's personal page, and students in the program communicated on her behalf. As Facebook developed more tools to recognize non-collegiate groups, she was able to move CSP to a fan page, and place levels of viewership and security that were not possible on her personal page, allowing her to deal with the issues of personal expression and organizational appropriateness. The amount of communication is now at a level where she foresees the need to have a person with social media skills.

For those who may be looking to use Facebook professionally, Ransom gives the following advice: "Jump in!" She notes that she did not read the manual for it, but started slow, and learned. "It is an incredible medium for social networking - building social capital. [It] builds awareness around any issue or interest. It is a level playing field. You don't have to be Oprah to reach millions."

You can learn more about the Collegiate Scholars Program at the University of Chicago on their website http://collegiatescholars.uchicago.edu.

Editor's note: Too often, I have heard failure stories of organizations using Facebook to invite fans to events, usually sales presentations, and few if any actually attend. This article gives insight why this event appears to have more success than many. Relationships were established and fostered, and momentum is built further by continual communication and the relationships between the attendees. I believe that this article should be a model for those looking to use Facebook as a tool to facilitate events.