By: Kelly Malambri/Staff Writer
Almost any organization can be found on various social media websites, and the University is no different.
While its presence on Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter has potential to be a beneficial way for the University to communicate with and connect to students, it does not reach a big enough audience to be successful in doing this.
If the University hopes to successfully communicate with students and promote a more active community, it needs to keep up with its social media more frequently while reaching more students in general.
Of the University’s approximate 46,000 students, its Facebook page is liked by only 28,436. Its Twitter only has 4,262 followers. In comparison to other Florida universities, the University’s impact on social media users is quite small.
Without reaching more students and fans, the University will miss out on communicating with a vast audience that could be embraced through its activities and advertisements. Students who hope to be reached through such social media will not be able to get the information they want or need if they are not being reached.
Florida Atlantic University, where approximately 28,000 students are enrolled, is liked by 15,252 on Facebook; the University of Central Florida, which has about 58,000 students, is liked by 100,897, and the University of Florida, which has over 50,000 students, is liked by more than 300,000 people.
On August 29, The Beacon reported that Betsy Soler, the University’s social media community manager, strives to “…create a reliable network of communication between students, the University, as well as the Twitter accounts and Facebook pages of the University’s other departments.” However, by reaching, at the most, only 28,436 people through any one of its social media websites, this is an unrealistic goal.
In the Beacon article mentioned above, Heidi Bryce, contributing writer, noted that some students have not been pleased with the way the University maintains its social media websites.
“I check [the University Facebook pages], but it’s usually the same information I’ve seen already,” Melanie Massa, senior, psychology, said.
Students like Massa, who hope to find valuable information from the University’s website, should be able to find current updates. More importantly, these updates should reach more students.
Until the University updates its social media pages more frequently and thoroughly in the eyes of its students, it will not attract more users to like or follow its pages, and it is not using its social media accounts as effectively as it could.
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