PLATTSBURGH — You can spend hours on Facebook browsing photos and poking your friends.

But now you can do more than that.

Area colleges have joined the social media world to bring networking and academia together in one Web space.

Planning
The Plattsburgh State fan page, which launched May 14, has more than 4,000 fans comprising faculty, prospective and current students and alumni.

"We definitely have goals we've set for each of those audiences," said Devin Mason, assistant director of marketing and new media at Plattsburgh State. "It's not something you want to jump into without making a plan."

On the site, fans can interact and network with old college friends, learn about campus events and news, manage their courses and more.

Viewers can "seek information about the great things that are going on on campus," Mason said.

Engaging
He and Anthony Vela, the associate director of marketing and new media, have incorporated video and photography on the site to help generate discussions and interest.

"That's what social media is about, having those conversations," Mason said.

What drives the site is the idea of engaging viewers and creating something authentic.

"You can react very quickly," Vela said. "(With) traditional media, you really can't do that. That's what I like about it, that quick response time. That's what makes or breaks social media.

"If anytime your page or presence becomes static, you're dead in the water," Mason added.

And it's that quality that has helped to engage more than 4,000 former, current and future Plattsburgh State students.

"It's a two-way street," Vela said about viewers' participation on the site. "They're driving it."

Social media keeps undecided students engaged, especially since most are looking at about six schools at a time.

With print, there's no way to measure engagement rate, Mason said.

Mason said he hopes that a year from now they'll have numbers to show how many students they attracted to the college through their efforts.

Networking
Clinton Community College also embraced social media as a marketing tool.

Gina Schwizer, graphic designer and marketing assistant at CCC, said their Facebook page, which launched in January, was created as a tool for prospective students to connect with new and former students.

She and Megan Morrissey-Kelley, the associate vice president of institutional advancement, have geared the site toward providing information on special events for alumni and students and providing a forum to share stories, questions and testimonials.

"It's been pretty effective on both ends," Schwizer said.

"That's sort of what we were looking for when we started the page," Morrissey-Kelley added.

With that fan interaction, both agree, the content is more authentic.

And while the site has just under 200 fans, related groups have branched off.

Incoming students and alumni have formed groups to network and share interests.

"In terms of community building, that's really great," Schwizer said.

Tweeting
In addition to Facebook, the marketing and new media team at Plattsburgh State has also created Twitter, flickr and YouTube pages.

Twitter is used for news feeds and caters to an older audience. Flickr and YouTube boast photos and video on a shared network viewable to fans.

"From what we can tell, our audience isn't there yet," Schwizer said of CCC students. "(But) we've got our eyes on it."

"You can't do them all," Mason said. "And if you try to, you're not going to do them well."

Instead, he stresses the importance of having a goal and target in mind.

"We did look at MySpace, but it wasn't where our students are."

In the first week, the Plattsburgh State Facebook page gained 700 fans, mostly between ages 18 and 22. But the following two weeks, 62 percent of new fans were age 30 or older.

"Where I hope it goes is the Facebook page becomes a hub for the social media we're doing in other areas," Mason said.

"It's beyond what we envisioned," Vela added.

Morissey-Kelley agrees.

"I definitely never thought Facebook would be a part of my job."

E-mail Michelle Besaw at: mbesaw@pressrepublican.com