Centre News

The Centre In Your Facebook campaign has begun! Become a
fan of the College to get up-to-the-minute news about on-campus
happenings, alumni events, special visitors on campus and more.

Since its creation, the social networking site Facebook has enabled millions of people to connect with friends, family members, businesses—and it began with colleges and universities—around the world.

Centre College is no stranger to the world of Facebook. In fact, Centre not only maintains a general Facebook profile but also profile pages for alumni, prospective students, Career Services, Community-Based Learning, athletics, the Center for Global Citizenship, the Student Activities Council, and Front and Centre News.

And now, Centre has kicked of its “Centre in Your Facebook” campaign, an initiative created to achieve a stronger online presence for the Centre community.

The idea for the campaign came to digital recruitment specialist Adam Brown after he received a Twitter update about colleges’ use of social media.

“When I took a look at the data from the most recent BlueFuego report about social media and the category in which Centre should be—the ‘XS School,’ or schools with fewer than 2,000 students—we were absent from the top-10 list of schools with the most Facebook fans.”

At the time, Brown says, Centre had around 2,300 fans, 1,600 less than the current number-one school, Hampden Sydney, which has approximately 3,900 fans.

“I don’t like being number two, let alone left out of the top 10,” Brown says. “So I decided we should be doing more to enhance awareness of Centre’s fan page.”

The Facebook campaign is about more than making a top-10 list, however.

“What we’re really hoping to achieve is a stronger presence online for our Centre community,” Brown says. “The College is undergoing a lot of advancements, so using Facebook as a vehicle to discuss and share that information is a no-brainer.”

Becoming a fan of Centre on Facebook allows users to receive up-to-the-minute Centre news—from recent college rankings to sports scores to Career Services workshops.

“It’s important to be in the know,” Brown says. “So the more fans Centre has on Facebook, the more likely our students, faculty, staff and alumni will be able to get the latest Centre news.”

In addition, the more people who are connected to Centre via Facebook, the easier it will be for members of the Centre community to connect—or reconnect.

“We’re pushing a lot of content to Facebook, and not just links to news stories from the homepage,” Brown says. “In fact, only the biggest news stories ever really migrate to Facebook. What fans will find are videos of professors, links to Centre in the media and social activities. Really, it’s a pretty unique way to experience Centre, whether you’re still on campus or have been away for a few years.”

In preparation for the launch of the Centre in Your Facebook campaign, Centre has complied 26 social profiles, Facebook pages, accounts, groups and channels (all of which are maintained by the College) into a single directory on the Centre Facebook fan page. The list can be found under the “socialCentre” tab.

“It has never been easier to interact with Centre on the social web,” Brown says, “and it’s our hope that the community responds in a big way.”

And although there is no downside to becoming a fan of Centre on Facebook, the College is offering several “milestone prizes” to fans to encourage participation.

Beginning Thursday, March 18, every new Facebook fan ending in “-50” (the 3,750th fan, for example) will receive a Centre pennant and car decal. Every new fan ending in “00” (the 3,500th fan, for example) will receive a C6-H0 poster, a pennant and a car decal. And the biggie—at every 1,000-member milestone, the College will hold a drawing among all fans for the choice of the book Stephen Rolfe Powell Glassmaker or a copy of the College's most comprehensive history ever, Our Standard Sure.

For more information about the Centre In Your Facebook campaign—and to become a fan—click here.