With the ability to target audiences and track viewing results, Facebook has become an increasingly lucrative option for many advertisers.
But don’t expect your math lecture to appear on the site any time soon. Facebook ads, although popular on campus, remain largely unused among Penn’s academic faculties.
The Office of Health Education is one of the few entities at Penn that has tapped into Facebook’s advertising arena.
According to Stephen McCann, OHE office and wellness coordinator, the department has been advertising courses on Facebook since November 2007, the same month that the Facebook introduced ads.
“It’s probably one of the cheapest forms of advertising, and it definitely gets results,” McCann said.
He explained that the most recent course advertised on the site, Nursing 503: Contemporary Issues in Human Sexuality, resulted in 12 students signing up for the course through the ad alone.
The History Department, on the other hand, has yet to implement such advertising. According to History Department Undergraduate Curriculum Chair Stephanie McCurry, the idea seems plausible, but generates both benefits and drawbacks.
“On the one hand I feel that the department should establish contacts with students in ways that fit with how they already access information,” she wrote in an e-mail. “On the other hand, Facebook seems like a social network to me more than a professional or academic one.”
Some non-academic entities have joined OHE on Facebook.
Penn Computer Connection uses Facebook Ad to promote its services, while Hillel advertises its alternative spring break trip on the site. Similarly, Penn’s College Houses use the site to promote residential adviser and graduate associate positions.
“Everyone at school has a Facebook,” Wharton senior Patricia Liu said. She added that among forms of advertising, “it is definitely the most accessible.”
However, Lui said she is often “very hesitant” to click on Facebook ads, many of which are not of interest to her.
Although its effectiveness is debatable, advertisers take advantage of the unique features that allow them to cater to specific students. Facebook advertising narrows down target populations by means of various categories such as location, age, birthday and education.
In a June 2009 interview with Wired magazine, Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg explained that by allowing advertising to enter the realm of everyday life, Facebook “opens up communication channels and builds relationships,” something he finds to have “probably been undervalued to this point.”
