facebook: building social connections and support for western oregon university athletics

MASTERS THESIS

CLAIRE CARPENTER

MARCH 2010

Facebook: building social connections and support for

Western Oregon University athletics

Identifying a need

WOU Wolves: From the beginning

Facebook 101

Ready…Set…Facebook!

WOU Wolves: Risks and Apprehension

Faculty on Facebook 2006 to present

Student-athletes on Facebook WOU Social Networking Waiver

The Popularity of Facebook

More than 400 million active users; 50% of them users log on to Facebook in any given

day

The average user spends more than 55 minutes per day

on Facebook

More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each

day

My Project

Created a Page within Facebook Posted current WOU athletic news

News Scores Pictures Videos Events

Insights from WOU Wolves

Insights application from our WOU Wolves

page

Facebook Insights measures user

exposure, actions, and behavior relating to

Facebook Pages.

Taking a closer look at our active fans

Fans Who Interact with our Page

Interactions Interactions per post Post quality Posts

Fan activity two weeks ago

Total Fans Active Fans18-34 78%

18-34 40%

35-55+ 17%

35-55+ 60%

Fan activity this week

Total Fans Active Fans18-34 79%

18-34 38%

35-55+ 16%

35-55+ 64%

Taking a closer look at all our fans

All Fans of Western Oregon Wolves

Total fans New/Removed fans Top Countries Demographics Page views Media Consumption Unsubsribers/re-subscribers

Suggestions for future Page Administrators

Set an appropriate project goal

Occasionally, shift the focus off of the athletes and onto the fans

Target alumni

Utilize other media (i.e. twitter, athletic homepage, contest programs, etc.)

References

Facebook. “Statistics.” 2010. Retrieved Jan. 25, 2010, from http://www.facebook.come/press/info.php?statistics