I “Like” It: How to Increase Facebook Group Enrollment and Engagement for University Programs

Conference: The IAFOR International Conference on Education – Hawaii (IICEHawaii2019)
Title: I “Like” It: How to Increase Facebook Group Enrollment and Engagement for University Programs
Stream: Design
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Authors:
Garrett Fisher, Western Carolina University, United States

Abstract:

The rise in social media use over the years brought Facebook to universities across the US, so departments and programs are currently experimenting with using it for academic and communication purposes and they are finding it to be beneficial (Wang, Woo, Quek, Yang, and Liu, 2013; Clements, 2015; Guo, Shen, and Li, 2018; Heiberger and Harper, 2008). This research presents a case study of how to improve a pre-existing university departmental Facebook group and suggests actions based on a successful implementation strategy in the Department of World Languages at Western Carolina University in North Carolina. Other studies on Facebook groups analyze the creation and use of a Facebook group, making this study unique because the original Facebook group was created for the department in 2012, yet five years later, there were only 64 members in the group, demonstrating that the group was not optimized to its full potential. This study found that fourteen specific actions can increase the number of members within the group while encouraging engagement. The strategic actions in this study tripled the number of Facebook group members over a ten-month period and promoted intercultural diversity and communication.



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