School of Music joins Facebook

Students won’t be the only ones fervently checking their Facebooks for new friends during Welcome Week.

Jacobs School of Music  will be checking its new Facebook pages for more fans and updates, in addition to posting photos and videos.

“We’re very excited about these pages,” said Alain Barker, director of marketing and publicity for Jacobs School of Music. “In some ways, they’re some of the most important things we do. Everyone is on Facebook.”

Barker started the three pages in the beginning of 2009 to take advantage of the new technology. There are pages for Jacobs School of Music,  IU Opera Ballet and Theater and alumni.

Barker said the growth of the pages has been substantial, especially over the summer. Jacobs School of Music page jumped from 904 fans on June 1 to 1,257 fans on Aug. 20.

“Communication has really changed over the last few years,” Barker said. “We realize that social media and the way people are communicating has really transformed how an organization like us wants to communicate with our public.”

The fan page application on Facebook has evolved throughout the past year, Barker said, allowing users to do a lot more and keep people informed with what’s happening.

“It also allows us to share and support and celebrate our students,” Barker said.

Senior Grayson Palmer said he thinks the pages can be useful for giving concert series, operas and other events more exposure. Since Palmer is an out-of-state student from Texas, he said he is also interested because the pages include photos and videos of concerts and events.

“Extended family generally doesn’t make it out here. Even then, my parents don’t come to every concert because it’s just impractical,” Palmer said. “Or if there’s something I see that I may not be participating in, I wouldn’t mind sharing it with them. It’s nice to be able to send that to them.”

As for how often the school will update the pages and post links, Barker said most of it depends on how much time the office has to devote to Facebook.

“You’ll see when the semester starts video interviews with artists as much as we possibly can,” Barker said. “And we also invite people to take photos and post them on our wall.”

All pages are structured such that anyone can post a message or picture, and Barker said the school’s faculty are very excited about partnering with students and community members.

“That’s the fantastic thing about social media, that it’s about sharing and collaborating, it’s not about a one-way street,” Barker said.

The school is also using the pages to reach out to alumni.

“We have 14,000 alumni, which if not the largest, is certainly one of the largest groups for alumni in the country for a school of music,” Barker said. “Many of them are very prominent in the world of music.”

Alumnus David Ritter said he either found out about the alumni fan page through an alumni e-mail or a notification on his homescreen.

Ritter said he thinks the page is a great way to keep people informed and connected to the school, as long as it is not the school’s only means of communication.

“I just became a fan about a month ago or so,” Ritter said. “I graduated from the School of Music in 1992, long before it was the Jacobs School, and like to keep up with what’s going on there.”