I Link You

using facebook to market another social networking site

So I've been invited to a Facebook group called ChiCampus. It is essentially a network for Chicago-area college students under the banner "one city, one campus." So it looks like a way for me to catch a party up at Northwestern that I would otherwise not know about.

Main sections include networking, posting boards, textbooks, rideshare, city life, events, discussions, and media. Of course you can only do this on the website, Chicampus.com. It looks like the site utilized facebook to find chicago area students and market itself as the premier site for networking within the Chicago community.

Many of my friends are joining the group, but whether they are actually using this group is uncertain. Granted there are tons of chicago-area students that are posting their personal and campus events, so the idea is not totally defunct. The most I've ever seen a U of C organization make use of Facebook is the Chicago Society and their event notices regarding lectures and talks by famous faculty and policy makers on various political, social, and economic issues.

Anyway, it seems natural that college students will now flock to regional networks in order to claim unity and city spirit. As Facebook enabled the ability for one to associate himself or herself as part of a city, you get some interesting results. Some of my friends join the Chicago, IL network just because they live here. Other students (especially international students) claim associations to their respective hometowns despite being residents here on campus throughout most of the year. I haven't really decided what regional networks I should join because I am very split between three cities (birth, city i grew up in, city where i go to college now). I wish I can join more than one city network, but I haven't figured out a way to do that yet. (Watch as someone calmly points out that I can as I probably overlooked it.)

posted by Koh @ 10:24 PM