The Online World of the University of Calgary

By Nick Heger, Campus Tour Assistant, University of Calgary

The advent of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr has changed the way that everyone, from pre-teens to grandmothers communicate.  From increasing the ease with which people can share every aspect of their lives to making it easier to reconnect with old friends, social media has affected the world.

At the University of Calgary, this exciting development has been used to increase outreach to prospective students and inform them of upcoming events and current exciting information.

From our Twitter site at www.twitter.com/ucalgary, with almost 2500 followers receiving up-to-the-minute updates to the University of Calgary Future Students Facebook page where you can view photos of campus and follow the global adventures of our mascot Rex and pages for each future graduating year, the University of Calgary makes use of a variety of media for student outreach.

In addition to current media, the University of Calgary is developing a Flickr photo stream, where people can see photos from around campus and current students can submit photos of their favourite places on campus to potentially have them distributed in upcoming university publications.

To enable people to see the University outside of regular tour hours or for those that can’t make it to campus, the University of Calgary is also developing a downloadable tour for smart-phones and mp3 players which will enable people to tour the university at any time with the benefits of a “guided” tour.  Watch for it soon!

As our slogan reads, “This is Now” and NOW is the time for Social Media at the University of Calgary as it rapidly becomes a major instrument for disseminating information to future students.  Check out the U of C online…post….tweet….send.