It would take more than a picture of Alamance to attract students to an Elon University Pinterest page. According to junior Lauren Ludlow, crafts, funny squirrels, job tips or inspirational quotes would better grab her attention.
Colleges are taking an interest in Pinterest, the popular social media website that allows users to create pinboards and organize and share content they find on the Web.
Elon University has recently joined the many colleges that are trying out Pinterest, according to Dan Anderson, vice president of university communications.
Schools such as Drake University, Texas A&M, Yale and Concordia College already joined the website. But the question Elon has to answer is whether there is enough interest to put time and effort into this form of social media, Anderson said.
“We don’t have a lot of support, so we have to figure out if it is worth our time,” Anderson said. “We have about 14,000 likes on our Facebook page, so keeping good, vibrant content on that is important.”
Anderson said the Office of University Communications claimed the Pinterest page a while ago when he put up a pinboard with some pictures from the Academic Village, but the Office of University Communications did not started discussing whether they should populate the board until later.
According to Anderson, claiming the name early is the typical process. University Communications will start a page or site, watch the progress and then determine if there is enough activity on the system.
“We are just in the evaluation stage,” he said. “We did the same thing with Google Plus. We put some basic content, but we don’t think there is enough of a following to put a lot of time into (Google Plus).” Anderson said he has seen that social media appeals to a variety of audiences.
As with Elon’s Facebook page, the Pinterest page encompasses a full range of age groups, from early teens to people in their 50s and 60s. Anderson said it could have a big effect in parent and alumni relations. But he also said he sees that most social media is originally designed for individuals to communicate with others.
“Facebook started like that, but it is now a good place for causes and corporations to have pages,” Anderson said. “I think one of the things we are going to look into is whether Pinterest is something that an entity can use.”
Greg Zaiser, dean of admissions, said Elon should be using social media, but he still does not know for sure its degree of success.
“Social media is the kind of thing that’s important to be a part of,” Zaiser said. “I still don’t think we, meaning people, companies, organizations that use social media have seen the most definitive research on how effective it is.”
Senior Sam Chambers said she would not follow an Elon page on Pintrest.
“I wouldn’t follow a Pinterest bxoard devoted to Elon because I see Pinterest as a way to find new crafts and art ideas,” she said. “If Elon started pinning on Pinterest, it would feel more like advertising. I didn’t join Pinterest to have advertising thrown at me.”
Ludlow said she would not follow an Elon page if it were solely a commercial pursuit, but she would if the page “had crafts that involved Elon colors, funny squirrels, job tips or inspirational quotes about the future.”
Prospective student Elisabeth McFarland said she believes Elon should have a presence on Pinterest, and that organizations at her high school are considering making pages.
Zaiser said it is important to know where people are going in order for them to see an entitiy such as Elon. “The more visible you are where people spend their time, the greater visibility you have,” he said.