MySpace et al: Inadvertently Tarnishing Universities' and Students' Reputations

by Joe Dysart

What's New

October 2006

While social networking sites like MySpace have caused something of a sensation of late, they could be wrecking the futures of some college students — and tarnishing the images of colleges and universities in the process.

Joe Dysart

The reason? The irreverent, no-holds-barred nature of virtual meeting places has inspired more than a few college students to strike unsavory poses. A July article on AlligatorSports.org, for example, entitled "Defaced: Online Photos Expose Student Athletes," bemoans the fact that a number of University of Florida athletes posted pictures of themselves on Facebook, while they were drinking, smoking pot or urinating in public. 

Unfortunately, the story is becoming commonplace.

College students are also seeing their on-web pranks boomerang when they apply for their dream job, and the corporate recruiter calls up a picture of them on the web with a bong in hand, or worse.

The soaring popularity of social networking sites is increasing exposure problems for both students and institutions.

This past June, MySpace became the number one most visited site on the web, beating titans like Yahoo!, AOL and MSN ,according to Hitwise, a market research firm.

More than 52 million people visited MySpace during June 2006 alone, according to another market research firm, ComScore Networks.

And six million people each month are now signing up for free MySpace memberships, according to market researcher eMarketer.

Universities looking to protect their own images, as well as the prospects of their graduates, may want to let their students know that representing themselves as the back end of a horse on the social networks may not be the brightest idea.

It's also a good idea to watch how the college or university is portrayed on the web.

You can keep tabs on the Top Ten Social Networks: MySpace, YouTube, Blogger, Classmates Online, Yahoo! Groups, AOL Hometown, MSN Groups, Facebook, SixApart Typepad and Windows LiveSpaces (Nielsen Net Ratings, August 2006).

There are also a number of service bureaus that will do the monitoring:

• Factiva Insight: Reputation Intelligence
• WebClipping.com
• Nielsen BuzzMetrics
• CyberAlert's BlogSquirrel

Joe Dysart is an internet speaker and business consultant based in Thousand Oaks, California. Reach him on the web or by e-mail at joe@joedysart.com.