By Kayla Mancuso
At Manhattan College, there are so many activities that students can get involved in, which can be very hard to keep track of. However there is one activity that almost every Manhattan College student participates in on a regular basis: Facebook. Therefore it would be foolish for Manhattan College to not take advantage of this.
Even though it is hard to believe, there are groups that don’t use Facebook to its full capacity.
The Manhattan College Quadrangle is a prime example of this. As a form of media on the Manhattan College, it is important that the Quadrangle knows how to network properly. Their Facebook page is lacking the effort it deserves.
Matthew Coyne, editor and chief of the Quadrangle, feels that there is room for improvement. “We don’t use the page to its full capacity,” explained Matthew. He continued to say that, as a first time editor and chief, he would like to give the Facebook page more attention. Matthew believes that the effort for improvement needs to begin with in the paper.
“Really, the best way to improve the effort is to resolve ourselves, as a staff, to using it. Putting out a newspaper every week that's 100% us and taking classes and having a life is tough. I feel like some of our staff are reluctant to take on more responsibility. The only way to really improve the effort is to just put our noses to the grindstone and do it,” explained Matthew.
Even with an improvement in the Quadrangle’s effort, would that really help the paper?
Matthew Coyne addresses this issue with the following remarks: “I don't think it'd be a waste of time at all, but with the size of our staff it could be a misallocation of manpower. There's also a give and take with Facebook - we can put a lot of effort into our page, but if people don't use the page, we kind of lose out.”
Lynette Perez, sophomore and member of the paper for 2 years, feels differently on the matter. “We have so many computer engineers that there is no excuse for having a backwards website--or lack thereof,” explained Lynette.
She believes that the use of the Facebook page would definitely benefit the Quadrangle. According to Lynette, it could be used as an archive to store some important articles from the Quadrangle. If this effort was made, more family and friends could read the articles posted by their loved ones. “I want my mom to be able to read my work,” confessed Lynette.
There is also the fact that the Facebook page would be a great way to promote the Quadrangle. Lynette shed some light on this idea: “I think that a well adapted facebook page could be successful. They would have to friend request everyone in the MC network and really post a lot. I'm pretty sure that's the trick--having a lot of posts on students' mini-feeds. It could attract a lot of attention.”
What makes the matter worse is that there are other clubs that use their Facebook page to the fullest.
On the Manhattan College Golf Team page and the Manhattan College Women’s Basketball Team page focus on their individual teams. Each team posts images from past tournaments and games, as well as pictures from them. They introduce the members and coaches of each team, while also giving background information. Their pages are also a great place for teams to boast about the accomplishments of their players. They regularly post articles from www.gojaspers.com, which focus on team and player achievement. From the amount of posts alone, an individual can see the amount of time and effort they put into their pages.
So if the athletic teams can understand the importance of taking advantage of networking opportunities, then why can’t one of the college’s most important media outlets do the same? After all, Facebook’s slogan is: “Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life”.
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