I am curious about how many of you have Facebook pages or Facebook groups and how you use them in conjunction with your Class Creator website.

If you do have one, do you use one to feed traffic to the other and if so, which direction?

I promote my site on Facebook a lot with a group and a page. With a reunion this year, it's driven a lot of traffic and new members to the website.

We dropped our FB page shortly after we joined up with Class Creator, with the idea of 'keeping all of our eggs in one basket.'
With that said, there are some great changes coming along the lines of Facebook, but I will let the CC staff address that!

And I am working on my sites as a scout must be prepared, Steve!

Steve - Our FB page used to have quite a bit of commenting, but since our reunion last summer . . . it's been pretty slow (almost zilch). Wish we'd just drop it (like you said you did) and start using the CC message forum, but doubt that'll ever happen.

Richard - The FB page was definitely how we were able to locate and direct so many classmates to our CC web site for the reunion!

Hi Richard,

On my Class of 1981 site, I do not have a link to the FB page (created my FB class page after our reunion in July 2011). However, before our reunion our committee and mainly me used FB extensively to find classmates and I would send them a private message with link to our site. It did generate quite a few members for us. Currently I still do not have a link on the CC site to the FB page. Am waiting for a little while... more about CC & FB below.

On the Class of 1982 site, one of the committee persons created a Class page on FB in advance of the reunion in July 2012, and used as a secondary communication site to direct members to the latest news on our CC site, which serves as the HOME for their class. Also there is a link on the CC site to the FB page, and it has been there since pre-reunion. Additionally, as classmates would 'like' the FB page for the Class of '82, I would then private message them encouraging them to join the CC site as a member. I think having the FB page for the Class pre-reunion helped classmates find us, as they would search facebook looking to see if there was a hit for a reunion for them in 2012 and then found the CC site on their own.

As Steve eluded, there's an option coming soon (maybe as early as July 2013) from CC with Facebook (think they are calling it integration), that should help all of the admins/CC sites gain members, at least those admins/CC sites that choose the Facebook option. Until then, you can always go to FB and direct persons to your site or vice versa.

Thanks to all for your comment.

Facebook got our reunion off the ground very quickly and easily-- before we considered using a website and doing the whole thing ourselves. We have about 600 out of 1,200 alum on there now. But it has been tough getting those folks over to CC. (229 total, with a good share of non-Facebookers) We had to put up teaser information and all but abandon the Facebook page dedicated to the reunion. Slowly, but surely, they have been logging-in out of curiosity. When I locked-down everything except for the homepage and the Classmate Profiles tab it helped.

We are about to take our Website public. I think having, and using, our Facebook class reunion page is valuable for getting out the word and, with the link to our site, generating new members. I am not at all sure a link from our site back to our Facebook page makes any sense at all. If I decide it does make sense, how do you place the "Like us" graphic and link it to the Facebook page? I'm still on a steep learning curve and what seems easy to do has proven not to be.

Barry - I don't use a "Like Us" link but we have an icon on our web site's homepage (Facebook graduation hat/cap) with the text "Join us on Facebook." When you click on the icon, you are taken to our FB page.

For this, go to www.facebookicons.net - there are several pages of icons from which to choose. Once you choose your icon, directions are given on how to add it to your web site's page. NOTE: Have your FB page opened in another tab as you will need to copy your school's Facebook URL to get the code.

Hope this helps!

Thanks a bunch! You've been more than helpful.

Barry