While I was going through my emails this week, one intrigued me in particular. It opened with large font saying, “Better Than Facebook?” which is sure to get someone’s’ attention.
The email advertised a new form of social media known as UmeeUs. The email continued to address how this new site has been launched at Yale, Cornell, Vassar and George Mason Universities.
It also said that this site would provide information about your school, allow you to get to know more people and have a simple set up that would be easy to navigate.
After reading the advertisement for this site, I thought it looked like a great idea.
It would benefit off campus students, because living off campus makes it more difficult to stay in touch with all the events and opportunities that Mason offers.
I also thought that if the site was specific toward Mason, then that would make navigation simpler for the user.
There would be no clutter on the site because it is newer so staying informed would be easier.
All of these thoughts entered my head before actually going to the site and seeing what it was like. Once on the site, I realized that it was not at all what I thought it would be.
Overall the site is more geared toward individuals and their lives rather than to a university.
Their motto, “Simple.Safe.In.” provides an ideal framework for a social media site however instead of having focus on the school, it focuses more on the individual.
This whole idea seems recurring and unoriginal to me because what Mason really needs is a site that is focused on Mason alone.
When I say this, I mean a site that advertises all the events, fairs, shows and opportunities in a simple, accessible way.
By having a social media site that is solely interested in the Mason campus, many more students will be informed.
This would include students living off campus, family of the students and more students in general.
If there was one social media site that was one click away instead of multiple sites being multiple clicks away, Mason would benefit from the students being more informed.
I think that the platform UmeeUs offers the framework for an effective site however the focus needs to be reevaluated.
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