Cerritos College wants to be your friend, so add it already.

Early November of this year, Cerritos College launched a MySpace, Facebook and Twitter account.

The general idea is to keep students updated as frequently as possible, using the most common Web-based communication sources.

Mark Santa Ines was hired in as a Web author by School Relations in October of this year.

Katie Mishler, program assistant for School Relations, said, “There was a MySpace account that we started two years ago, but no one was able to maintain it. Bringing Mark on board a few hours a week gives us that opportunity to be consistent with our reach out to the students.”
 
The original Cerritos College MySpace account was canceled and a new one was created early November 2009.

Although MySpace has fallen short recently against Facebook and Twitter, that still does not disregard its 100 million plus open account users.

Facebook for Cerritos College came next with its development at the end of November 2009 and the newest one, Twitter, with its two-week-old existence for Cerritos College.

Facebook has more than 350 million users and Twitter receives more than 1.8 million visits per month.

Twitter visits have increased immensely in the past couple years. In 2008, it had increased eight times the regular usage amount.

Shirley Arceo, coordinator of School Relations and Mark Santa Ines are the two brains behind this operation. They searched other college Web sites and talked to students to get great ideas.

“Mark visits each account a few times a week to give updates and respond to the students. He does the live chat as well so he can answer questions. It makes it more personable. It’s a new way to reach out to the students,” Mishel added.

Cerritos.edu has made it very convenient for all students visiting the homepage to click on the quick links for MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to begin immediate and permanent connection.