With a digital camera the size of an index card, Jessica Dandoy took 35 seconds of video that shot Butler County Community College into a bit of online notoriety.

The video, posted on the social networking Web site MySpace.com, is of an 18-inch robot at the college that does summersaults and disco dance moves.

"That was truly impressive! I have never seen a robot that could walk backward, let alone do a reverse somersault!" one online viewer wrote.

The video has garnered more than 6,500 views, and 35 people wrote comments in the two days after it was posted in May.

That shows the attention colleges can get on the Internet.

While online programs exclusively for the educational community, such as Blackboard, have been in use for years, colleges and universities are warming up to using mainstream social networks.

BC3 is starting to see part of its audience as fans, friends and followers.

The college's communication plan includes using Facebook, MySpace and Twitter accounts. It also has a YouTube channel and a Flickr page. One teacher has even set up office hours through networks.

At Slippery Rock University, prospective students are asked to be online friends with Rocky The Mascot.

"If you don't jump on board, it will pass you by," Dandoy said of using social networking on the Internet.

Dandoy, the communications assistant at BC3, calls herself a social-networking geek, but said there's still much to learn for her to be a queen.She and Susan Changnon, director of communications and marketing, decided the college would step into social networking in a big way."In September, we said let's get into it," Changnon said.They had the support of college President Nick Neupauer, who started an online blog when he took over the college in August 2007.Dandoy attended training sessions to learn more about how to use the networks. Changnon said it is discussed regularly on the online mailing lists she reads.They say it's been trial and error work, but there's already been examples of success.This past spring as the date for the annual faculty vs. students softball game approached, the student life office was thinking of canceling it for lack of student player interest. But Dandoy posted a message about it on Facebook along with pictures of past games.Her strategy worked. Enough students signed up through Facebook that the game was played."That's where the students are," Changnon said.The college's Facebook account has more than 550 fans, including two in Pakistan. It has 134 friends on MySpace.Dandoy is online every day. It's become part of her job. Even if she's not posting or updating a status, she's checking out what other people are saying.BC3 also used social networks to spread a message about testing outdoor loudspeaker systems in addition to broadcast e-mail."It's another way to get a message out in real time," Changnon said. "There's not a platform to talk to everyone. Finding ways to communicate to students has always been an issue because they don't live here."SRU has used social networking to focus on student recruitment.W.C. Vance, SRU director of undergraduate admissions, said the university created a Facebook profile for the lionlike, jersey-wearing mascot, Rocky.Anyone on Facebook who attends an admissions event gets a friend request from Rocky. That way he can provide updates on events and reminders about admission deadlines directly to students. So far Rocky has 801 friends.Vance said he's working on expanding the department's use of social networking. He's considered Twitter accounts for parents and prospective students.So far he's seen more success through Facebook than other networking programs because so many students of his target age already have accounts.

Mike Dittman, a BC3 English instructor, said he knew most of his students were on Facebook because of how often he heard about it in the classroom. This year, he started "office hours" using the chat feature of Facebook."My students are much more likely to engage me on the chat feature than visit during office hours," Dittman said.Additionally, he sends out a quote by the author his American literature class is studying each day via Twitter. It helps the students make the transition from the classroom to the outside world, he said.Because students are thinking about literature outside of class, the education at the college can be better, he said."When they come to class, we have a richer discussion," Dittman said.Programs aimed for educational uses, such as Blackboard are decent, Dittman said, but they also are limiting.Facebook is free technology that has a nearly universal platform, he said.So far, it's been great success for Dittman. Students during his office hours have quick questions he can instantly respond to.He said if he has a specific question for a student, he sends a message through Facebook, and he has found students respond to those messages more quickly than they respond to e-mails.Dandoy said the ability of students to interact is an important part of the process for the communication department. Students can comment or post public messages to one another or make comments.

But these public comments are scary to some members of the educational community. Changnon said some universities are struggling to get a written policy for social networking."It's not about limitations." Changnon said about what students can say. "It's about being with them where they are on real time."Because BC3 created a fan page instead of a personal profile, Dandoy said no one at the college can see the personal news feeds of its fans. If someone comments on a link or posts a message directly to the college's page on Facebook or MySpace, she can delete it.Vance said inappropriate comments haven't been a problem on Rocky's Facebook page at SRU. But he reserves the right to delete anything he sees as unnecessary.Dittman has run into instances where he thought a student's online content was inappropriate, but he's not afraid to deal with it.First, he tells his students they aren't required to be his friend online."If you have racist stuff or photos of you breaking the law, don't friend me," Dittman said. "I will defriend you."He has done that to two students. One had racist remarks from other friends. Another had inappropriate photographs of herself, he said."It's a really clear line to me," he said.He told the two students why he removed them from his friend list and offered a bit of advice."You might not want that on there 10 years from now," he told them.Changnon said colleges can't be afraid of what students might say if they get online. They are already online and they will find a way to say what they want.The goal, Dandoy said, is to create an online community for the college."The sky's the limit in terms as what we can do with this," Changnon said.