At the start of the school year, Toledo mascot Rocky Rocket set up a Facebook account, where students who use the site can request to become a "friend." Doing so means they receive invitations to sporting events and access to fun news about the mascot.

The page was originally created by the student who plays Rocky Rocket, but the marketing department took it over in October to increase attendance during basketball season. It has continued to grow in popularity, registering more than 1,000 new friends, and is now used for spring sports as well.

"Reading about how students get their information and talking to graduate assistants in the marketing department, everything pointed to Facebook.com," says Heather Demel, Athletic Marketing Director at Toledo. "We started kicking around the idea, but with the negative aspects of Facebook, we were wary about how it would work. Then a committee looking into new ways to reach people brought it up as well. When they told us how many students check their Facebook page even before they check e-mail, we knew we needed to move forward with it."

The mascot's page is updated daily by a graduate assistant, who also accepts students requesting to become Rocky Rocket's friend. Demel says the page works great for the school's advertising budget, since it offers free publicity for games students otherwise might not know about. But she also says the school is careful not to overwhelm Rocky's friends by sending too many invitations and announcements.

"We look for sporting events that may be a bit down in attendance and publicize those through Facebook," Demel says. "Or if we don't have as many advertising dollars for one game, we'll use the site to push it harder."