Quick Pitch: CampusBuddy is an academic-based social network linking students to classmates and others on campus.
Genius Idea: CampusBuddy goes beyond the typical college-oriented social networks and focuses on academic features for members including the ability to add their classes, create a weekly schedule with courses and events, connect with classmates, and link their Facebook and MySpace profiles.
At the core of CampusBuddy is their database of official university grades - they've analyzed close to 100 million grades at 250 universities using school records. This data is used to help members with their social and academic needs on the site.
Where CampusBuddy aces the college social network test is in its integration with Facebook. We can easily see college students adding the CampusBuddy tab to their Facebook profile, and connecting with existing Facebook friends who are a part of their CampusBuddy network to compare course schedules, find the really cool school clubs and events, and bond over their college experience. Essentially, CampusBuddy adds a convenient new layer to Facebook that is even further tailored to the needs of college students.
CampusBuddy is also privately testing a new university social management tool to give schools the power to leverage social media channels and the site to quickly share content with students across the Web. The tool will also enable professors and departments to directly engage prospective and current students using social media and CampusBuddy. We're looking forward to seeing some great content come out of the new tool, so we hope that as many schools as possible will participate.
Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark