Did your school make the ‘Top Twitter’ list?
October 21, 2009 by Geneva ReidPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Tech News
Which colleges are using Twitter the most — and what are they using it for? Twitter may be only a few years old, but a recent study suggests it’s a popular tool for colleges.
Twitter usage at the top 100 colleges and universities in the country (as determined by U.S. News and World Report 2010 rankings) was studied by UniversitiesAndColleges.org.
Here are some highlights of the study, which looked only at Twitter accounts affiliated with school administrations:
- The University of Florida had the greatest number of accounts with 24. The University of Georgia came in a close second with 22. The average number of Twitter accounts per college was 8.4.
- Of the colleges with the fewest number of accounts, the University of Denver and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry headed the list with just one each.
- Harvard University had the most Twitter followers — 18,955. Stanford University came in second with 10,873.
- Although Harvard had the most followers, the university itself follows about only 39 other schools.
- The College of William & Mary followed the most accounts — 6,056.
- Who tweets the most? George Washington University, which sends out about 58 tweets each day. Second place goes to the University of Washington with 49.8. Most schools average between zero and 20 total tweets per day.
If you’re wondering what schools are tweeting about, the study determined usage falls into six basic categories:
- Delivering news updates
- News updates within the universities’ schools and departments
- News about student services
- Staying in touch with people outside the university community, such as alumni associations
- Updates on research and campus extensions
- News from university media
To see the methodology and results of the entire study, click here.
Is your school using of Twitter? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Tags: twitter, U.S. News and World Report, UniversitiesAndColleges.org
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October 21st, 2009 at 11:17 am
Here at NC State University we recently launched our centralized Twitter presence at http://twitter.ncsu.edu. We’ve currently got 62 official NC State organizations tweeting.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:34 pm
So what?????????
October 21st, 2009 at 2:07 pm
What a waste of time
October 21st, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Was there any reason to post those type of comments? This is a Higher Education website forum where comments made by NCSU are welcomed to foster hearty and healthy comments.
October 21st, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Oklahoma State University also has several accounts. Here’s the list: http://news.okstate.edu/index.php/social-media
October 21st, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Winning the “content” to have the “most accounts” doesn’t yield much unless
those behind the accounts have done some strategic and market analysis that
indicates Twitter reaches some audience/goal combination more effectively than
existing media options. As with most new media, we are witnessing a huge,
largely mindless, bandwagon effect.
October 21st, 2009 at 2:41 pm
As an advocate for the use of social media in higher ed – It’s good to know that higher ed is experimenting with Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. I’ll tell you simply – students consider email “old school” and don’t read it. We battle this in our department and faculty complains about it. Where are students going? Social Media –
However, I’m not at all impressed with this “study” – it appears thrown together and incomplete.
Additionally, there ARE strategies out there to effectively use social media. One account for an entire campus is ineffective. Social media can be leveraged to connect with niche audiences. Also – keep in mind WHEN to tweet or update statuses. For example – during the work day may be good for your alumni association but for career services – probably 10pm-2pm is most effective. Why? We’ve found that’s when most of our students are applying for jobs, etc.
And if you’re an engineering student – do you want to get updates on EVERY work shop? No, probably not – so it makes sense to follow your college, group, etc. on Twitter or Facebook to get that info.
Finally – whether higher ed, faculty, administrators like it or not – social media isn’t going way and like email & web sites will eventually become a norm of electronic communication and exchange.
Respectfully,
Lanie James
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:07 pm
I agree with those who suggest using social media strategically. I was reluctant to begin using Twitter for Kansas State University’s media relations until I could find a way to make it useful to followers. I started our @k_state_news account in January, with a goal of providing news updates and information we were not providing in our news releases. We point to faculty and students in the news when the item is especially interesting or fun. Twitter also is a speedy way to get word out in case of emergencies, including snow closings. It isn’t “the” way, it is an additional method of communication. We don’t compete to have the most tweets, or the largest number of Twitter accounts. The goal, instead, is to be relevant to news media in our area and to faculty, staff and students. I’ve found Twitter very useful for a number of purposes. K-State has a number of Twitter accounts, and most are aimed at specific niche audiences.
- Cheryl May
February 1st, 2010 at 12:05 am
Twitter are 100% the way to go
March 8th, 2010 at 7:55 am
People who aren’t using twitter will have either not understand the power of twitter or they might not be aware of its existence. Doing some research, you can get to know the positive and successful stories of twitter and their role in driving traffic towards your business