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For 2010, it is safe to expect that Twitter will not see a diminished roll in university marketing and admissions strategy plans. However, it’s hard to avoid that some people will be coming to the web guys to have them set up their admissions office with Twitter (or will do it themselves), but then will do very little with it, feeling like they ‘just need to have it to be current.’ Should that happen to you, I wanted to share some of the best uses of Twitter that universities are doing specifically for admission efforts so that you can pass them on as examples of what can be done.

First off, I advocate admission offices having their own Twitter account. For one, primary university accounts are (generally speaking) going to have extremely high concentrations of current students and alumni – audiences that won’t have much interest in admission related news or announcements (that’s not to say that admission messages can’t be selectively passed on to the main stream). Also, a separate account can then be shared amongst admission counselors/staff or tied to things like Facebook pages. After all, you don’t want important admission messages to get drowned out by other university information, or vice versa – segmenting your messages is valuable to making sure users get relevant, targeted content.

The challenge is that the audience for admission messages is a moving target. Generally speaking, parents and prospective students will be in the sights of an admission office for about a year, give or take, before either choosing to not enroll or becoming an enrolled student. Either way, beyond that window they usually move into the responsibility of other handlers. That creates certain challenges with measuring success, since follower numbers maybe be prone to fluctuations as interested parties come and go (for whatever reason they may go). The best examples are in this list though not because of their follower numbers, but rather based on how they engage and what they do it with. If you are interested in measuring your own success, look at things like link clickthroughs, retweets, and engagements with other Twitter users. Have conversations and listen; remember, engagement means give and take.

Before you go through this list, I want to just toss out one caveat. I generally find that many of these accounts do one or two things well, but at the expense of others. For example, they might retweet really great content but not engage others much, or they might engage great but not share interesting information sources. I encourage those that are looking to do something similar at their school to look at these and take the best qualities and combine them as much as your resources will allow. Also keep in mind I’m looking at these specifically as they pertain to admissions, and not as a mouthpiece for the university on the whole. In no particular order:

University of California, Davis
follow: @ucdavis
Klout score: 29

Why they’re good: UC Davis has done a great job of engagement. They have been featured in 68 lists, as well as provide 10 of their own (great for passing followers on to other areas once they have passed out of admission’s hands). Their follower ratio is 2.6:1, with better than 1,700 followers currently. I love the amount of retweeting they do, as well as actively engaging with individual tweeters. This is probably the best admission office Twitter account I’ve seen.

University of Oregon
follow: @BeAnOregonDuck
Klout score: 21

Why they’re good: They are doing a great job cross promoting videos through their Twitter account. Extending that, they are also using Twitter as a means to get people into other tools like Facebook and their virtual tour. They’ve gotten out there and are following more people than are following them, and have been featured in 31 lists.

Louisiana State University
follow: @LSUAdmissions
Klout score: n/a

Why they’re good: LSU has mastered the art of sharing (and they’re using HootSuite to do it, so they can measure just how successful they are at it). They link out to many admission related resources, as well as interesting school talking points, and are working the tour angle.

Winthrop University
follow: @WUadmissions
Klout score: 9

Why they’re good: Winthrop’s Twitter account has got a fantastic personal feel to it. The voice of the people behind the account really comes through and creates personality. They haven’t just piped in an RSS or Facebook feed. This also allows them to do a decent job with some low volume retweets and an okay amount of direct engagement with other tweeters.

University of Colorado at Boulder
follow: @mycuboulder
Klout score: 22

Why they’re good: I like that CU Boulder has done a good job both tweeting good prospective student resources and also retweeting other blogs and resources. They are keeping up a relatively high volume of tweets and have drawn in a respectable 730+ followers for it. They also do a “pic of the week” as their Twitter background, something to provide new and interesting content on their Twitter page to keep people coming back to see what they’re sharing.

Drexel University
follow: @DrexelAdmission
Klout score: 13

Why they’re good: Drexel, like Winthrop, is another example of good engagement being provided to their followers, of which they have many. It’s very considerate seeing the occasional congratulations going out to accepted students following them. They feel very “present” on their account.

University of Chicago Law School
follow: @UChicagoLawApps
Klout score: n/a

Why they’re good: Don’t let the low tweet volume fool you. UChicago’s law school has been providing a steady and valuable stream of information to applicants since September 2009, and I think they show a lot of promise for the future. They communicate out where they are in the admissions process throughout the weeks, letting people know when different updates are being released and where they can get information at. It gives folks a nice little piece of insight into how the office is working.

You may (and likely will) have other favorite admission Twitter accounts that you follow or refer to for inspiration that I didn’t list. If so, be sure to take a second and share them in the comments with why you like them so other people can check them out and learn from their inspiration. There are plenty of examples out there, and many are very good for their own special reasons. My list isn’t meant to be comprehensive, but rather should give people resources for inspiring people at their own schools.

photo credit: William & Mary Law Library

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admissions, best of, recruitment, twitter

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This post was written by:

Michael Fienen - who has written 44 posts on .eduGuru.

Michael joined Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, KS (NOT Pennsylvania, they spell it wrong anyway) in 2006 as the Web Marketing Manager.  Don't worry, he doesn't know what that means either.  Web development's role as a tool for interpersonal communication is a principle focus of his efforts to improve and enhance higher ed web commodities.  He is an active supporter of the dotCMS community, accessibility advocate, freelance consultant, and general purpose geek who wears many hats.  Read his complete bio.