Brad Ward has been doing some digging into how colleges and universities are using Twitter, and posts some interesting stats on his blog.
Brad’s observations are preliminary, but worth pondering. He’s keeping an eye on some 400 higher ed Twitter accounts, making this probably the most comprehensive study of how colleges and universities use Twitter. Among his findings:
- Of the 400 accounts we are tracking, 26% did not follow anyone new in the past month.
- The 400 accounts averaged a 93.3% growth in # of followers over the past month.
- A small handful of schools are in the top 10% of # of followers, # of following, and # of updates.
- Admission offices usually have the lowest # of followers out of all types of accounts.
There’s more to digest in Brad’s post, so I suggest you go read it. Brad says it’s time for us to get serious about Twitter and make it work for us.
P.S. — Pay no attention to that whole Nostradamus thing in Brad’s post. It was just a timely observation. (But, yeah. I nailed it.)
Andy writes! 
I have to say I was incredibly surprised the first time one of my Professors sent out a tweet! I thought he was kidding when I read the course syllabus and it said that we were required to follow his account, but it’s been quite a useful tool for asking very quick questions about assignments!