Category: Friday Five

Friday Five: Follow the #highered leader edition

This morning, our chancellor at Missouri S&T, Cheryl B. Schrader, joined Twitter (as @SandTChancellor). Which makes sense, especially when you consider that [humblebrag] one of Twitter’s co-founders is a former S&T student, Jack Dorsey (@jack) [/humblebrag].

Chancellor Schrader’s first tweet

So, in honor of this momentous occasion, today’s Friday Five offers some resources and links about #highered presidents, chancellors and other leaders who have taken to Twitter.

  1. A good place to start is Andy Shaindlin‘s list of college and university presidents and other leaders who use Twitter.
  2. Revisit Patrick Powers‘ blog post, College presidents who lead 140 characters at a time. The post is over a year old but still provides great insights to the value of Twitter, and showcases some of the early adopters.
  3. Wondering about the value of Twitter for university leaders? Check Amanda Walgrove‘s piece on Huffington Post College, What College Presidents Can Gain From Tweeting. By taking to Twitter, college leaders “can serve to further personalize their institutions through online engagement and foster connection with a vast digital audience interested in the workings of an educational institution,” Walgrove writes. “Twitter provides a viable platform on which to connect with students, colleagues, alumni, student-run publications and groups, college offices and even prospective attendees.”
  4. One journalist’s take on why more college presidents should be on Twitter. The writer for this piece, Lauren Landry, focuses on three presidents from schools in and around Boston — Tufts’ Anthony Monaco, Babson College’s Len Schlesinger and Northeastern’s Joseph Aoun — and wonders, “Where is everyone else?”
  5. If the real college presidents aren’t tweeting (and even if they are), there’s a good chance someone is cranking up a parody account. In Fake college presidents go cray cray on the Twitters, The Washington Post’s Jenna Johnson reports on the trend and serves up a cautionary tale for any leader planning to create a Twitter presence: Prepare to be parodied.

P.S. – For those who don’t know what a “humblebrag” is, here’s a bonus link.

Friday Five: By the numbers

Happy Friday, readers! It’s been nearly four months since our last by the numbers post. That was a lot of numbers ago. So, while other people are tallying up the number of gold, silver and bronze medals won by their favorite country in the Olympics, let’s run some higher ed/marketing numbers by you.

  1. 21 examples of crowdsourced fundraising platforms – compiled by Andy Shaindlin on his alumnifutures blog. Andy shows us there’s much more to crowdsourced fundraising than just kickstarter. He breaks the list down into platforms for the education sector (first on his list), and everything else (business, non-profit, personal, etc.).
  2. 7 ways to lose your job using social media. Be careful with the party pics or jumping on Facebook right after calling in sick. Thanks, @augieray, for the find.
  3. 7 must-read copywriting and marketing links. Great resources, as usual, from Copyblogger.
  4. 5 reasons to join a niche online community, from Mashable.
  5. And now for the most impressive number of the week: 90-year-old pole-vaulter will make you feel lazy. Watch this video at your own risk, and then go ponder your own slackitude.

A good weekend, all!

Cover image courtesy of www.stockfreeimages.com