Category: web 2.0

Friday Five: Special Leap Day “29” edition

Today is Friday, so you know what that means: a Friday Five.

But it’s also Leap Day — Feb. 29, and event that only comes around once every four years. It’s the first Leap Day of this blog’s existence, so instead of our usual Friday Five fare, today ye shall feast on five 29-second videos that were entered into KansasCity.com’s 29-second film festival. (Note to amateur filmmakers: It’s not too late to enter. You have until midnight CT today. Here’s how.)

  1. The Show-Me Bullet Bike, a time-compressed video of a Missouri S&T student group’s attempt to break the collegiate land speed record last fall, created by our university’s very own award-winning videographer Tom Shipley. (Some readers may know Tom better as half of the ’70s folk-rock duo Brewer and Shipley, of “One Toke Over the Line” fame. But that’s another story altogether.) (And yes, this is a blatant promotion of a Missouri S&T student design project. If you’d like to see a longer video about the bullet bike, here it is.)
  2. Turbo Carrots. I like it for the guy’s Kansas City Royals jersey, if for no other reason.
  3. Uncle Sam’s Cash Advance.
  4. 29. Paging Jack Bauer.
  5. Family Values. Starring sweet, innocent 9-year-old Cassandra.

    6. And a bonus Leap Day video:

  6. 02.29.08.

Question of the day: Should universities tweet?

Last November, we set up a Twitter account for our university and mildly publicized the fact on our Name Change Conversations blog. But we haven’t done much with it.

twitter.pngAt this point, we have 11 followers, including myself and a couple other communications staffers, and we’ve updated eight times. I haven’t yet worked with our enrollment management team to inform prospective students of the site, and we haven’t notified our alumni through our traditional communications vehicles (email and the alumni magazine).

So, it’s been a very low-key campaign — if you could call it that.

I haven’t found any examples of other universities using Twitter for marketing, pr or external communications purposes.

This morning, I asked the Twittersphere how university comms/PR/marketing folks might be able to use this tool, and have gotten some interesting responses. Here are a few of them:

fcmartin3rd suggests that campuses use Twitter for “inspirational messages; connection with high schoolers; following thought leaders; reminders; pedagoguery!”

amandachapel says, “there’s very little value here. Besides, why would any org want to hold an open meeting on a lawless freeway?”

toster tweets: “I can see universities Twittering for comms, but little else. Even then, I would expect it to be only partially adopted.”

vargasl suggests: “What about twittering events at school? Gaining prospective student interest… ” (That’s how she handled the Oscars on Sunday night, live-twittering while watching E!)

You can keep track of the conversation on my Twitter page. But I’d also like to hear from you readers, too. I know some of you see little value in this tool, and I know others of you who use it regularly as a personal/semi-professional tool but not necessarily as an official representation of your school.

So, let’s hear all sides on the matter.

How could Twitter be incorporated in a college/university communications strategy?

Also, if you know of any universities currently using Twitter, please let me know so I can see how they’re doing.

Leave your comments below or, if you’re on Twitter and want to keep it to 140 characters or fewer, drop a Tweet to http://twitter.com/andrewcareaga.

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