72 days on Twitter

I was skeptical about Twitter when I took on the task of managing HERI’s social media efforts. It’s not that I didn’t believe in the value of a social network like Twitter, or that I feared I wouldn’t have enough witty, thoughtful and insightful tweets (ok, I still haven’t mastered the witty part), but I just couldn’t imagine that higher ed professionals would actually use Twitter as a major vehicle to communicate and share information.

It turns out I was wrong. 72 days and 60 tweets later, with 148 HERI followers and 235 people that HERI follows, I now understand the value and addictiveness of Twitter.

Clearly, I am not alone. According to the 2010 Faculty Focus survey, an increasing number of higher ed professionals are using Twitter in some capacity. More than a third (35.2 percent) of higher ed professionals in the Faculty Focus survey pool used Twitter, compared to 30.7 percent in its 2009 survey. (http://www.facultyfocus.com/free-reports/twitter-in-higher-education-2010-usage-habits-and-trends-of-todays-college-faculty/. While I don’t think Twitter is the new e-mail, I do think I’d be missing out if I wasn’t on it.

Top 3 reasons I like Twitter:

1)    I find it to be the easiest and fastest way to communicate with the most amount of people

2)    It has been a lesson in brevity. I could certainly write more than 140 characters, but since Twitter won’t let me, I have learned to be super concise and direct.

3)    It’s my morning news feed. I know I can count on my 235 Twitter friends to share links to the best and most interesting articles in higher ed.

4) It’s a great way, though not the ONLY way, to communicate relevant and exciting HERI news & updates

Follow HERI on Twitter @HERIUCLA!