You’ll see that McGill University (downtown campus) is the twitter king with 12,607 followers and 3,605 tweets followed by the University of Calgary (10,611 followers and 3,362 tweets) and York University (9,134 followers and 1,718 tweets). At the other end of the spectrum is Saint Mary`s University who have 10 followers and have tweeted only 8 times. Or the University of Alberta with 254 tweets but only 42 followers.
It`s hard to avoid judging universities when you look at the list, but remember this is just twitter and each university may have a different strategy of connecting and staying in touch with future students.
As a potential student perhaps you`ll have a greater appreciation for the personal touch. There are other ways to communicate with future students, for instance snail mail, email and telephones. In fact, I found some of these to be more effective.
Here`s one letter that my son received where the admissions officer not only took the time to write a personal note and but also included a cute reference to one of his extra-curricular activities. It really made me feel that he was not just an applicant and hopefully will not be just a number if he were to choose this university.
I follow practically all of the universities on twitter and I find it informative and highly recommend that you follow the schools that interest you. You’ll get a feel for what’s going on campus and will have a good sense of the university’s personality. Remember that this is the “official” twitter account so it usually positive news and university sponsored events. It does not include the weekend beer bong parties or keggers. But in my old-fashioned opinion, the personal touch will always trump twitter and other social networks.
