With more than 5 million active users, social networking sites like Twitter have grown increasingly popular. Twitter, similar to Facebook, is a site where users can update their statuses and even upload photos.
Shortly after the launch of Twitter, businesses started creating accounts to share sales, promotions and general information with their clients. Now, in a new revolutionized way, is the idea that college campuses are now “tweeting” away to the same tune.
UW-Oshkosh joins the many college campuses across the nation on Twitter. Currently, Oshkosh has three main Twitter accounts: one for updating general institutional news and special events, a second for promoting Engage, the University’s alumni magazine and lastly, an account for UW Oshkosh Today, which is used to distribute news tips for each story posted to UW Oshkosh Today, our on-campus news portal.
Despite having multiple Twitter accounts, many students may not be aware of Oshkosh’s Twitter pages, or how to even operate Twitter. Junior Corey Much believes that Twitter is a good tool to use but doesn’t have an account.
“Personally, I do not own a Twitter account, but it could be useful in some cases,” Much said.
Much is one of the many students who have heard of Twitter but still prefers other social networking sites like Facebook.
“Twitter seems too simple, and Facebook has more to offer,” Much said.
Many students, on the other hand, have heard of Twitter and like senior Hilary Simon, use it daily.
“I try to use it every day, but if I don’t have something new to tweet about, I try to do it three times a week,” Simon said. “I will check every day to see who I’m following and what’s new – like the advertising and public relations industries; they are a majority of the people I follow.”
Simon believes Twitter could potentially open doors for her future career.
“I didn’t want to use Twitter at first,” Simon said. “I just saw it as another thing online and thought of it as a new craze, a new thing to do. My advisor encouraged me to use it because of all the networking opportunities it can provide.”
Many employers are on Twitter, “tweeting” about internships, tips to improve resumes and skills, and even scheduling interviews with those that follow them on Twitter.
“What I am trying to get out of it is job searching; there are a lot of postings on there,” Simon said. “I wouldn’t have known about a lot of the opportunities otherwise, and there are also a lot of resources and networking on Twitter. It will also help (me) get ready for graduation.”
Other students have also benefited from Twitter. Junior William Campbell uses Twitter for networking purposes and also to receive news and updates.
“I wanted to follow other Twitter accounts and networks,” Campbell said. “I mostly use it to follow the accounts of politicians, writers or musicians who update their own Twitter.”
In addition to updates, Campbell said he was willing to follow Oshkosh on Twitter, because he thinks it could be helpful.
“It’s useful when schools send out important updates regarding things like weather or class cancellations because I get updates through my phone,” Simon agreed. “It’s a nice way to keep students up-to-date with minute-to-minute updates about information about campus.”
Despite its growing popularity, some students do not feel Twitter is the correct medium to relay important information. Shane Arman, the student communications specialist for the Integrated Marketing and Communication department thinks that though Twitter can be useful, it may not benefit students in emergency situations.
“It would be interesting to find out how many students on this campus have Twitter, but I don’t think enough students have Twitter for it to be used as an emergency notification system,” Arman said. The University currently has a semi-high tech means of alerting students, Titan Alert, which can be sent directly to students’ mobile phones.
Many think that Twitter may be helpful in certain situations over others.
“I think Twitter can be useful for media relations, connecting with leaders and relationship building in high education,” Arman said. “It can also be effective for more efficiently spreading the word about an event or news item.”
Twitter is all about spreading the news. Currently, several specific areas on campus regularly use Twitter to inform students and their readers about upcoming and happening events.
Kate Unger, marketing manager at Reeve, uses Twitter for many functions.
“We use it to communicate programming and event announcements, dining specials, grand openings, job openings, projects we are currently working on and just regular daily status updates,” Unger said.
Unger believes using social media is beneficial to the University.
“We use social media and Twitter to enhance social relationships with our students, faculty and staff,” Unger said. “Social media allows for the creation and exchange of user generated content. It’s like having a candidconversation with your customer, or in our case, the student, in a coffee shop, except in this situation the conversation is online, and the coffee shop is a social networking site like Twitter.”
Campbell also thinks Twitter has dual benefits for spreading the word.
“It’s a great advertising tool once you have enough people following your Twitter,” Campbell said.
Along with Reeve, specific departments on campus, such as the journalism department, find it beneficial and somewhat crucial to understand and utilize Twitter.
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