Academia meets Twitter: Part 7 - Elgin Community College

This is Part 7 of a series entitled Academia meets Twitter, where professionals took part in a short e-mail Q&A session to discuss Twitter incorporation in an educational setting.

Elgin Community College
Twitter Handle: @elginspartans
Participant: Sarah Evans
Elgin Community College , Director of Communications

From which department does the Twitter profile run?
The Elgin Community College (ECC) Twitter account (@elginspartans ) is “run” by the communications team.

How often do you monitor the profile?
The @elginspartans profile is monitored during school hours, typically Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. This does not mean that people can only interact during this time frame. The great thing about Twitter is that responses do not necessarily have to be instantaneous. There is an asynchronistic style to the conversation flow. While we do our best to reply to “tweets” as quickly as possible, I know that a 12-hour window (before and after work) is acceptable. That said, the account is linked to my work email address (which is linked to my BlackBerry), so if someone sends a direct message I can easily respond anytime.

What Twitter applications do you use to run it?
@elginspartans is a relatively new Twitter account and hasn’t seen a ton of action (yet).  Currently, I use a combination of the actual Twitter page and Search.Twitter (formerly Summize) to interact. When interactions pick up, I may move to Tweetdeck (which is what I use for my personal account).

Have you determined if more, students, alumni, prospective students, staff, or community members are following?
The @elginspartans is still in a growing stage.  Currently we have more community members (which is a great thing!) following and interacting with the account. There are a few of each audience following the account: faculty, students, legislators, alumni and local media. I expect this to grow in 2009 and include more current students. My favorite day on Twitter for ECC was the when one of our students tweeted us. Very cool!

What communication goals do you hope to meet using Twitter for your institution?
Twitter is definitely not our only means of using social media to connect with our community. The ultimate goal is truly about making information easier to access and offering another way to interact with those who are interested with the college. Last week, a current culinary student reached out via Twitter to inquire about her uniform.  I was able to respond back immediately and begin a conversation with her.

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Vedo's Thoughts: I have found Sarah Evans to be a tremendous resource for communications professionals especially for those of us in education. She is @PRsarahevans on Twitter and is doing some great things for the industry and sharing her ideas. The best takeaway that I'd like to highlight is her quote from the last question:

Twitter is definitely not our only means of using social media to connect with our community. The ultimate goal is truly about making information easier to access and offering another way to interact with those who are interested with the college.

Editor's Note: This post has been updated to include Elgin Community College's renamed Twitter profile, @elginspartans

Academia meets Twitter

• An Introduction
• Part 1 - TCU
• Part 2 - Butler University
• Part 3 - Thunderbird School of Global Management
• Part 4 - Georgia Southern University
• Part 5 - University of Oregon 
• Part 6 - Hurst Euless Bedford ISD