I started using Twitter a few months ago as a self-imposed research assignment, to try to get a handle on what someone would really get out of it. When I first heard folks talking about it, it sounded like a great tool if you were out and about a lot, trying to meet up with friends, letting friends know where you are and where you’re planning to go. But for those of us who don’t have many evening outings anymore (bar-hopping is quite a thing of the past for me, with 10 month old twins now the focus of my nights), it didn’t seem like something useful.

I confess, my view of Twitter was rather short sighted. Since joining, I’ve discovered that Twitter IS another way to remain connected, but not necessarily with just your friends and people you already know. Your list of who you are following and who’s following you seems to grow organically, as it does with other social media. But if it’s a dialogue, it’s a different kind of dialogue. It’s really an information exchange – real-time postings from an event you’re attending, news items, humorous observations, or just how you happen to be feeling at that moment or what mundane task you might be engaged in. It’s a wonderful mix of all of these things, and as you “follow” someone on Twitter, an image of them begins to take shape, pieced together from the many comments they’ve made and information they’ve shared. It’s pretty cool.

Now that I’ve become more familiar with how Twitter works, I’ve started reading up on how it applies to secondary and higher ed. In August, the blog .eduGuru offered up a smart take on how the higher education community should approach using Twitter. In her post, Karlyn Morissette, Web Producer for Dartmouth, suggested that rather than looking at how other schools might be using Twitter, instead look at how other industries are using it to communicate with their audiences. She references organizations running the gamut from Home Depot to NASA to the American Cancer Society. After you study how other varied industries are using Twitter, it’s pretty easy to begin seeing how it might be utilized by secondary and higher ed.  Athletics updates. Campus visit events. Application deadlines. Performance announcements. Alumni events. Links to audio or video of important lectures. Links to news items featuring your institution (think media momentum as mentioned in my last post). Appropriate audiences? Current students, prospective students, parents, alumni… anyone with a vested interest in learning about what’s going on at your institution.

With the number of Twitter apps exploding, and the number of individuals and organizations participating in the Twitter-verse growing by the minute, it looks like Twitter is here to stay, at least for a while. If you haven’t jumped in already, it’s time. If you already tweet, add Stein to your list.

Contributed by: Meg Gwaltney, Web Content Manager,
and Caitee Bloss, Web Production Assistant, Stein Communications

In previous issues of the Scoop, we’ve explored podcasting in higher education by admission offices and academic departments. While podcasts are most often created either for classes or as a recruitment tool, an increasing number of schools are expanding their student audience and including their university alumni.

The third in our series in podcasting in higher education, this article covers podcasting both with alumni and for alumni. We’ve shared several examples of alumni podcasts, in hopes of sparking ideas for your own institution so that you may better serve your alumni while also giving them additional outlets to contribute to their alma mater.

Podcasts designed for alumni:

While alumni and parent podcasting are often one and the same, several university alumni associations have created their own alumni-specific podcasts. They usually aim to keep alumni informed about campus news, recent research, higher education issues, and life-long learning.

Utah Valley State College publishes an alumni magazine, the Sequel. In conjunction with their magazine, they supplement each issue with audio and video podcasts. The audio podcasts contain readings of articles and other writing from each episode, while the vodcasts include interviews and “bonus coverage” of the articles.

The Alumni Association at the University of Michigan maintains a podcast, True Blue Podsquad. They record speeches, lectures, and interviews that provide “educational content on-demand and on-the-go.” In addition to lectures on career success and entrepreneurship, many of their episodes address common issues in parenting and post-graduate life such as adoption, child tantrums, learning difficulties, and self-esteem.

While less concerned with parenting and family life, Winston-Salem State University does specifically target alumni. Their WSSU Alumni Podcast helps alumni stay up-to-date and connected with the university through campus news and student spotlights.

Podcasts with alumni contributions:

In several university podcasts, alumni join faculty for interviews and lectures. This strategy allows universities to maintain alumni connections, utilize their research and knowledge, and exemplify the success of their own graduates. The promise of listening to an old classmate attracts alumni who may not otherwise subscribe to the podcast and the familiarity of the speaker invokes a greater audience interest in the subject matter.

Johns Hopkins has published a podcast containing a series of discussions over a range of topics, such as evolutionary biology, nation building, national security, and the U.S. healthcare crisis. In addition to contributing to the knowledge base, alumni are also included in panel discussion on campus affairs. Colgate University’s Colgate Conversations podcast follows a similar track. By spotlighting alumni and including them in their presentations, both universities are making statements about their continual interest and investment in their graduates.

With each successive graduating class being increasingly wired and web-savvy, podcasts hold much promise as a means of staying connected. Alumni podcasts are a great strategy for several reasons:

1. Subscription. The ability to subscribe to a feed ensures that alumni stay connected, even when they move or change email addresses.

2. Frequent updates. Offering short but frequent updates on campus news and recent research is relatively painless for both the university and alumni subscribers.

3. Multimedia. Podcasts can feature audio from familiar professors and video clips of campus events — elements not possible in as timely a manner in most other marketing mediums.

As universities increase their use of academic podcasts and more students encounter them in their classes, it is likely that graduates will be more interested in creating or contributing to podcasts as alumni.

In our next issue of the Scoop, we’ll tackle the fourth type of podcasting in our series — athletic podcasting. To contribute your college’s experiences, thoughts, and concerns about podcasting in education, please email mgwaltney@steincommunications.com.