4 Ways Colleges Can Use Twitter

It shouldn't surprise you that Twitter is an amazing way to market your school. But, how do you use it effectively? What would you even talk about?

1. Release news to current students and alumni
The standard practice at schools is to save all the exciting news of prestigious alumni or award winning teachers for the monthly newsletter or the weekly emails to parents. If Professor Jones wins a national prize for teacher everyone can know the instant you find out. If you school is closed for a snow-day, utilize the social network and tell everyone in a cheap and easy way.

2. Give out timely information for students
Tufts University uses it Twitter stream in a way that drives students to follow the feed. Every morning they post what the cafeteria is going to be serving. This is a fun way for the school to get in touch with the student's desires and drive traffic.
Other student-focused information could be an impromptu game of Ultimate Frisbee in the quad, a movie night hosted by a fraternity or free concert with the Improv club. If students feel that they can send out almost a press release to the campus through Twitter, they will be more willing to be a part of your school's social media.

3. Give out athletics scores
Imagine your school is playing its rivals on the football field. Only so many people can actually make the trip to attend the game, especially if its an away game. Instead of making people wait until the school newspaper comes out or an athlete comes back with the news, you can release the scores live!
One way to use Twitter for athletics is to have one spectator taking pictures and videos of the game and upload them to Twitter. Another is to have a spectator live-tweeting the game, allowing alumni thousands of miles away to follow a game and root for their alma mater.

4. Let star faculty shine
Do you have a popular or prestigious teacher? Or do you have a charming and entertaining staff member? Let them tweet! Let the Nobel Prize nominee tweet about his research. Let the hilarious Political Science teacher share his thoughts. Is there a popular IT guy that has the best jokes around...give him an outlet. If Mr. Brown is the most popular guy on campus, let other students connect with him.

4 Ways Colleges Can Use YouTube to Market Themselves

As a school, you may not think that video is useful for you. I mean what could you possible do on videos that people would actually care about?

Actually, just one video is worth over 1000 words of text. That means that your word-heavy brochures may go unnoticed but that one video...that could be the ticket to getting someone to stop and notice your school.

Speakers and Commencements
Did your school nab a high-profile speaker? Record a 10 minute clip and put it on YouTube. Conan O'Brien's Havard commencement speech has over 200,000 hits. 200,000! Anyone interested in listening to Colin Powell or George Will or David Sedaris would just at the chance to watch a free speech, through your YouTube channel.

Lectures
Have a particularly engaging professor? Do you have a class that has electrifying discussions? Record a lecture or a excerpt from a class and put it on the web. A prospective student may see Professor Smith's history lecture or the debate in the American Politics class and feel drawn to the school in a way they could've never just read about.

Testimonials
Have students talk about why they enjoy your school so much. Be careful, this can feel cheesy but a well done and genuine video could do wonders to convince a prospective student.

Tour of the School
A picture is good but a video tour is so much better! Imagine walking through campus like you were actually there. Get an experienced tour guide to give an abridged version of the campus tour and put it up for students to watch. This could be a powerful marketing tool and allow you to focus on the most spectacular parts of the school whether it be the architecture, plants or special buildings.


Gustavus Adolphus College http://www.youtube.com/gusties
Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing http://www.youtube.com/user/fpbnursing
Carnegie Mellon http://www.youtube.com/user/CarnegieMellonU