At the eduWeb conference Twitter has reached total penetration. Nearly everyone raised their hand when asked if they were on Twitter in a session I went to (of course, it was a session about Twitter). Many of my peers still report that upper management and other stake holders don’t “get it.” And 70% of higher ed people set up institutional Twitter accounts without seeking permission of the higher ups (presumably because it was to hard to explain to them).
The trend for Twitter in higher ed (and other businesses) is to maintain a conversation with customers and stakeholders. Colleges and Universities are going to need to find the resources to staff Twitter accounts to engage these users.
Higher-ed use of Facebook is also surging. With many seeking to protect their brand with vanity URL’s and grabbing up groups for the class of 2013, 14, 15 and beyond. Higher levels of integration with events, login and information is also needed. Several schools are already using Facebook Connect. Many schools have or would like to have closed groups for accepted students. I think getting someone from Facebook at an event like this would be fantastic! They need to remember their core audience.
And finally, why not overtly mentioned, MySpace is still discussed. It is apparently used quite a bit in certain demographics, It seems like the “mommy invasion” of Facebook and MySpace’s refocus on music has upgraded it from deathwatch to merely critical. I will be watching closely to see if MySpace or another network begins to pick up traffic from the college bound audience.
