In recent months, the University’s Twitter feed has included fewer conversations and interactions with followers and more links to websites with information. This could reflect a shift from a focus on communicating with current community members to shaping the University’s external image, according to a consultant of social media for higher education institutions.
The shift coincides with the departure of Ian Cahir, former Social Media Strategist and Staff Writer for the University’s Office of Communications, who managed the Twitter account. Since his departure on Sept. 28, the Office of Communications has been in search of a replacement that will fill the role as the new Social Media Strategist and resume charge of the Twitter account.
In the interim, Director of News and Editorial Services Daniel Day, who was hired this year, is in charge of the tweets.
Eric Stoller, a consultant and blogger on strategic communication for higher education, noted that colleges and universities generally take one of two paths toward tweeting. Some are more focused on internal happenings on the particular campus, while others are focused more on external individuals. He said the University’s tweets have tended toward the latter.
“Except for the urgency in the Hurricane Sandy posts, which focused on getting the word out and was more of an emergency situation, the tweets seem to now be press-release style with very little back and forth communication happening,” Stoller said.
Stoller added that tweets from July and August, when Cahir was at the helm, seemed to be more random and focused on engaging with the community, without promoting a particular website or new opportunity.
He noted that the two styles, one more informative and the other more engaging, can both be beneficial in their own ways.
“As someone who is not affiliated with Princeton, I look it as you can win either way from a social media and communications perspective,” Stoller said. “The change in tone hasn’t affected the following because it has continued to steadily grow.”
The University’s account currently has almost 37,500 followers. According to www.monitor.wildfireapp.com, a website that tracks the followers of a particular Twitter account, the number of followers has gone up by 4.3 percent in the last month and 15.8 percent in the last three months.
Day said staff members have been using technology to preset tweets to go off at certain times.
“This allows us to prepare some of the tweets in advance which is useful because it causes the account to be viewed by more people,” Day said.
He explained that some tweets are set to go off at odd hours for U.S. residents, but are at times when more people in other countries — such as in China — are viewing Twitter.
A job listing for a Social Media Strategist is on the University’s website and Day said that interviews for the position will begin in the next few weeks.
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