Profile #4: @ASU

(1) WHY this site?

ASU is one of the highest ranked higher education institutions on twitter. According to “wefollow” they are the top ranked institution with 11 new followers (at the time this was written), bringing their total to 6,651. But, it’s not just because of their numbers that I’m interested–It’s that their account has only been active since January 2009 and they were early adopters in the ASU community.

(2) Screen shot

Data on tweets

Date data downloaded : 8/17/09

Industry sector : [higher] education

Twitter ID : @asu
Followers : 6,651
Following : 6,405
Ratio followers/following : Following: 1.04 followers per following

Number posts : 453
Account created : January 2009
First post : January 27, 2009

Bio: Official Twitter of Arizona State University.

URLs
Twitter : http://twitter.com/asu
Bio link : http://www.asu.edu
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=68739530983
MySpace : http://www.myspace.com/arizonastate
LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/companies/arizona-state-university?trk=ppro_cprof&lnk=vw_cprofile
Org website home : http://www.asu.edu
YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/user/ASU

About: Arizona State University

A. General

Background: Background is consistent with the ASU logos and colors. Key for brand recognition

Avatar: The image used is the ASU logo.

Bio: The bio is clear: It’s the official account for ASU.

Transparency: No indication in the profile of who tweets for ASU.

Bio Link: Links to the ASU website: http://www.asu.edu

B. Tweets:

119 were @ replies

105 were retweets

24 hashtags (ASUFall09, ASU, followfriday, fb, KNC09, phx, NCAA)

Links: 101

10 favorites: Comments ranged from student comments about ASU, ASU piece from Fox News, comments about ASU from non-ASU handles. Overall, tweets that said good things about ASU. First was March 6, 2009. Last one was April 5. Perhaps they started saving tweets, then it became hard to manage or remember?

Summary: As a university brand on Twitter, ASU is one of the top followed university profiles, if not THE most followed profile at 6,757. It has a strong voice that relays pertinent student information such as extended advising hours, to information about televised ASU events. In addition to being a source of news for and of the ASU community, it also does a great job in building interest around and of the campus. For example, one tweet said:

http://twitpic.com/e9eqj – The view from ASU Barrett dorm walkway can be vertiginous, but a great view of lawn & freshly planted palm tree.

In reading their tweets, I feel a sense of community and though it has separate profiles for many units on campus, it still cross tweets information about ASU that one may not hear otherwise. Additionally, they do an excellent job in giving props to their students for achievements and community contributions:

See what ASU alumni are doing with their degrees! RT @asunews Internships led journalism alumna to job she loves. http://ow.ly/gdht3:03 PM Jun 30th from HootSuite

C. Outstanding questions/conclusion:

Suggestions: Perhaps including a background with photos of the university/university-related events or people. This sometimes helps to create a connection between followers and brand.