The use of Twitter in higher education has exploded in the past year as more colleges and universities have come to realize the power and reach of this communications tool. UniversitiesAndColleges.org last fall attempted to quantify Twitter use among higher ed institutions but limited its study to those within the Top 100 of the U.S. News and World Report 2010 Rankings. The trends were interesting.
However, with such an exclusive data set, the report left me wondering about the schools in my area. What does the Twitterscape look like among higher ed institutions in and around St. Louis?
As the man who manages the @websteru Twitter account, I was more than curious.
The methodology
So I took the same methodology used by UniversitiesAndColleges.org and applied it to a dozen St. Louis area schools. All were represented by at least one Twitter account. I tried to include all accounts related to each college or university, although purposely left out the personal accounts of faculty, staff, students and alumni. I also omitted those accounts set to private. All data was collected on the same day.
The data included: user name; number of followers, number of those following; total number of tweets; and the number of days the account has been active. I used the last two pieces to calculate the number of tweets per day.
The findings
While a Twitter account’s popularity and reach can partially be attributed to the size of its audience, in this case the number of students or alumni, generally what I discovered was a reaffirmation of the Twitter golden rule: The more active the college or university, the greater its reach.
| School | Accounts | No. of Followers | No. Following | Avg Tweets/Day |
| Washington University in St. Louis | 26 | 6,845 | 1,992 | 0.53 |
| Webster University | 37 | 6,339 | 4,180 | 0.60 |
| Saint Louis University | 49 | 5,501 | 2,749 | 0.38 |
| Lindenwood University | 10 | 2,670 | 1,139 | 0.43 |
| Southern Illinois University Edwardsville | 19 | 1,079 | 612 | 0.32 |
| University of Missouri St. Louis | 9 | 570 | 343 | 0.37 |
| St. Charles Community College | 3 | 456 | 355 | 0.61 |
| St. Louis Community College | 7 | 341 | 612 | 0.23 |
| Maryville University | 5 | 293 | 219 | 0.43 |
| Fontbonne University | 1 | 168 | 242 | 0.40 |
| Missouri Baptist University | 6 | 119 | 24 | 0.31 |
| St. Louis College of Pharmacy | 2 | 94 | 86 | 0.07 |
Largest Accounts by Followers
| Account | School | No. of Followers | No. Following | Avg Tweets/Day |
| @websteru | Webster University | 2,751 | 1,074 | 4.84 |
| @CareerCenter_LU | Lindenwood University | 1,564 | 472 | 1.37 |
| @WUSTL | Washington University in St. Louis | 1,281 | 26 | 0.53 |
| @WebsterU_Biz | Webster University | 1,033 | 1,311 | 4.49 |
| @studlife | Washington University in St. Louis | 834 | 244 | 1.82 |
| @WUSTLCareers | Washington University in St. Louis | 645 | 36 | 0.21 |
| @WUSTLmedschool | Washington University in St. Louis | 642 | 108 | 0.95 |
| @WUStudentUnion | Washington University in St. Louis | 532 | 129 | 1.53 |
| @SLU_Billikens | Saint Louis University | 529 | 127 | 2.62 |
| @WUSTLucollege | Washington University in St. Louis | 508 | 41 | 0.43 |
Download complete list by followers (.pdf)
Most Active Accounts by Average Tweets per Day
| Account | School | No. of Followers | No. Following | Avg Tweets/Day |
| @websteru | Webster University | 2,751 | 1,074 | 4.84 |
| @WebsterU_Biz | Webster University | 1,033 | 1,311 | 4.49 |
| @websterpres | Webster University | 197 | 214 | 2.72 |
| @SLU_Billikens | Saint Louis University | 529 | 127 | 2.62 |
| @SIUE_Hockey | Southern Ill. University Edwardsville | 28 | 6 | 2.29 |
| @WebsterLou | Webster University | 293 | 399 | 2.09 |
| @studlife | Washington University in St. Louis | 834 | 244 | 1.82 |
| @sluconnection | Saint Louis University | 457 | 162 | 1.55 |
| @WUStudentUnion | Washington University in St. Louis | 532 | 129 | 1.53 |
| @WUSTLnews | Washington University in St. Louis | 220 | 89 | 1.39 |
Download complete list by tweets per day (.pdf)
The odds and ends
Kudos to those behind the @WUSTLsoccer account. It holds the distinction of being the longest running Twitter account among those associated with St. Louis area colleges and universities. It’s been active since October 4, 2007. The account has 83 followers and averages 0.75 tweets per day.
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Props to Webster U for their outstanding tweeting record!
Very nice post. Looks like a lot of work on your part went into bringing us this information.
I for one appreciate the effort.
Great information. Thanks for the kudos to the @WUSTLsoccer twitter account. It was started because family members wanted to get “real time” updates on games. It seemed like an easy way to get the information to parents spread all across the country. It should probably be said that it is not an official WUSTL account. I own the account and do help as an assistant coach on the team, but cannot say it is not official. However, the university has been very accepting.