@UMD: 140 characters to nowhere

The ongoing migration of university colleges, departments and organizations to Twitter means that Terp tweeps can follow university-related news all day, every day — in 140 characters or less. The problem is students don't seem to care.

As the semester progresses, more and more university academic departments and organizations are using Twitter — a social networking site on which members can send out updates to their followers or "tweeps" ("peeps" on Twitter) in a text box that limits updates to 140 characters — in an effort to reach out to students, faculty, staff and alumni. But many students at this university are hesitant to join in the Twitter frenzy.

Several of the university colleges, including the behavioral and social sciences college, the public health school, the business school and the engineering school, all have Twitter accounts of their own. And more are in the works.

The university public relations Twitter page, @UMDnews, managed by university spokesman Dave Ottalini, aggregates information from the Free Stuff at Maryland website and links to news articles related to student concerns and university issues. For example, earlier this week, Ottalini began sending out updates on the number of suspected novel H1N1 flu cases on the campus.

Ottalini said one benefit of having a Twitter page is its ability to send out mass information updates in an instant, akin to a news wire service.

"Twitter is a part of a social media process," Ottalani said.

Many university colleges are jumping on the Twitter  bandwagon, too, in hopes of reaching a larger audience. Still, students aren't responding the way administrators had hoped.

According to a study released last month by the Nielsen Company, as of June 2009, only about 16 percent of Twitter users were under the age of 25, though they comprise 25 percent of the active Internet user base. The vast majority — 64 percent of Twitterers — are between the ages of 25 and 54.

Most students, whether they had Twitter accounts or not, said they had no idea the university was utilizing Twitter at all.

For those who said they had Twitter accounts themselves, they said they mostly followed their friends and family, celebrities, comedians and news  outlets, such as CNN or The New York Times — not university colleges.

"I only use Twitter to communicate with my sister and a few of my friends," freshman psychology major Jennifer Robinson said.

Al Thomas, a junior marketing major, said he avoids Twitter because he already feels overwhelmed with the numerous social networking sites.

"I haven't started using [Twitter] yet because of all of my other Internet accounts. It's too time-consuming," Thomas said.

When it comes to social networking sites, students said, they prefer Facebook.

"I don't have many friends on Twitter," sophomore kinesiology major Christopher Bonk said. "I prefer Facebook."

Bonk added Facebook's structure makes it easier and more practical for keeping up with friends.

"Students are just not as excited about Twitter as some might believe," said Ronald Yaros, a journalism professor who tweets class announcements to his students. "I don't think it will ever duplicate Facebook."

Some university colleges recognize this preference and have a Facebook, too.

"Facebook is a more sustainable networking outlet. I feel like the return on Facebook is higher because of the [high] number of comments and posts compared to Twitter," said Alissa Arford-Leyl, the business school's director of digital and print communications.

But many aren't giving up on Twitter just yet.

Ryan Holtz, the coordinator of communication for the behavioral and social sciences college, said he foresees Twitter gaining more popularity in the future.

"We want to keep up with the growing trend of social networking," Holtz said.

Though BSOS has more Twitter followers than most university pages — boasting 126 — it has many more Facebook fans: 773. The same information appears on both its social networking pages.

Reporting an average of 10 new followers a week, Melissa Lea Corley, the engineering school's Twitter site manager, said that she tweets to their 90 followers in order to promote engineering related news and events that may not be included on the university's main Twitter feed.

Shannon Hoffman, the public health school's media outreach coordinator, agreed, adding she would think Twitter's immediacy would eventually make it more appealing to students than other social networking sites.

"I think that more and more of society is craving a way to have immediate information, and information that doesn't take all day to read," Hoffman said in an e-mail. "I imagine that's especially true of busy students, especially those who have cell phones that they can get Twitter updates from."

The university tweep network is growing: Recently the Career Center and Pan-Hellenic Council just began their own Twitter accounts this month. And, at the very least, Ottalini said, they all have each other — most university-related Twitter accounts follow each other to keep up on news around the university.

"Twitter is here to stay," Ottalini said. "And I think it's a great way to get information."

quijada@umdbk.com