Twitter is known as a great networking and self-promotion tool, but it’s also a useful service for your campus community. Teachers, administrators and students can all use Twitter for study help, group projects, catching up on news around the world and on campus, public relations and recruitment, library announcements, and a lot more. Here are 100 ways to use Twitter on campus — even an online campus!
Group Projects
Study groups and group projects can use Twitter to share information, store files, send private messages and more. Such groups are especially relevant at colleges for broadcast journalism, or for communications majors.
- GroupTable: Use this Twitter tool to make it easier for students and teachers to manage tasks and work together on projects via Twitter.
- Foreign language projects: Follow native speakers of the language you’re trying to learn and translate their tweets as a group.
- Store research and links: When you stumble across an online source of information that will help out your group but don’t have time to send an email, send it out with Twitter so everyone has a copy.
- SavorChat: This group chat app connects to Twitter and Facebook.
- Twitter Study Group: Twitter is great for study groups, and this tool can open your group up to others who are intent on learning about the same topic as you. In fact, students of all types can benefit from Twitter-based study groups.
- Send password-protected notes: This tool ensures that your group notes and chats are safe.
- Send annotated links: Use this service to tag little notes to the links you send classmates.
- Share outlines: Tweet outline updates and edits to your study group for instant corrections and new notes.
- Live tweeting: If not all of your group members can attend an event or meeting, Tweet notes and photos so that everyone is still included.
- TweetCube: Share files, including images, videos and music on Twitter with TweetCube.
- Set up meeting times: Twitter is faster than e-mail and won’t use up texts, so use it to send out blasts and get feedback when setting up meetings.
- Share photos: Share photos for a presentation or from a group event with Twitxr. Also a great app for those enrolled in photography, which tend to incorporate journalism skills with snapshot practice.
- Time tracking: Use a Twitter tools like mite to track the amount of time and effort each group member puts into the project.
Research
Read below to find out all the ways you can use Twitter to help with research projects, from polls to brainstorming to keyword tracking.
- Ask for help: Send out questions to the Twittersphere to help with brainstorming, research and assignments.
- Track events and tweets: Use a service like Twitscoop to find conversations relating to your research topic.
- PollDaddy: If you need to conduct a survey, use this tool to reach all your Twitter friends.
- Find and follow the right people: Use a directory like wefollow to find celebrities and industry leaders who can serve as sources for your paper or project.
- Analyze stats: Evaluate a source’s influence by analyzing their Twitter stats.
- Tweetscan: Tweetscan is like a search engine for Twitter that makes it easy for you to find conversations and keywords.
- Make a mind map: Tweetree is a tool that turns your Twitter stream into a tree so that you can make connections more easily.
- Follow the library: If your library has a Twitter feed, follow them for updates that can help with your research.
- Advanced Search: Use Twitter’s Advanced Search to find keywords, people, and Tweets from a certain place, date or time.
- Search in real-time: TweetGrid organizes all of your searches side by side in real-time.
Communication and Discussion
Professors and students can communicate more effectively and more directly when they use Twitter.
- Introduce lesson plans: Professors can give students a heads up for what you’ll be discussing in class that day, especially if you’ve strayed from the syllabus.
- Extend office hours: If students can’t meet during office hours, ask them to send you a quick DM on Twitter instead.
- Swap links: Use Twitter to swap interesting websites that pertain to the lesson.
- Keep up the discussion: If you ran out of time during class, let students know they can use Twitter to keep up the discussion until the next class.
- GroupTweet: This “message broadcasting” service uses Twitter to send out quick messages to team members and classes.
- Send voice mails: TwitterFone lets you send voice mails to Twitter from your phone.
- Pre-tweet: Write tweets that can be sent later, before you forget about them-an interesting choice for students at colleges for creative writing.
- Submit discussion questions: Ask students to tweet in discussion questions before class so you’re prepared to answer them.
- Moderate large classes: During a huge presentation or class discussion, accept questions via Twitter to keep the debate running smoothly.
- Answer students one-on-one: It’s easier to get back to students faster if you can just tweet them back an answer from your phone.
Library
Librarians can use Twitter, too. Keep reading to find out how.
- Send overdue announcements: Send direct messages to students who have overdue books.
- Accept reservations: Allow students to place holds or make reservations for private study rooms and equipment with Twitter.
- Show off your blog: Share posts and links from your library blog through Twitter.
- Keep reading lists: bkkeepr is a Twitter tool for saving and bookmarking reading lists.
- Follow other librarians: Keep up with the news, trend and conferences going on in the academic library world by following other librarians.
- Announce new arrivals: When you receive shipments of a new book or journal, tweet about it.
- Tweet special events: Encourage more students and faculty to attend special events by tweeting live and sending pictures.
- Send reminders about opening, closing and holidays: Remind students and faculty of special hours during exam time, holidays and weekends.
- Notify patrons when time’s up: When a student’s time is up using a piece of equipment, send them a tweet.
- Communicate with professors: Create groups for different academic departments to keep up with what they’re needing from you in the library.
Social
These Twitter tips are great for planning parties, getting a date and more.
- TwitOrg: Clubs and organizations can use this tool to create their own spot for messages and more. Students can organize their Film Club meetings through Twitter to make sure that everyone knows the latest club news.
- Meeting friends: Find people to follow on Twitter and set up real-life meetings. Looking for other Twitter-savvy academics in your area? Search online colleges by state.
- Get a date: Check out photos of Twitter users from your college before accepting a blind date.
- Tweetparty: Use Tweetparty to plan events and check in with friends on campus.
- Plan a spontaneous party: Invite Twitter friends over for a party just by tweeting about it.
- Share music and photos: Let everyone know what your favorite artists are by tweeting music links and files.
- Organize your contacts: Use a Twitter organizer like TweetDeck like an address book for online contacts.
- Play games: Tools like Twrivia make it fun to challenge your friends and play games on Twitter.
- Give status updates: Let your friends know where they can find you by giving status updates on Twitter.
- Start a pack: Start a pack or club with TwitterPacks, a tool that finds you more friends based on interest.
Study Tips
Study better with the help of these Twitter tips and tools for note taking and beyond.
- Make a Twitter study guide: Near exam time, professors can post a study question on Twitter and reveal the answer at class time.
- Take notes: TwitterNotes lets you take class notes using Twitter.
- Twitter class discussions: Taking notes that include brainstorming sessions and other students’ questions will help you remember concepts later on.
- Follow professors: Follow your professor’s feed for any little study tips, hints or syllabus updates.
- Follow classmates: Even if you aren’t technically friends, follow other students in your class to catch any extra notes or questions they tweet about the class.
- Follow experts in your field: Find experts in the field you’re studying to follow so that you get updates on the real-world applications and news of the material you learn in class.
- Send in questions: Send in homework questions to your professor or class group on Twitter for 24/7 assistance.
- Swap notes: Share notes on Twitter with your classmates to make sure you didn’t miss anything.
- Be concise: Practice summarizing concepts in as few words as possible to make your papers and assignments more concise and accurate.
- Debate: Debate with other students as a way to really study your topic or material in depth.
PR and Announcements
Campus departments, including the public relations and admissions offices, can use Twitter to promote professors, new hires, special events and more.
- Reveal tweets to prospective students: For a select group of professors and students, add a Twitter wiki to your admissions page that posts their most recent tweets about what they’re doing on campus.
- Post job announcements: Post work study, full-time faculty positions and other job announcements on Twitter.
- Set up accounts for each department: Each department, including academic and student life departments, should have Twitter accounts for their own announcements.
- Track tweets about your school: Use a service Twitterholic to discover what people are saying about the university on Twitter.
- Encourage clubs to join Twitter: Social, professional and cultural or religious clubs can join Twitter to share information with members and each other.
- News: Post campus-wide announcements like dining hall closings, parking lot news, special events and more.
- Welcome new teachers and administrators: Tweet a link to a new teacher or administrator’s bio to introduce them to campus.
- Tweet newsletters: Send out weekly or monthly newsletters through Twitter.
- Keep in touch with alumni: Use Twitter to find alumni and RT their accomplishments.
- Announce dorm life events and rules: Twitter is a great way to keep on-campus students aware of dorm openings, special events and new residential life rules.
Career Prep
Don’t wait until you graduate to start looking for a job and making contacts. With Twitter, you can start searching for internships, full-time jobs, and valuable industry professionals from whom you can learn all about your prospects and your future in the workforce.
- Network with alumni: Find alumni who tweet and follow them for a connection to the real world.
- Find an internship: There are lots of internship search services on Twitter that you can follow to learn about opportunities.
- Follow industry professionals: Network with industry professionals and read their tweets to learn how they spend their day.
- Get a job: Follow job search sites and learn how to brand yourself on Twitter to increase your job prospects.
- Follow your career counseling office: If your career counseling office tweets, follow their feed for information about job fairs and more.
- Post your resume: Post a link to your website or resume so that it’s easier for employers to learn about your experience.
- Become a source of information: Students can report on events on campus, in their field or in their city to become known as a local expert.
- Advertise your services: Consider freelancing while in school to gain a following. Use Twitter to build up a customer base and advertise your services.
- Explore all kinds of fields: Twitter is a great tool to learn about all kinds of jobs and industries while you still have time.
- Work on your brand: Share photos, links, blog posts, and information about yourself that will help people get to know your personality and experience early on.
News and Reference
Students, professors and administrators can follow these news and reference feeds to help you with classwork and lesson plans, prepare for class discussions, keep up with higher education news, and more.
- @USATODAYcollege: USA TODAY’s college feed is full of news stories and links about the current state of affairs in higher education.
- @TheCampusBuzz: The Campus Buzz reports on news from colleges across the country and has tips for preparing campuses and students for school.
- @globaljobmarket: Follow this feed for information on the job market, higher education jobs, and more.
- @BigTenTweets: If you go to a Big Ten school, follow the season’s stats on Twitter.
- @NCAADoubleAZone: This feed reports on the news and scores from the NCAA.
- @cnnbrk: For the latest news updates, follow CNN Breaking News here.
- @nytimes: The New York Times feed is another good source for news, research and class discussion ideas.
- @WSJ: Business and finance students and professors should follow this feed to stay on top of current events.
- @Twitcabulary: Learn new words and phrases by following this feed.
- @GrammarGirl: Double check your grammar by following the Grammar Girl on Twitter.
Miscellaneous
From petitions to bonus points, here are even more ways the campus community can connect over Twitter.
- Start a protest: If you’re unhappy about something on Twitter, voice your opinion and start a petition on Twitter.
- Back your cause: Whether you’re backing a nonprofit or want the cafeteria to stay open later, market your cause on Twitter.
- Start your own campus news source: Set up a feed that reports on odd and funny campus news.
- Give bonus points: Post trivia questions on your Twitter feed and reward students with bonus points if they get the right answer.
- Set up an overflow class: If you don’t have room for any more students in your class but still have a lot of demand, set up a Twitter group for unofficial discussion and auditing.
- Track packages: Find out when your next care package will arrive with a tool like TrackThis.
- Get alerts for anything: Set up reminders for meetings, classes, deadlines and more.
- Stay on task: The online task manager Remember the Milk works with Twitter, too.