Organizations on Twitter

For my Twitter assignment, I wanted to judge the effectiveness of organizations’ use of Twitter in 3 categories. I decided that I would name an organization “effective” if that organization tweeted about once a day or more, tweeted about something relevant, and linked more useful information in the tweets.

One organization I followed was @BarackObama. I counted Obama as an organization because I realize that others in his administration likely tweet for him. Starting on November 3, the beginning of the timeline that I was following for this assignment, the Obama administration tweeted almost every day, some days multiple times. November 6-8 tweets were all about the health reform act and voting. Some links were provided to followers to voice his/her opinion. This makes the Obama administration an “effective” organization on Twitter, in my opinion.

I also followed @ohionorthern. Ohio Northern University was significantly less prevalent during the week I was following the two organizations. ONU only tweeted 3 times from the beginning of my observations. I am certain that more tweetable activities are happening on campus, so I am a bit disappointed in ONU’s coverage. What about sporting events or school organizations who win awards (ahem…PRSSA)? Also, while ONU linked more useful information to the 3 tweets, the tweets themselves didn’t include much information and because of that, weren’t very interesting. So, I would say that ONU ranks somewhere in the middle of my spectrum of effectiveness, but closer to the lower half.

Twitter is still a new technology to many people and organizations. Some organizations are using Twitter to its fullest potential, but still others are not. Twitter is similar to a blog in the way that the author must keep up with the content to have effective material.