Rice among top 20 universities using social media

Rice University is one of the country’s top 20 universities using social media, according to a new ranking by the communications company Social Media Delivered.

“The power of social media as a common means to build networks and replace traditional community building has rapidly found new homes in our universities,” wrote Eric Dybala, a social media assistant for Social Media Delivered, which bills itself as “the grandmothers of social media.”

“They have moved past just having a website and have begun engaging in the land of twitterdom,” he said, to maintain connections to alumni, recruit students and promote research.

The ranking notes that Rice “is consistently ranked one of America’s best teaching and research universities and conducts first-of-its-kind research in social media.”

“My team has been working hard to increase Rice’s presence on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and many others, but we’re not the only ones,” said Sean Rieger, director of Web development for Public Affairs. “The National Media team; the Jones School; Facilities, Engineering and Planning; and Housing and Dining are also showing incredible results through their social media programs. It’s great to see us growing as a community.”

Vice President for Public Affairs Linda Thrane noted that President David Leebron has been tweeting for more than a year and in fact was recognized as one of the best university president tweeters in the country.

“The social media realm lets us interact with our audiences, versus talk at them, and it gives us tools to spot trends and emerging opportunities,” Thrane said.  “The world is moving from passive or reactive communications to interactive and proactive communications, and I’m proud that Rice is at the forefront of that. End of day, we’ll get our story told more effectively.”

Harvard Business School, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Duke University are also among the top 20. For the complete list, visit
http://www.socialmediadelivered.com/2012/03/02/top-20-social-media-universities-by-socialmediadel/.