Tweeting? Twittering? What do you call it?

When I began serving as the RVP for IV-West, our regional technology representative, and good friend, Kristen Abell recommended that I start a blog.  For those of you that have had the chance to work with Kristen, you know her “recommending” is something akin to having your arm twisted behind your backuntil you give in.  Needless to say, I jumped in, and while I have had limited success, I do believe that it has allowed me to get information out about various topics, as well as help folks understand me a bit.

This morning I came into the office – the first day the UMKC Student Union Bookstore opens – a building project that is actually opening one year AHEAD of schedule – but that’s another story, only to find an e-mail from Kristen simply put, “New blog post coming soon? J.”   Crud. I hadn’t thought about it.  So I sat here with my bald head spinning – nothing new to report on unification as the reports aren’t out, the Omaha Conference crew is working hard and things are looking great for November, and MLI has the most amazing faculty put together that one could ask for, but I wrote about those for the newsletter…So Kristen in her infinite wisdom suggested a few topics—shocking!

The one that resonated most was the topic of social media use by SSAO’s.  The best I’ve seen so far in IV-West is by Dr. Daniel Pugh from the University of Arkansas @RazorbackDean, or  in Region 1 Dr. Kenn Emore of Boston U @DeanElmore but I’m realizing that remembering to be an effective tweeter is difficult.  Recently, our office has been putting together a social media plan that puts a focus on our Vice Chancellor using Twitter, Facebook and a blog (do I need to mention that he had just met with Kristen before this “initiative” came up?).  It has been extremely interesting watching someone who is e-mail adverse begin to embrace the concept of tweeting!  The ideas flowed about how he could use this to connect with students (because they don’t read their e-mails) and provide informal and formal opportunities for feedback.  Like everything, though, we need a plan, and that plan is still coming together.

So, I’m asking all of you – what is it you would like to see from your vice chancellors/vice provosts/deans, etc. in the realm of social media?  Post your comments here so I can help colleagues (okay – really so I can get better at this).

p.s. – for those of you that haven’t had the chance to work with Kristen – I encourage you to follow her tech blog at http://kristendomtalkstech.blogspot.com  -- she really is pretty amazing.