If you care at all about UK or UK athletics and have a Twitter, you probably follow their respective Twitter accounts.
But UK has some other Twitter accounts you may not know about.
All in all, UK has 47 different professional Twitter accounts, ranging from the Alumni Association to one dedicated to UK’s smoke-free campus policy.
The university has encouraged organizations, departments and associations to begin connecting to their audiences and members through social media outlets, but participation has been spotty. The organizations who have set up accounts have a wide range of usage levels, some unexpected departments seeing high levels of followers and tweets, others flopping completely.
I did the math on all the Twitter accounts listed on the UK Social Media home page (which does not list individual accounts, like men’s basketball head coach John Calipari, or student organizations like the Student Activities Board) and found the most active UK Twitter accounts as well as the most stagnant.
If you want to see the complete list of accounts and their statistics, click here to download my Excel Spreadsheet.
Scouring the data like I did, you may find some correlations to the number of tweets and the number of followers. Those with lots of tweets also have lots of followers. Those with very few tweets only have a handful of followers. It makes you question whether it is worth for some accounts, like the UK Fine Arts Library, to exist. Although, some accounts like the UK College of Ag IT Extension News, which has one of the best Twitter accounts, are surprisingly successful from their hard work.
The university has created a social media guidelines PDF, which is available on their website by the UK public relations and marketing department. The guide outlines some things these organizations who venture into social media should follow. They include a “Best Practices” list of six quick points that “may be helpful for anyone posting on social media in any capacity.” Here’s the fourth bullet:
“Be active. Social media presences require diligent care and attention. An effective social media site requires regular updates and fresh or engaging content.”
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(The following numbers were collected on Feb. 1, 2012 at 12:00 p.m. These may not be accurate past this date.)
Total number of tweets from all UK organizations: 34,329
Total number of followers: 64,205
UK Twitter accounts with most followers:
1. UK Athletics – 34,078
2. University of Kentucky – 14, 335
3. UK Alumni Association – 3,525
4. UK College of Fine Arts – 2,088
5. UK College of Agriculture Extension IT News – 972
6. UK Gaines Center – 732
7. K-Week – 695
8. UK Workplace Innovation – 521
9. Kentucky Smoke-Free Policy – 500
10. UK Ag News – 499
UK organizations with least number of followers:
1. UK Dining Services – 17
2. UK Energy Research – 20
3. UK Ag Learning Services – 28
4. Kentucky Children’s Hospital – 38
5. Gatton College’s office of Career Management – 48
6. UK Technology Transfer of KY Transportation Center – 56
7. UK Fine Arts Library – 67
8. UK School of Library Sciences – 72
9. UK Asia Center – 82
10. UK Transfer Admission – 83
UK organizations with the most tweets:
1. UK Athletics – 8,236
2. University of Kentucky – 5,212
3. UK College of Fine Arts – 2,621
4. UK Gaines Center – 2,267
5. UK First Scholars Program – 2,399
6. UK College of Ag. IT Extension News – 2,078
7. UK Healthcare – 1,137
8. UK Parents Association – 1,080
9. UK Alumni Association- 1,018
10. K-Week – 625
UK Organizations with least tweets:
1. UK Fine Arts Library – 4
2. UK dept. Educational, School and Counseling – 24
3. UK Transfer Admission – 28
4. UK Gatton College’s office of Career Management – 39
5. UK Gluck Center – 40
6. P20 Innovation Lab – 61
7. UK Libraries – 72
8. UK Asia Center – 83
9. UK Technology Transfer of KY Transportation Center – 87
10. Kentucky Children’s Hospital – 99
