Follow OU on Twitter

The University of Oklahoma is “tweeting” to reach out to the current student population and potential students.

“There’s so much that happens on campus, and this gives us the perfect outlet to talk about it,” Erin Yarbrough, OU Web Communications spokeswoman, said.

She said the purpose behind OU’s Twitter is connecting with the community.

“We want to use Twitter as a conversation between the university and our followers,” Yarbrough said.

She said OU’s Twitter aims to connect with anyone who is interested in the university such as current students, prospective students, fans and alumni. She said it was a way for the university to personally connect with people in a casual way.

The university has five official “tweeters” in the OU Web Communications office, one of which is Yarbrough.

Yarbrough said OU’s tweets include anything from things happening around campus to personally conversing with followers. The amount OU tweets varies, depending on how much is going on.

“We may go days without something to say, or when something big on campus is happening, like graduation, we may tweet a few times a day,” said Yarbrough.

OU’s profile name is UofOklahoma, and as of Monday morning, OU has over 800 followers.

“This is constantly growing,” Yarbrough said.

She said OU also tries to follow anyone who follows OU. The university is following over 1,600 users.

Yarbrough said OU hopes to use its Twitter to communicate with and interest potential students.

“With regards to potential students, we really just want to be here to answer any questions and join in the excitement of looking for a university,” Yarbrough said. “So, if we’ve motivated anyone to apply to OU because of our tweets, then that’s just gravy.”

OU is not involving students in the tweeting process at the moment, but Yarbrough said they are discussing ways to involve the student body.

Yarbrough said she envisions OU’s Twitter profile giving the university a face for people who may not be connected with it. She said OU’s twitter is helping create another community for its followers to reach out to the university.

OU began using Twitter on April 21.