My buddy John Battaglino recently asked me how and why college students use Twitter.   Johnny of all people should be interested in this because as the Executive Director of Boston University, it’s his job to put them on the map and understand the student body.  Since meeting Johnny last year, it’s clear he is truly in the forefront of helping advance social media within higher education.  Below is an excerpt of the email I wrote to him.

Let me know what your views on HOW and WHY students use social media.  These are my thoughts…

HOW:

This question of “how” they use it needs to be divided into two categories – those who use it for productively by providing value to others and as a means of consuming value (we’ll call this Value Social Media Users), and those who use it for personal pleasure (Me Social Media Users).  Surely these categories can cross over into each other, but this is mainly how I see students using it.

College students additionally either “get” or “don’t get” Twitter.  We “get” Facebook because we grew up with it and it’s pretty self explanatory in terms of why we should use it and what we get out of it.  Students even “get” LinkedIn – because of it’s clear value proposition that it will aid your professional career – we can understand this and get on board with it. Now we come to Twitter, which is a mix of both.  Unless a student has experienced social media, it’s hard to figure out how to use it to add value to your life.  Which is why I brought up the two Twitter Camps if you will, Value Users and Me Users.  I would venture to say that most college students are Me Users users but certainly that is changing.  Marketing, computer science, and graphic designers are the best adept at using Twitter effectively.

WHY:

Again, the two camps.  Value Users see that there are opportunities to be had from adding value, connecting with people online, and learning from others.  Me Users use it because it’s fun and yet another way to “update your status”, like Facebook.

Sometimes I think people use Twitter as a way to talk to the Universe, sometimes not expecting it to talk back. It’s like when you stub your toe while you’re alone in your house.  You yell out “SHIT!” because it hurt and because you wanted to express something, not because you thought that some guy’s voice was going to say back to you, “I’m sorry you stubbed your toe Sarah, want some ice?”.  It’s instinctive.  This is a lot of what Me Users do I think.  On the other side, Value Users interact in social media to get a response.  They add value to instigate conversation because conversation and relationship building is the foundation of opportunities.

What do you think?  HOW and WHY do students use social media?

Photo credit drgonzoisnotaphotographer