Facts & figures:
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Twitter reached 211 million daily active users in the third quarter of 2021 (Statista).
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Tweets with hashtags generate 100% more engagement (Twitter).
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93% of Twitter users are open to brands engaging in conversations, such as offering help and support (Twitter).
Twitter is still the main platform for spreading news. It is a relatively formal platform, which allows us to share information easily. The account @univgroningen currently has 58,700 followers. This makes us the second-most followed Dutch university. In 2020, the number of followers grew from 54,100 to 56,600. For the time being, this steady growth appears to be continuing into 2021, despite the lower activity.
Our audience now mainly consists of staff (specifically academics), the media, politicians (who retweet research, for example), and members of the Board of the University. The latter group is itself very active. In particular, Rector Magnificus Cisca Wijmenga and President of the Board Jouke de Vries actively use Twitter and are retweeted by us almost daily. Students are mainly informed through other social media in any case: Twitter is more popular among users in higher age groups (approximately 60% of the users are between 35 and 65).
At the moment, we mainly use Twitter to share news about research and corporate affairs (for example, news about the University of the North). There is now less interaction with our followers through comments. Engagement with followers continues in certain cases where there is criticism or an enquiry about degree programmes at the UG.