Florida, Harvard Tops Among Twitterers

The University of Florida, Harvard University, and George Washington University are all leading higher education and research institutions. But the three powerhouse schools can add a new notch to their belts: top tweeters.

Universitiesandcolleges.org released the findings of its September survey that examined accounts affiliated with university administrations at the top 100 colleges in the U.S.News & World Report 2010 Best Colleges rankings, and Harvard has the most followers (18,955) among those schools considered, the Associated Press reports (hat tip, Chicago Tribune). Florida had the most administration-affiliated accounts (24) on Twitter, and George Washington averaged the most tweets per day (57.7).

The study did not consider Twitter accounts for unofficial student groups, personal pages, or sports team fan pages, the report says.

Filippo Menczer, a professor of informatics and computing at Indiana University, says many students would rather see information posted on social networking websites like Facebook or Twitter than on an official school website.

"It tells you a lot about where students spend their time," Menczer tells the AP. "So, we have to be there, too."

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