shawn farner [dot com]

I came across a pretty good post on HackCollege addressing Twitter as a communications tool for student leaders.  I’ve actually been contemplating Twitter as something that could possibly be of use for an organization I’m in, so finding that post couldn’t have come at a better time.

Kelly Sutton (the author) sees Twitter being used like this:

Okay, but let’s say you put this in the hands of the tech-headed student body leader. With the proper promotion and hopefully some word-of-mouth spread, you can get your campus instantly connected. Twitter allows updates to be sent out via SMS and IM, 2 of the easiest ways to get in touch with just about any student. With enough students signed up, any information could be spread around campus in a few seconds.

I feel this could also apply on a much smaller scale, say, to a student run organization.  In the case of the one I’m in, Alpha Phi Omega (a service fraternity), Twitter could effectively replace email and the telephone as a means to make sure everyone gets an important message; a meeting has been canceled, a service project postponed or some other dire message that needs to be relayed quickly.  As the above quote states, tweets (updates) can be received via the Twitter web site, a separate Twitter client, IM or via a text message.  A Twitter feed can also be embedded into Facebook profiles and the organization’s web site.

I’m thinking about the possibility of a trial run, just to see if it would be worth the trouble.  It seems a little too late to fully incorporate such a system for this year, since there is only three or four weeks of class remaining in the semester.  I really feel as though it would get the word out much faster when needed, and it would help keep everyone more sane.

Would you consider doing this for your organization?