Last year I said I didn’t know if I would make the list again, but guess what? Tis the season for the AACC Annual Conference and my list is back for the 6th year. I was unsure what my time would be like this past year as I was publishing my first book but that turned out great and my concerns about being overbooked (Yes, I did use the same pun as last year) turn out to not be that big of a deal. I now have a few books available on Amazon and continue to compile my research and will publish my second nonfiction story in 2019.
Now back to Twitter. It seems in the past couple years; prominent public figures have leveraged Twitter more than ever to communicate with their constituents. I hope that publishing this list again provides additional insight into how the modern community college president informs. Political figures on both sides of the political spectrum, whether you agree with them or not have changed how this tool is used and how they distribute information. I would encourage anyone who is in a position of leadership to continue to learn how to use this tool strategically. There is no doubt that these public figures have changed how information is pushed to the public forever.
There were several retirements this past year, and in spite of that, the list has grown again. Some of you recall I only did the Top 12 Tweeting Presidents in 2014, because barely that many community college presidents were tweeting at the time. My total list of community college presidents tweeting, even with retirements and a couple which have stopped tweeting, the list sits at 87 this year. What is even more amazing is that I am sure I missed someone.
I am going to give kudos to one of the retirees, Ronnie Nettles, who tweeted as president for Copiah-Lincoln Community College. He was on my list every year and did a marvelous job of communicating with his constituents. I wish him the very best. I am going to note of two of my favorite tweeting community college leaders who are not included in the top twenty list. I chose to include only presidents of individual institutions rather than state systems so Dr. Kris Williams, Chancellor (Chief Academic Officer) for the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, and Dr. Jim Henderson, President of the University of Louisiana System, are not on the list. With that said, “they do Twitter right,” and I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Henderson this past, so it is a privilege to recognize him here.
I am again confident this very social group of community college presidents will keep everyone informed on the happenings at the 2019 annual @aacc meetings just as they keep their respective institutions informed via social media. The presidents listed are on the list because they use Twitter to create a unique social relationship with their campus constituents. I use a formula which I developed in 2014 which takes into account factors beyond the number of tweets. A couple of years ago I tweaked it slightly as Twitter now allows you to create Moments. So presidents who have Twitter moments get points for using that part of the resource as well. I also give Kent Points. Those are for stuff I like such as having fly-fishing listed in their profile. Fly-fishing hasn’t helped anyone get on the must follow list, but hey it is my list so I might as well have some fun with it! I also must confess Dr. Linda Lujan, from Lamar Community College in Southeast Colorado, got a Kent Point because LCC was my first encounter with higher education when I was a high school sophomore or junior attending business contests hosted on that campus. I certainly didn’t know what a treasure that institution is to SE Colorado or what a service the Community College provides throughout this country of ours. Therefore I was very excited to add Dr. Lujan to the list. She also, “does Twitter right.”
In its 6th year I continue to think the categories surrounding the cumulative data is beginning to shed some light on how this tool is used for communication by these presidents, so I have continued to categorizing usage as follows:
- The Student Helper – They seem to focus on using the tool to engage with students
- The Lurker – Lots of likes and retweets. They don’t tweet a lot, but they are watching
- The College Booster – Lot’s of tweeting about college events. It is obvious they love supporting encouraging their college constituents via Twitter
- The Undecided – Very inconsistent both in volume and content. It is obvious they only log on every once in a while and are probably thinking…”Is this a good idea or not”
- The Shotgun Approach – The content is quite varied. Lot’s of college stuff, lots of personals, and lots of community. I don’t think this is necessarily bad, but certainly
- The Strategist – The content is college focused, combines aspects of being a student helper, a lurker, a college booster and a smattering of the shotgun approach to their tweets.
I am not quite sure if I will ever name names under the above categories, but is indeed evident to me from watching over the past five or six years the approach by different presents to using the tool is entirely different.
Here are a couple of other observations
- I had a couple of ties in scoring, so I expanded the list this year to 20. Maybe it stays that way, perhaps it doesn’t, but there was such a tight bunching in a couple of spots I just expanded it to 20.
- Steve Robinson’s #endccstigma is my favorite Twitter campaign by a community college president since starting this list. Thanks, President Robinson.
- I added nearly twice as many community college CEO’s (26) to the list the past two years than were tweeting in 2013-2014.
- Ten (10) Presidents who have been on my list have moved on to other things; eight have retired.
- One of the most interesting trends in my data relate to presidents (12) who once tweeted have stopped. Some have simply quit tweeting. Others are still engaging (aka lurking) by following new people and liking tweets, but they have stopped sending out their own tweets. It is clear that many are monitoring social media even if they are not engaged.
- Two presidents have substantially fewer tweets than last year, which means they deleted a portion of their tweets. They are also among the ones who stopped tweeting. I suspect that subset had a little extra scrutiny over the content.
When I first published that list, there were only a dozen or so Community College Presidents Tweeting and only a half dozen doing it effectively. I felt it was essential to support the effective use of the tool for community college leadership. That has changed and grown, and many community college CEOs who understand the benefits and power of social collaboration and how it’s used to communicate and collaborate with campus constituents. The pioneers among Community College Presidents utilizing this mode of communication in my estimation were, Anne Kress @MCCPresident, Margeret McMenamin @drmcm, and Karen Stout @drkastout (no longer a president, but still tweeting about Achieve the Dream). They were the subject of a blog post I wrote a few years back called, “My Three Tweeting Presidents” based on a presentation those three did at AACC. Thanks for communicating with all of us. I for one appreciate your work.
As for tweeting at @aacc here is the list of newcomers to my list followed by the entire list. I hope this helps you in knowing which community college presidents to follow on Twitter. Happy tweeting to all of you. I have learned so much from each of you. Thank you for sharing.
New to the list for 2019:
Here is my entire list:
| Jon | Bauer | @ECCPresident | East Central College Mo |
| Linda | Lujan | @DrLindaLujan | Lamar Community College |
| Jerry | Weber | @jweberbc | Bellevue Technical College |
Here are the additions to the list I have received from AACC 2019 which will be on my 2020 listing.
| Keith | Curry | @Iamkeithcurry | Compton College |
| Scott | Ralls | @WakeTechPrez | Wake Tech Prez |
| Larry | Ferguson | @DrLarryFerguson | Ashland Community & Technical College |
| Maureen | Murphy | @CSMPrez | College of Southern Maryland |
| Diana | Doyle | @PrezACC | Arapahoe Community College |
| Brian | Albrecht | @AlbrechtBryan | Gateway Technical College |
| Joanna | Anderson | @SFCCpredient | State Fair Community College |
| David | Armstrong | @BrowardCPrez | Broward College |
| Marcia | Ballinger | @PresBallinger | Lorain County Community College |
| Jo Alice | Blondin | @clarkstatepres | Clark State Community College |
| Kevin | Boys | @ssccpresident | Southern State Community College |
| Jon | Bauer | @ECCPresident | East Central College Mo |
| Mark | Brainard | @DrMarkBrainard | Delaware Tech CC |
| Constance | Carroll | @carollscddc | San Diego Community College District |
| Thomas | Chesney | @ThomChesney | Brookhaven College |
| Jean | Conway | @jeanlconway | Eastfield College |
| John | Cox | @CapeCodCCPrez | Cape Cod Community College |
| Cliff | Davis | @CliffDavisMO | Ozarks Technical Community College Table Rock Campus |
| Jeff | DeFranco | @jeffdefranco | Lake Tahoe Community College |
| Darren | Divine | @CC_PrezOffic | Casper College |
| John | Downey | @brdownj | Blue Ridge Community College |
| Charlene | Dukes | @pgccpres | Prince George’s Community College |
| Kevin | Drumm | @PresidentDrumm | SUNY Broome Community College |
| Pam | Eddinger | @PamEddinger | Bunker Hill Community College |
| Kim | Ennis | @BSCCPresident | Belvill State Community College |
| Joyce | Ester | @DrJoyceEster | Normandale Community College |
| Glen | Fenter | @presifent | Mid South Community College |
| Everette | Freeman | @EveretteCCD | Community College of Denver |
| Mark | Frison | @markfrison | of Assiniboine Community College |
| Pat | Gentile | @NSCCPrezPat | North Shore Community College |
| Carole | Goldsmith | @DrGoldsmith777 | Fresno City College |
| Steven | Gonzales | @gwccprez | GateWay Community College |
| Mary | Graham | @mgrahamMGCCC | MS Gulf Coast Community College |
| Margaret | Hamilton | @margebern | Lane Community College |
| David | Harrison | @DHarrisonCSCC | Columbus State Community College |
| Tom | Huebner | @MCCHuebner | Meridian Community College |
| Deneece | Huftalin | @SLCCHuftalin | Salt Lake Community College |
| Thomas | Isekenegbe | @president_BCC | Bronx Community College |
| Jim | Jacobs | @DrJimJacobs | Macomb Community College |
| Jeff | Jochems | @JeffJochems1 | Richwood Valley Campus, Ozarks Technical Community College |
| Alex | Johnson | @triprez | Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland |
| Steven | Johnson | @sinclairprez | Sinclair Community College |
| Michelle | Johnston | @RioPresident | Rio Grande Community College |
| Para | Jones | @PrezParaJones | Stark State College |
| Anne | Kress | @MCCPresident | Monroe CC |
| Sandra | Kurtinitis | @DrK_CCBC | Community College of Baltimore County in Maryland. |
| Tyjaun | Lee | @MCCPVPres | Metro Community College Kansas City Penn Valley |
| Dawn | Lindsay | @AACC_DrLindsay | Anne Arundel CC |
| Russell | Lowery-hart | @LoweryHart | Amarillo College |
| Pamela | Luster | @sdmesaprez | San Diego Mesa College |
| Linda | Lujan | @DrLindaLujan | Lamar Community College |
| Margo | Martin | @margolynnmartin | College of Southern Nevada |
| Jeremy | McMillen | @GC_President | Grayson College |
| Joe | May | @ChancellorMay | Dallas County CC |
| James | Mabry | @PrezMabry | Middlesex Community College MA |
| Margaret | McMenamin | @drmcm | Union County Community College |
| Jennifer | Methvin | @methvinCrowder | Crowder College |
| Gail | Mellow | @GailOMellow | LaGuardiaCC |
| Mark | Mitsui | @prezmitsui | Portland Community College |
| Lorraine | Morales | @LLorraine0 | Pima Community College |
| Amy | Morrison Goings | @LWTechPrez | Lake Washington Institute of Tech |
| Grethen | Mullin Sawicki | @CCACNorthPres | Community College of Allegany County |
| Kindred | Murillo | @kindredmurillo | Southwestern College formerly Lake Tahoe Community College |
| Charlene | Newkirk | @CCACSouthPres | CCAC |
| Kirk | Nooks | @PresidentNooks | Metro Community College Kansas City Longview |
| Lee Ann | Nutt | @NuttsForTomball | Lone Star CC |
| Thuy | Nguyen | @FoothillPrez | Foothills College |
| Eloy | Oakley | @EloyOakley | Long Beach Community College District |
| Justin | Pate | @JustonPate | Elizabethtown Community & Technical College |
| Daniel | Phelan | @dphelan59 | Jackson College |
| DeRionne | Pollard | @DrPollard_MC | Montgomery College |
| John | Rainone | @dslccprez | Dabney S. Lancaster Community College |
| Luke | Robins | @PC_Prez | Peninsula College |
| Christina | Royal | @christinaroyal7 | Holyoke community College |
| Yves | Salomon-Fernandez | @prezyves | Greenfield Community College was Cumberland County College (Incoming) |
| Rick | Shabazz | @DrRickyShabazz | San Diego City College |
| William | Serrata | @WSerrata | El Paso Community College |
| John | Sygielski | @HACCSki | HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College |
| Christa | Slejko | @prezSlejko | North Lake College |
| Christine | Sobek | @WCCPresident | Waubonsee Community College |
| Joe | Sopcich | @JCCCprez | Johnson County Community College |
| Mick | Starcevich | @KirkwoodPrez | Kirkwood |
| Devin | Stephenson | @DevinStephenson | Three Rivers College/ Northwest Florida Community College |
| Billy | Stewart | @ECCCPresident | East Central Community College |
| Tuesday | Stanley | @prezwccc | Westmoreland County Community College |
| Tim | Stokes | @tstokes3084 | South Puget Sound Community College |
| Monte | Sullivan | @LCTCSpresident | @LCTCSpresident |
| Lori | Sundberg | @Dr_LoriSundberg | President Elect, Kirkwood Community College President Emeritus Carl Sandberg College |
| J Michael | Thompson | @JMichaelThomson | Cuyahoga Community College |
| Jerry | Weber | @jweberbc | Bellevue Technical College |
| Terri | Winfree | @PSCpresident | Prairie State College |
| Samia | Yaqub | @ButtePresident | Butte Glenn Community College |
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