Duke University's Office of News and Communications (ONC) has joined the conversations taking place on Twitter and Facebook. Its new Twitter site, www.twitter.com/DukeNews, allows followers to sign up and receive text-message updates that highlight news about the university, both on campus and throughout the world. They can learn quickly about what's happening at Duke, both during emergencies and in more routine situations. The Facebook fan page, Duke News, offers another avenue for Duke News to reach and interact with Facebook users.
ONC will use the sites in conjunction with its Duke Today website, www.duke.edu/today, and its news site, news.duke.edu.
"We're always looking for new ways to help students, faculty, staff, parents, reporters and others to keep up with breaking news and information at Duke," said David Jarmul, associate vice president for news and communications. "We've been tracking Twitter and Facebook for awhile now and have decided to jump in and offer them along with the other options we've added in recent years, such as RSS feeds, e-mail newsletters, videos and multimedia stories. They're two more ways people can stay in touch with Duke."
This Sunday, May 10, Duke is featuring a real-time commencement Twitter feed alongside a live webcast of commencement at http://live.oit.duke.edu. Twitter users and members of the public can follow and contribute to the discussion about commencement using the Twitter hashtag #dukegrad09.
ONC's Andrea Fereshteh will take the lead with several colleagues in tweeting about Duke's news. Twitter and Facebook users can access the Duke sites at news.duke.edu/subscribe.