The Haas School landed in the top spot of a playful MBA Twitter ranking developed by a student at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
The ranking by second-year student Orlando O’Neill was based on the number of Twitter followers and lists for each school, rather than tweets, for instance, which O’Neill notes can easily be inflated.
When O’Neill published the survey on Nov. 12, Berkeley-Haas had 5,176 followers, 1,675 tweets. Since then, the number of followers has grown to 5,381 and tweets to 1,747.
But even O’Neill quips, “I never said this thing was perfect.” He notes, for instance, that the number of tweets by Kellogg actually dropped during a period of a few days.
Still, the Haas School has been among the leaders in social and online media. Dean Rich Lyons has attracted 1,303 followers on his Twitter account. One recent tweet from Lyons: “B-school curricula differ on integration concept, eg, Haas integrated around capabilities (innov. leader), Yale around disciplines.” In August, Haas created a Haas4Media Twitter account to share faculty commentary in the media.
A great number of faculty, students, and student clubs are also twittering and blogging about life at Haas, including the UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition, students on international development trips, and admissions staff from several of our degree programs. Foursquare claims nearly 3,300 check-ins at Haas, several offering suggestions and tips for others.
Haas is also active on Facebook, attracting more than 6,900 fans to its official Facebook page. Haas also has dozens of Facebook Groups for alumni and students organized by graduation year and program as well as affinity group pages organized primarily by geographical clubs and interests. Several of the research centers, such as the Center for Young Entrepreneurs at Haas and the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation also have Facebook pages.
Meanwhile, when the Haas School’s Haas/Berkeley Alumni LinkedIn group launched in 2007, it was the first of its kind. The group now has boasts nearly 9,600 members.
One recent addition is a LinkedIn Consortium Haas Alumni group, established for Haas alumni who were part of the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management program. This program awards merit-based, full-tuition fellowships to MBA students, with the aim of promoting diversity and inclusion in American business schools. Dean Rich Lyons hopes alumni in this group can become a resource for future students, interviewing them and attending Consortium or Berkeley-Haas Recruiting events.
Alumni and students find additional opportunities to support fellow alums through the Haas Yellowpages group, a place for Haas students/alumni to promote their goods and/or services.
To learn more about Haas social media, visit haas.berkeley.edu/haas/about/socialmedia/.