Pittsburg State University blog

This blog was written by Chris Kelly, associate vice president for university marketing and communication.

It recently hit me that 2013 will mark the 20 year anniversary of my graduation from Pittsburg State University. (Wow … My joints ache just reading that sentence!)

I want to bring a little perspective to that thought.

When I walked across the stage with my undergraduate degree in communication, Seinfeld was the most popular program on television, people were flocking to the theaters to see Jurassic Park and listening to Whitney Houston belt out “I will always love you” on the radio. (Now my joints really hurt!)

Time continually moves on, and I was reminded of this through a new Twitter account called “Modern Seinfeld.” (@Seinfeld Today)

I’m not certain who is behind this feed, but it reimagines Seinfeld in today’s world of social media. It really taps into the Seinfeld humor, and highlights how much our world has changed over the past 20 years. (I’ve always thought that the genius behind Seinfeld was that no matter how outlandish the stories you could always, in some small way, relate to them)

But while technology may have changed, the basics of communication have not … it’s still all about content.

In other words, it doesn’t matter how great the presentation is, if you’re not giving people what they want, they’ll go somewhere else.

This is why, at Pittsburg State, we work very hard to engage with our audience … both online and in person.

We want to make certain that we’re providing our students, faculty, alumni, friends and others with the information they want and need.

This personal approach seems to be resonating with our social media audience.

Over the past year Pitt State’s Facebook reach has increased by 143% (we’re now reaching an average of 30,000/week), and our YouTube channel has generated more than 97,000 minutes of viewing time. In just the past six months, PSU’s Twitter feed has experienced a 50% growth in followers.

We’re not quite up to Seinfeld numbers yet, but we’re working on it.