Beedie School of Business enjoys growing Klout on Twitter

VANCOUVER— The Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University – @sfubeedie – lays claim to the highest-rated Klout score among Canadian business schools – positioning it as a leader for social media influence and impact.

Increasingly, universities and other post-secondary institutions are being measured for social media influence by Klout scores, considered by many as the “gold standard Twitter ranking system.” Klout measures influence by using a number of data points from Twitter, including follower counts, retweets, list memberships, unique mentions and more.

With a Klout score of 52 as of April 12, 2011, SFU’s business school edged out the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto (Klout score of 51) and Concordia’s John Molson School of Business (Klout score of 47).

The Beedie School began tweeting in early 2010 to stay connected with its many stakeholders – including students, alumni, academics and business practitioners. Since then, it has used Twitter to follow and learn what they are up to; to disseminate school news and research; and to further dialogue with this community. The Twitter presence has since evolved into an optimal channel for two-way sharing, engagement and learning.

The school benefits from a highly energized network that also includes entrepreneurs and business leaders, as well as a growing number of professors immersed in industry and academic outreach. They include Ian McCarthy, Beedie School of Business Professor and Canada Research Chair in Technology and Operations Management (@Toffeemen68), who enjoys a Klout score of 57 and a fast-growing Twitter followership of over 4,400.

The school’s dean, Daniel Shapiro ( @sfubeediedean ), also shares academic research and business opinions via the Twitter medium – making him among the few business school deans in North America to actively engage with the medium.

The Beedie School’s top score comes in the wake of the website studentaffairs.com ranking SFU as the No. 1 social-media influencer amongst Canadian universities and colleges. Results were also based on Klout scores of the schools’ Twitter accounts.

Related:

1. Understanding social media ecosystem top priority for middle managers: SFU Beedie research

2. Study: Engage consumers using social media

3. Chronicle of Higher Education: Ranking of Colleges’ Influence via Twitter

4. Most Influential B-Schools (outside of Canada) on Twitter