In the meantime, Land and his staff have been more aggressive about trying to give McRobbie a larger presence on the site by tweeting what he’s doing, such as daily tweets about his movements during his trip to Africa in August through the university-wide account.
“He doesn’t have the appetite to do it,” Land said, “but we are not going to force the issue.”
IU’s impact on the Twitter landscape involves few solo personalities on the academic side, rather schools with their own followings.
Bloomington’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs has only 1,200 followers, but it has sent off more than 2,000 tweets during the account’s almost seven-month history, mostly about the accomplishments of faculty and students and what events are happening on campus.
The Kelley School of Business has about 8,500 followers, recently posting a video featuring ex-Hoosier star Cody Zeller as he talked about securing a price-conscious living space, despite his newly found millions in professional basketball.
Sports coaches and players have proved to be much more banter-friendly at IU.
Colorful sophomore point guard Yogi Ferrell, @YogiFerrell11, has accrued almost 40,000 followers, but that’s only a fraction of Coach Tom Crean’s more than 127,000.
Crean’s tweets are a collection of inspirational sayings and Bible verses, while Ferrell, who has tweeted almost 10,000 times since joining the site in November 2010, has a Twitter feed rife with commentary about his escapades hour-to-hour, whether it’s a movie he’s watching or a nap he’s thinking about taking.
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