The use of social networks by higher-education institutes in Israel

The study described in this paper examines the use of social networking sites
(SNS) by higher-education institutes in Israel. It identifies activity patterns,
content patterns, and interactivity in these institutes' Facebook and Twitter
accounts. 47 Facebook accounts and 26 Twitter accounts of Israeli
universities or colleges and/or sub-divisions within these institutes were
examined. Analysis of tweets within Twitter accounts and their classification
to categories by content was followed by descriptive statistics. Findings
propose that the activity pattern of academic institutes in SNS accounts
preserves a pattern according to which many accounts were active to a minor
degree, while a minority of them was relatively active. Also, use of special
SNS features was low, suggesting that these accounts were used in an
assimilation mode. Many of the academic accounts were frequently active
for long periods of time. Results show usage and content patterns of SNS
accounts resemble patterns in the Israeli higher-education community in the
physical life. The study implies that the potential of SNS in higher education
institutes in Israel has not been actualized to its fullest.