Senior Justin Guiffre, The Hatchet’s managing editor and a senior columnist, notes that the personal feel of GWToday’s Twitter account can do more harm than good to the image of GW.

In today’s world of digital hyper-networking, it is clear that self-promotion has taken on a new role. Tools like Twitter are used not only by French rappers claiming D.C. roots, but also by businessmen, corporate firms and colleges. This is especially good for schools because it allows them to follow student dialogue and identify people who are in the process of searching for schools. It works out great, and 140 characters is just enough to share a thought or welcome potential students. But a tweet is not so long that you can do damage to the reputation of the school, right? I wouldn’t have thought so.

This brings us to GW’s social networking presence. Just under a year ago, a study by universitiesandcolleges.org found that GW is one of the most prolific Twitter-using schools in the nation, with dozens of Twitter accounts and nearly continuous postings. Even among all this noise, there is one feed in particular that stands out: the GW Today feed, or @GWToday in Twitter slang. As a representation of GW, this feed is often overly personal, unprofessional and generally irreverent.