A new Twitter, @PennState411, was recently created to provide Penn State students with news that they care about. The Twitter account, created by PR student and Department of Public Information intern, Molly Sheerer, was designed to help bring student voices to light from an administrative standpoint.

Many of the tweets come from the University news service, Penn State Live. However, the Twitter is also designed to give out helpful hints and tricks that students should be aware of.

“It’s a way for students to easily get all the news about the things they care about,” Sheerer said. “Twitter is a quick and easy way for them to get the info they need.”

Sheerer has a Twitter schedule that she works on each week, and then tweets accordingly. Because she her internship with the Department of Public Information ends in May, different phases of the year have already been set up. She hopes to engage with students online via the Twitter account by featuring various club fundraisers and THON activities.

The tweets focus on featured speakers, career opportunities, registration deadlines, such as late drop, and other aspects of campus life. Sheerer hopes the tweets will remind students what the University has to offer, as well as the little things that might be forgotten throughout the day.

“Each day, I start with a tweet about the weather,” she said. “I thought of this because, as all students here know, the weather is horrendous and flip-flops all the time. By tweeting about what it’s actually like, students know whether they need a raincoat or their big winter jacket despite the previous day being 60 degrees.”

The Twitter is affiliated with the University, which means that there are certain things, such as endorsements, that cannot be displayed. Sheerer wants the account to be considered the “go-to for student news,” especially with on-campus activities. Ultimately, she hopes to have the Twitter gain a bigger following, and to become a staple on everybody’s feeds, even if they just check the weather or want to know more about a speaker coming to campus.

When asked about long-term goals for @PennState411, she said that there won’t be as much to tweet about as the semester dwindles down. She said, “We want to keep the account going, and we’ll create a plan, whether it’s through HootSuite to keep the account live until a new intern can take over in the fall.”