Dartmouth's presence has increased dramatically in recent years and now includes official pages on Google+, Flickr and Youtube and the big three: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Reaching out to alumni, current and prospective students and anyone else who might be interested, these forms of social media are updated daily. A team of three, headed by digital content director Martin Grant in the Office of Public Affairs, is behind the informative posts, photos and videos.
For a college generation like ours with short attention spans, Twitter enables students to remain informed about school events without getting bored.
"Twitter is a nice way to get news in short snippets," Carolyn Parrish '16 said.
Dartmouth's account, launched in 2009, is arguably the most well-used of the College's social media sites, with over 13,000 followers and over 11,000 tweets. Anyone who goes onto Dartmouth's Twitter will likely discover cool events they never even knew existed. Grant and his team live-tweeted inauguration and often congratulate recently admitted students or wish someone a happy birthday. While some students clearly love to receive personal responses from the College, others prefer to steer away from these interactions.
Elena Alicea '16 says she does not follow Dartmouth on Twitter, because she does not want them following her back. However, others are grateful for the knowledge that Dartmouth social media sites give them.
The Instagram account, created last summer, includes architectural photos to "Throwback Thursdays" to snaps of daily student life. It's not uncommon to spot a friend in a photo, sitting under a blossoming tree, getting on the Dartmouth Coach or listening to a lecture. And tagging someone you know in these pictures makes the experience even more interactive.
Anne Strong '16 has been in the right place at the right time to be in multiple photos on Instagram.
"People would always be like, Oh my God, I saw you on the Instagram!' and usually they would see me before I saw myself," Strong said.
Interactions like these will presumably drive even more students to follow @dartmouthcollege.
Strong said she appreciates the Instagram even more when she is not on campus.
"I thought it was best this summer when I was not in school because I could see what was still going on at Dartmouth," Strong said.
Indeed, Grant and his team make sure to keep up the content of their social media platforms during sophomore summer, despite the fact that only a quarter of the student body is on campus. These efforts have paid off. Be it through word of mouth, curiosity or simply a desire to be more informed about happenings here at Dartmouth, the College's social media sites have been steadily increasing in followers, though Grant stresses that sheer number of followers is not the only thing that matters.
"The quality of content is most important. We want to engage, inform, learn from and delight our audience," Grant said.
He added that the time of year and current events on campus strongly impact the target audience.
During Homecoming, the site's content is geared toward alumni. When admissions decisions are released, content is angled toward prospective students, and on the first day of classes, it is directed at current students.
"We watch the calendar very closely and make sure our content is in sync," he said.
Grant and his team make sure to respond promptly to the many messages and comments from these sites and feature students' own Instagrams. So if your repeated tweets at Lady Gaga to wish you a happy birthday have failed, maybe give the College a try. Or go sit under the prettiest tree you can find and hope you end up on its Insta.
