After @TuckExecEd tweeted a link to its blog post about professor Sydney Finkelstein’s research, which predicted the rise of female CEOs, Inc. Magazine reporter Ilan Mochari wrote an article citing the research and linking back to Tuck’s original blog post. The next day, @Dartmouth, @TuckExecEd and @TuckSchool tweeted at Mochari and Finkelstein, including the URL of the Inc. Magazine article. Then @TuckBridge chimed in.
Both the College and Tuck have ramped up their social media presence over the past few months, aiming to better connect to current students, prospective students and alumni.
Martin Grant, the College’s current director of digital content, said social media is important for spreading news and stories about student achievements, faculty research and alumni accomplishments.
Grant oversees both social media and other efforts on campus such as photography, web and video production, while also maintaining the College’s Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Google+, iTunes university and Instagram accounts, with assistance from the College’s entire public affairs team.
The College will hire a director of social media in the coming months, which Grant said he believes will lead to major improvements.
“We leverage social media to expand the reach of almost everything we do,” he said. “Our photographers, writers and media relations team all work together.”
In the next few months, this social media coalition will attempt to grow its existing channels, expand audiences and increase interaction between the College and its social media followers, Grant said.
Tuck, which is also currently seeking a social media manager, uses sites like Twitter and Facebook to engage its audience in conversation and “spread the Tuck brand,” Tuck director of marketing and communications Gina des Cognets Tu’01 said.
To increase its Instagram presence, Tuck began using hashtags such as #tuckadmit and #tuckpartner. Newly admitted members of the Tuck Class of 2016 wore a hat the school sent them in the mail after their acceptance and used the hashtags to post photographs on Instagram, which the school then reposted.
Des Cognets said Twitter is particularly important in sharing faculty research, as well as disseminating information about visiting speakers.
Social media is used to circulate information to alumni around the world, des Cognets said.
“We will build relationships with our users that span a lifetime [through profiles], whether they’re a high school student applying to Dartmouth or a member of the Class of 1964,” Grant said.
Recent alumni said they follow Dartmouth’s social media accounts as a way to stay on top of College-related news.
Gwen Tetirick ’13 said that social media allows her to stay active in the Dartmouth community.
“I love seeing what my fellow alums are up to and where their post-graduate lives are taking them.” Tetirick said in an email. “It always makes me feel a twinge of happy nostalgia when a flurry of Dartmouth-related pictures crop up on my news feed, and it’s nice to know everyone there is still loving it as much as I did.”
Several prospective students agreed that social media allows them to engage with campus.
“Before I visited [in the fall], it was nice to be able to see little snapshots of the campus on Facebook and Instagram,” said Carly Farmer, a senior at the National Cathedral School for Girls in Washington, D.C.
Kay Crawford, a Westminster School senior from Atlanta noted that the College’s Twitter account gave her a good sense of the Dartmouth community, especially compared to Twitter accounts at other colleges.
Valentina Sedlacek ’18, who lives in Hanover, said the Facebook page has kept her updated about Dartmouth news since her acceptance in December.
Current students, however, tended to downplay the importance of the College’s official social media accounts.
Sam Glick ’17 said he gets his Dartmouth news from other sources, while Mary Van Metre ’14 said she has never seen the College’s social media profiles.
Khori Davis ’15 expressed mixed feelings about social media’s role, but acknowledged its relevance.
“I do think they’re important assets for the school to have in today’s technology-focused society,” Davis said.
