Communications and Marketing, spring 2021

The first quarter of 2021 was as busy as ever, as the majority of the Division of Communications and Marketing continued to work remotely due to the pandemic. All communications vehicles were used to keep the campus and other audiences aware of University decisions and updates, including Dateline, B-Line, social media and the University’s website.

Critical communications issues during this period included continuing to address the pandemic; COVID-19 testing of students, faculty and staff; continued messaging about recovering from the November 2020 malware attack on the campus network; and issues of anti-Asian racism and social justice.

A number of the communications included statements posted to President Harvey Stenger’s page:

Statements from President Harvey Stenger/others

• Jan. 7: a message from President Stenger about democracy and civility
• Jan. 18: a message in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• Feb. 2: Celebrating Black History Month
• Feb. 22: a message from President Stenger about the COVID-19 threshold
• Feb. 22: a message about cancellations/changes effective Feb. 23
• Feb. 27: a message about racial incidents
• March 1: Celebrate Women’s History Month
• March 18: a message about the Atlanta mass shooting
• March 26: a message from President Stenger about transitioning employees back to campus

Between Jan. 1 and March 31, in addition to the regular web updates made to University pages by the communications managers for each school, dozens of updates were made to the Restarting Binghamton frequently asked questions webpage and multiples messages were sent to faculty and staff on Dateline and to students B-Line as the semester and COVID-19 circumstances evolved. Messages ranged from information on testing and vaccines, to temporary suspension or resumption of activities, to information on quarantine and isolation procedures. A great deal of coordination also took place with the Division of Student Affairs to communicate via the Decker Student Health Services website as well as with parents through Parent Connect.

Communications managers have been meeting with communication consultants for the University’s comprehensive gifts campaign to better understand how potential stories can provide campaign support through writing. All continue to write for BingUNews and to work directly with designers in Creative Services to produce the twice-a-year magazine for the University and annual magazines for individual schools. The Binghamton University Magazine spring 2021 issue is in the design stage, as is the College of Community and Public Affairs Confluence magazine and the Watson Review.

Support of the University’s efforts to deal with the malware attack continued well into February, with the development of additional frequently asked questions and involvement in Information Technology Task Force communications.

Creative Services activities

With the rush of work designing and producing signage for the campus to use during the COVID-19 pandemic over, the Office of Creative Services spent the first quarter of 2021 upgrading websites and developing several major campus publications, including the first Binghamton by the Book that highlights the University’s growth and upward trajectory over the past decade.

Additional high-level publications developed included the President’s Financial Report and the Binghamton University Foundation annual report. Additionally, creative services designers developed graphics for the Engineering Building’s Fabrication Lab that draws attention to the work done there.

On the web, the department upgraded the Physical Facilities website to new templates and created or upgraded a number of other websites including for the:

• Binghamton University Foundation Annual Report
• Campus Community Review Board
• Violence, Abuse and Rape Crisis Center
• Brightspace (Learning Management System)
• TEDxBinghamtonUniversity
• Speech and Language Pathology (SLP)

Work with admissions, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, continues, with development and support for recruitment emails as well as for landing pages and ongoing online advertisements. And the department also developed the Graduate Student Excellence Awards multimedia presentation and program.

Additionlly, the following publications and presentations were created to advance the University’s reputation and presence among audiences including students, alumni and donors, parents and the campus community as a whole:

• Center for Wrestling Excellence brochure
• Kaschak Institute logo
• Campus Recreation promotional brochure
• Multimedia presentations for president, provost, admissions
• Foundation winter 2021 donor newsletter
• Commencement program cover designs
• President’s State of the University presentation
• Special Honors Program materials

Undergraduate Admissions enrollment marketing efforts

Yield marketing efforts

Admissions continues to release decisions and Communications and Marketing (C&M) supports all yield efforts which include:

• Honors programs: FRI, Source, PwC and Scholars. In addition, we’ve added two new programs: Watson College Scholars and Innovation Scholars. The communications have included a mailed invitation from the president and a packet; a landing page with general info about the program and how to enroll; and several emails (follow ups from program directions, current-student emails, virtual events, etc.).
• Virtual receptions for admitted students and their families: For these events, C&M designed the invitations, landing page and PowerPoint presentation.
• Virtual Admitted Student Days: C&M designed the electronic invites, filmed welcome videos from the deans and the president, and conducted digital campaigns to promote these events that begin at the end of March and continue almost every day during April

Prospective student events

The high-school junior and sophomore communication streams continue with monthly emails sent to these cohorts.

Social media

The Undergraduate Admissions Instagram and Facebook accounts continue to see growth this quarter (Facebook: +8%, Instagram: +4%.) With decisions rolling out and students committing to Binghamton, we have shifted the pages to become more informative about the University’s unique offerings both on campus and in the surrounding area. A fresh social media campaign that we ran this quarter was our “Ask a Bearcat” event. In short, accepted and prospective students were invited to send in questions they have about Binghamton via Instagram on March 22, and a current student replied back to them individually. We received close to 100 wide-ranging questions, and the campaign was a huge success overall. We plan to do another “Ask a Bearcat” event in April as we approach the May 1 decision deadline.

Transfer Namebuy

C&M created a campaign for the first-ever Admissions transfer-student namebuy of approximately 65,500 Phi Theta Kappa honors students:

• two postcards
• two emails

Media and Public Relations activities

Binghamton University faculty made a major impact in the media for their research and expertise, landing hits in leading publications including The New York Times, CNN, The Wall Street Journal and many more. From anthropological research revealing how Neandertals might have communicated, to insight into the COVID-19 vaccine and how it will be distributed, our faculty helped to bring Binghamton University into the spotlight and showcase their expertise and the quality of research taking place at the University.

The return to campus for the spring semester was a major focus of our social media strategy, so we could keep students and parents informed. We pushed out a video about the restart, touching on COVID-19 testing and changes to classes. We also promoted blogs highlighting things students needed to know about the restart, changes to dining services, and study tips to get the semester started right.

Our TikTok account saw an increase in followers and engagement thanks to our student content creators, including the addition of a new student to our team. We are now able to push out fun, relevant content several times a week and our numbers have increased as a result. We now have 2,600+ followers and our biggest post has garnered 350,000+ views. We also posted a blog written by a student writer titled “My Favorite Binghamton University TikToks.”

We posted a number of Bearcat Chat videos, in which host Jacob Wilkins interviews Binghamton students, faculty and staff about various topics. Videos posted during this quarter touched on topics such as restarting for the spring semester, questions about admissions, Black History Month and more.

We ended 2020 by looking back at the year and honoring the holidays. We promoted a blog about festive events and another that told the story of Binghamton throughout 2020. We also created a video featuring a message from President Stenger, lights on the Peace Quad, the winners of our Holiday Sweater Contest and a special musical performance of “Let It Snow.”

National/local news coverage

Total circulation numbers: Over 825 million

Binghamton in the News

Jeremy Blackburn, assistant professor of computer science, has been featured in numerous publications, discussing a variety of topics related to internet security issues. Total circulation: Over 1.3 billion.

• Salon, USA Today, MSN, CNN and others: How users on the Reddit WallStreetBets forum are taking on Wall Street.
• The Washington Post and others: How coronavirus conspiracy theories spread through the dissemination of preprint research articles
• Salon, National Interest, Yahoo!.com, MSN, Quartz, The Conversation, The Street and others: How shutting down social media platforms are somewhat effective in curbing hate speech, but not a long-term solution.
• Digital Trends, Inside Higher Ed, Health News Digest and others: How ‘Zoombombing’ research shows legitimate meeting attendees cause most attacks.

Jonathan Krasno, associate professor of political science, has been featured in numerous publications, discussing a variety of election related topics. Total circulation: Over 703.2 million.

• Business Insider, Yahoo!.com, The National Interest, MSN and others: How the Republican Party schism may end up tearing GOP leadership from the House and Senate apart.
• The National Interest: Will Joe Biden run for reelection in 2024?

Nicole Hassoun, professor of philosophy and co-director of the Institute of Justice and Well-Being, has been featured in numerous publications, discussing several topics related to COVID-19 and more. Total circulation: Over 282.5 million.

• Salon.com, Yahoo!.com, Quartz, National Interest, The Conversation and others: How the price of a drug should be based on its therapeutic benefits - not just what the market will bear.
• The Wall Street Journal, Quartz and others: COVID-19 vaccine passports could help life return to normal, but experts urge caution.

Pamela Stewart Fahs, professor/Decker chair in rural nursing, and Bennett Doughty, clinical assistant professor, were featured in Business Insider, Fast Company, The National Interest, MSN Lifestyle, Marketwatch, UPI, Yahoo!.com and other publications, where they discussed how getting COVID-19 vaccines to rural Americans is harder than it looks. Total circulation: Over 272.6 million.

Rodney Gabel, professor and founding director of the speech-language pathology division, has been featured in The Conversation, Yahoo!.com, Salon.com, Healthline and other publications, where he discussed how Joe Biden’s inaugural address gives hope to millions who stutter. Total circulation: Over 268.23 million.

Scott N. Schiffres, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, was featured in Yahoo!.com, Healthline, The Conversation and other publications, where he shared his insight into the best materials to use for face masks to prevent COVID-19 transmission. Total circulation: Over 264.3 million.

Robert Ku, associate professor of Asian and Asian American studies, was featured in NBCNews.com, Forbes and other publications, where he discussed how the Korean chili paste Gochujang became popular in the U.S. Total circulation: Over 236.5 million.

William Eggleston, assistant professor of pharmacy practice, was featured in an article in The New York Times highlighting how children are consuming hand sanitizer, and how to keep them safe. Total circulation: Over 164.8 million.

Sarah Lynch, director of skills education and clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice; and Kanneboyina Nagaraju, professor of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences; were featured in The Conversation, Yahoo!.com, The Street, MSN.com and other publications for writing an article on the six important truths about COVID-19 vaccines. Total circulation: Over 150 million.

Sarah Lynch, director of skills education and clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice, was featured in The Conversation, Yahoo!.com and other publications for co-authoring an article on how pharmacies will play a major role in distributing the COVID-19 vaccine. Total circulation: Over 128 million.

David Campbell, associate professor of public administration, was featured in Yahoo!.com, National Interest, The Hour and other publications for co-authoring an article about high-dollar philanthropy and what the biggest U.S. donors gave in 2020. Total circulation: Over 107.8 million.

Wendy Wall, professor of 20th-century American history, was featured in The Conversation, The National Interest, Yahoo!.com and other publications for co-authoring an article on how history textbooks will deal with the US Capitol attack. Total circulation: Over 99.2 million.

Saeideh Mirghorbani, assistant professor of business analytics and operations, who conducts research into the applied operations of healthcare systems, was featured in Yahoo!.com, Forbes, NBC News and Today.com, where she discussed issues with distributing the COVID-19 vaccine and crisis management lessons to be learned from the situation. Total circulation: Over 69.1 million.

John Swierk, assistant professor of chemistry, was featured on National Public Radio (NPR) and other publications, where he shared insight into the ingredients in tattoo ink. Total circulation: Over 64.1 million.

Meredith Coles, professor of psychology and director of the Binghamton Anxiety Clinic, was featured in a Today.com article titled “A 7-step process for dealing with stress so it doesn’t affect your health.” Total circulation: Over 21 million.

David Clark, professor of political science, has been featured in National Geographic, MSN.com and other publications, highlighting his 30-year career of tracking global protests. Total circulation: Over 14.8 million.