Communications and Marketing, fall 2022

The Division of Communications and Marketing continued its work this quarter, supporting Binghamton University’s admissions and recruitment efforts as well as communicating with the campus community and beyond.

One initiative that will help the division focus its messaging moving forward was realized when Carnegie, a higher education marketing and enrollment strategy firm, came to campus. The firm had conducted focus groups and surveys of members of the campus community this past spring to determine the University’s “personality” that would help drive messaging. Carnegie returned to campus in late August to reveal its findings.

Following Carnegie’s campus reveal, members of the Division of Communications and Marketing and Undergraduate Admissions participated in a half-day workshop to practice using some of the messaging strategies Carnegie had presented — that Binghamton University is empowering and accomplished, curious and experiential, forward-thinking and intelligent.

Moving forward, the division will work with communicators across campus, and enrollment management at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, to incorporate Carnegie’s personality-based messaging into our marketing and communications efforts.

Creative Services

Creative Services designed and had printed several major publications this quarter, including the Reaching Higher magazine for the School of Management and Harpur Perspective for Harpur College of Arts and Sciences.

Web developers and designers also kept busy, continually working to improve the University’s online presence and workflows for customer relationship building. The following were high-priority projects:

• Search engine optimization reports and suggestions
• Development and support of Undergraduate/Graduate recruitment emails
• Maintaining the health of binghamton.edu (reviewing/updating broken links, meta data, spelling, grammar, OU account training, account creation, account deletion) and handling requests from campus partners

Enrollment marketing efforts

The Buzz

The Buzz is a series of weekly emails containing important requirements, reminders, Orientation and course registration details, and other information to prepare new students for their arrival and first few weeks on campus. The Buzz also covers some lighter topics that showcase the myriad ways to get involved.

We send the first issue a few days after the May 1 enrollment deposit deadline and it runs weekly until classes begin.

We met weekly with representatives from the divisions of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs to ensure Orientation messages were consistent across the various offices.

Separate Buzz streams were sent to incoming Binghamton Advantage Program and international students.

Recruitment materials

In June and July, Communications and Marketing wrote and designed the publications admissions counselors take with them during travel season. This year, the main pieces were redesigned. We also added a QR code in the main print pieces as a new way to measure the effectiveness since print usage is notoriously hard to evaluate.

We also updated and added to our email communication streams that are sent daily to prospective students, parents and high-school counselors. We are also translating many international comms into Chinese for our parent audience. We have begun rewriting our emails to incorporate recommendations based on Carnegie’s consultant work.

Social media

The Undergraduate Admissions Instagram and Facebook accounts both saw a gain in followers this quarter: Facebook +2.3% and Instagram +5.2%. Both pages have been sharing content for newly admitted students followed by a focus on scenic aspects of campus, pushes to apply, food, clubs and activities, UFest, recent academic awards, current students, etc.

Our Instagram story has been posting more engaging content The “submit a photo of you on campus” attracted 60+ submissions and 99 followers in 12 hours; we conducted Trivia Tuesdays, voting polls, Q&As, etc.

Media and Public Relations

It was a momentous quarter for the Office of Media and Public Relations, during which we hosted a series of workshops for faculty, showcased the excitement of the new school year, and took home awards for our photo and video efforts.

The Conversation workshops

Media and Public Relations hosted a series of workshops for faculty and PhD students interested in publicizing their research with The Conversation, an independent, non-profit news organization that works to publish news analysis and commentary written by scholars, edited by journalists and intended for the general public. During these sessions, editors from The Conversation were on campus to discuss writing opportunities, walk through various topics, and workshop possible writing ideas and pitches given by faculty.

New Energy New York battery award announcement

The announcement that Binghamton University’s New Energy New York project was awarded more than $113 million to establish a hub for battery technology innovation was a major focus of the Office of Media and Public Relations’ efforts. The news was shared with local and national media and garnered numerous news hits, including an article in Forbes about how universities are key to $1 billion in Build Back Better Regional Challenge grants. The office also promoted the news on social media, sharing BingUNews articles, graphics and more. These posts saw heavy traffic and inspired congratulatory messages from followers.

SUNYCUAD Awards for Excellence

The Media and Public Relations office was thrilled to start off the quarter with the announcement of three SUNY Council for University Advancement (SUNYCUAD) Awards. “Ring of Fire,” won “Best of Category” in the Individual Photograph category; Daily Photo, an ongoing collection of images of Binghamton University, won a Judges’ Citation in the Photo Series category; and The Binghamton Buzz won “Best of Category’ in the Video category.

Photo and video coverage

The office executed a wide-range of communications as the University welcomed back 18,200+ students to campus, working with the media and pushing out information relevant to new students and parents regarding move-in. The Class of 2026 kicked off the school year by forming a giant “flying B” on the Peace Quad, which we captured in a popular Facebook livestream, as well as in photos and a follow-up timelapse video.

Hundreds of photos and several new videos were created for the Binghamton University website, social media accounts, various magazines and print publications, covering a wide spectrum of events on campus, including:

• A series of new videos highlighting various areas of campus for prospective students for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. The series, hosted by a Binghamton student, highlights academics, student life, value, countless hands-on and research opportunities, residential communities and success post-graduation.
• The “Binghamton Faculty Focus” video series, which highlights our diverse faculty and their specific areas of research. We published a new playlist featuring faculty from every school, covering topics from addressing opioid use disorder to building a more resilient power grid.

Other recent videos include:

• My life is colorful at Binghamton: Yue Zhu is an international student from China. Follow her journey, hear how Binghamton University helped her adjust to college life in the U.S. and her words of advice for other international students.
• Binghamton Buzz - Student Organizations: We caught up with students tabling during University Fest and learned about some of the many student organizations at Binghamton. There really is a club for everyone.
• Binghamton University Move-in Days 2022: It was a weekend of hugs, smiles and cartloads of stuff when new and returning Binghamton University students moved into their rooms on campus.
• Meet the Class of 2026: To celebrate move-in and the start of the academic year, the Binghamton University Class of 2026 formed a gigantic “B” on campus!

Media highlights

Binghamton University faculty made a major impact in the media for their research and expertise, landing hits in leading publications such as The New York Times, Forbes, USA Today and many others, with topics ranging from exploring the chemical makeup of tattoo pigments, to research investigating serotonin’s role in treating Parkinson’s disease.

Binghamton in the News - National Highlights

Adam Laats, professor of history, was featured by USA Today, PBS NewsHour, The Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, The Washington Post and many other news outlets, where he discussed several topics related to education. Topics included the pushback against racial and gender studies in American schools, how school board meetings have become “war zones” in which parents fight over hot-button issues and more.

John Swierk, assistant professor of chemistry, was featured in Forbes, ABC News, United Press International, Yahoo!News.com, MSN.com, Shape, Newsweek, Yahoo!Lifestyle.com, the BBC and Daily Mail, where he discussed his research into the chemical makeup of tattoo pigments in order to expose the presence of ingredients that aren’t listed on some labels.

David Campbell, professor of public administration, was featured in USA Today, MSN.com and Yahoo!Finance, for an article that examines where the money goes when billionaires like Bill Gates give “virtually all” their wealth away.

Daniel McKeever, assistant professor in the School of Management, was featured in a MarketWatch, MSN Money, NASDAQ article about bear markets, where he said that high inflation is leading many people to spend less, which means less money in companies’ pockets.

Jeremy Blackburn, assistant professor of computer science, was featured in USA Today, Yahoo!Finance and Forbes, in an article about a survey that showed Asian Americans reported the single biggest increase in serious incidents of online hate and harassment as racist and xenophobic slurs blaming people of Asian descent for the coronavirus pandemic spread over the past year. Blackburn discussed how he has witnessed the evolution of anti-Chinese hate speech in real time on social media.

Carl Lipo, professor of anthropology, was featured by the BBC in an article that examined how the moai statues on Easter Island were transported. Lipo is an archaeologist specializing in the moai and was the lead author of a 2013 study into how the statues moved.

Ahyeon Koh, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and PhD candidate Matthew Brown, were featured on The Weather Channel, Science Daily and Neuroscience News, for their research that showed that gold CD’s thin metallic layer can be separated from the rigid plastic and fashioned into sensors to monitor electrical activity in human hearts and muscles as well as lactose, glucose, pH and oxygen levels.

Suzanne McLeod, assistant professor of educational leadership, was featured by The Conversation, The Academic Minute, The Hour, and Yahoo!.com, in an article that offers insight about how to get the new school year off to a good start.

https://theconversation.com/4-ways-to-get-the-new-school-year-off-to-a-good-start-187815

Lina Begdache, associate professor of health and wellness studies in the Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences, was featured by various news outlets, where she discussed several topics related to diet and lifestyle:

• Inside Higher Ed, The Academic Minute: In an article that offers insight on how diets and lifestyle may optimize mental well-being.
• The Economic Times: In an article that discussed keeping mental health in check. The article highlighted Begdache’s research that showed that the mental health of women during the pandemic was likely to be impacted by the frequency of physical activity.

Binghamton University was featured in Forbes, in an article about how universities are key to $1 billion in Build Back Better Regional Challenge grants. Binghamton will lead a coalition that will receive $63.7 million to accelerate innovation in battery technology and transform a southern region of New York into a global hub of energy storage manufacturing.