October 22-24, 2015
Committee chair Jack Steinberg ’88 welcomed the new committee members and introduced Justin Anderson, vice president for communications, for his presentation. Justin was accompanied by Diana Lawrence, director of media relations, and Erin Supinka, social media manager. Justin focused his presentation on media coverage. He shared the success story of how the Mobile Virtual Player (MVP) developed jointly by Thayer School of Engineering and football coach Buddy Teevens ’79 made it to the Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert and the impact of Dartmouth’s presence in the media. Dartmouth’s media coverage since last year has seen a remarkable increase, thanks to the Office of Communications’ strategy of expanding the faculty outreach, building partnerships (OpEd, Sirius, Morning Joe), and working more closely with the local AP reporter. A lot of work is also being done on the social media front to expand reach, increase engagement, align content to Dartmouth’s key messages, and utilize analytics to shape content. Justin shared that Dartmouth’s Instagram account was ranked 2nd best in the world by Hubspot.com, a marketing software platform based in Cambridge, MA. Erin Supinka agreed to advise the Communications committee on the Alumni Council’s use of social media.
Katie McKay ’16, editor of The Dartmouth, presented about the coverage by her newspaper of campus events over the last few months. She engaged the committee members in a discussion about a wide range of topics, including the Moving Dartmouth Forward initiatives, the AAU (Association of American Universities) Survey and the Clery Act data results, and the recent incidents around Columbus Day and Native American students on campus. The committee was impressed by her use of data in reporting on these topics. Katie ended on a positive note about how she noticed a shift from thinking that Dartmouth is the best to how we can make Dartmouth a better place for everyone.
Jack will work with Cheryl Abbot ’96, vice-chair, and Olivier, to schedule a conference call to brainstorm ways the committee might be of service to the Alumni Council on communications issues this academic year.