Media Coverage
In response to a changing media landscape, I reinvented Lafayette's media relations program, taking a proactive, strategic approach that strengthens branding messages. I've also expanded the role of social media, successfully using it as a tool to reach journalists about important stories and as an additional channel to leverage positive media coverage, including through paid promotion.
Kelvin Serem, class of 2018
(Photo credit: Alex Goodlett/The New York Times)
The New York Times
Kelvin Serem grew up in a remote Kenyan village with no electricity or running water. Through hard work and a series of astonishing events, he found himself in the U.S., first at Blair Academy and then Lafayette College. An optimistic and determined fellow, Kelvin decided if this unimaginable good fortune could happen to him, it was not too farfetched to think he could pay it forward by building a school for the children back in his village. And so he did, handling everything from planning, fundraising, and helping build the structure to hiring teachers and staff.
After networking with media contacts and making a phone call to renowned New York Times columnist Dan Barry, I placed Kelvin's story, A Kenyan Runner Maps His Way Home, on the front page of the Times sports section.
I also wrote the related Lafayette web article and coordinated the college's social media efforts including paid promotion on one Lafayette Twitter post, resulting in 50,101 impressions.
Happily, the Times story had a positive impact on Kelvin’s school too. It's grown from 85 students to nearly 200 and several additions have been built to accommodate the increase. The Kenyan government recently ran electricity over the nearby mountains, adding the school to the energy grid.
CNBC reporter interviews Investment Club co-president Othman Guennoun ’17.
cnbc and PBs Nightly business report
Many journalists find their sources with a straightforward Google search. Placing a reputation-defining story, even in a smaller media outlet, and then promoting it through your own channels places it higher in search.
This was the case when I got a call from a CNBC producer who had searched the term “student-run investment clubs.” Lafayette, home to the country's oldest student-run club, popped up on the first page, thanks to previously published pieces. My immediate response to the query ensured our program was covered versus a large university that had also been contacted.
The students appeared on three national broadcasts with CNBC reporter Morgan Brennan. The video team spent the day on campus where they interviewed students about the club’s history and investment strategies. The segments include footage of students working through a typical investment session, archival photos, and live broadcasts from the Quad.
Social media results, over a four-day period, via organic and promoted Lafayette posts:
- 40,451 people reached on Facebook
- 17,676 impressions on Twitter
- 4,879 impressions on Instagram
- Plus an additional 728 social shares from journalists' posts on Facebook and LinkedIn
Students interact with toddlers for "screen time" research.
NBC Nightly News, Boston Globe and Wall Street Journal
Last fall, when the American Academy of Pediatrics shifted its official stance on “screen time” for young children, I quickly moved to connect journalists with Psychology Professor Lauren Myers and her team of undergraduate student researchers. Their latest research sheds new light on how toddlers engage in—and learn from—screen-time interactions versus traditional video watching.
The segment on NBC's Nightly News with Lester Holt, which averages close to nine million viewers, even includes Lafayette-produced video footage, ensuring that our students shared the limelight with the professor.
