By Kiara Catanzaro
News Editor
Beginning next semester, students, faculty and alumni will be able to view photos of St. Bonaventure University through 19 different filters.
At the end of the spring 2014 semester, workers in the office of marketing and communications will move on plans to develop a university Instagram account.
Instagram allows its users to upload and edit photos, which can be shared to other social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter.
Clarence Picard, the previous admission communications coordinator, worked on the university Instagram account, which was directed by the admissions office in Hopkins Hall.
“Admissions had an (Instagram) account in 2012 when they had Clarence Picard working as a full-time admission communications coordinator,” said Emily Sinsabaugh, vice president
of university relations. “During the fall semester he was offered a new position. We haven’t been able to replace that full-time position this year. So we haven’t continued his work on the
account because we don’t have the staff available to maintain what he started.”
Sinsabaugh said an employee of the office of marketing and communication will eventually take the role of controlling the university Instagram account once it’s created.
“We first want to take the time to develop a strategy and plan for resourcing an Instagram account before we go forward with creating one,” Sinsabaugh said.
Tom Missel, director of media relations and marketing, said Instagram has not been an important aspect of social media for St. Bonaventure.
“In terms or prioritization, we were ahead of the curve of other colleges with similar profiles to St. Bonaventure in social media such as Facebook and Twitter,” Missel said. “At the moment, Instagram isn’t the highest priority but it’s something that we are getting to.”
Sinsabaugh said it’s important to consider the large demographic involved with St. Bonaventure media.
“We don’t only cater to prospective students,” Sinsabaugh said. “We have current students, faculty in addition to alumni and regional members of the university who we reach out to in social media. We have to cater to different people involved with the university.”
Missel said it’s also necessary to consider how quickly technology changes over time and how quickly new social media is created.
“It’s also important to take into consideration what will be important to prospective students,” Missel said. “What’s important to a student now may not be the same in a year or two. What Facebook was five years ago is not the same it is today. Social media is so fluid, and we don’t know what it’ll look like in two to three years.”
Sierra Nutt, a sophomore education major, said Instagram might not be popular among students next year.
“I know students who don’t use Instagram as much as they did over the last two years,” Nutt said. “I don’t know how much longer Instagram will rank in popularity, so it might not be a necessary change for St. Bonaventure’s social media accounts.”
Photographically, St. Bonaventure has a strong presence based on Flickr, an online photo-sharing service. All events covered all shown through the university’s Flickr account. Missel said a potential solution might be to integrate an Instagram account with the current Flickr account.
“It’s one thing to create an account but unless you’re committed to keeping the account vibrant, you’re better off not having an account at all than not having an outdated page,” Missel said.
Nutt said it would be beneficial for St. Bonaventure to promote their Flickr account with photos of campus events.
“I think the university would benefit more if it promoted the social media they currently have,” Nutt said. “If the university has a successful presence on a different photography account, tell students about that account so it will be available for students and professors to use.”
Nutt said it wouldn’t necessarily be beneficial for the university to have more than one photography account because it would be difficult to keep both accounts updated frequently with different content.
“The university wouldn’t benefit from owning multiple photography accounts,” Nutt said. “It would be hard for the university to keep up with different accounts, especially if they’re posting the same content to a Flickr account and Instagram account. I think it’s better if the university has one account that’s updated consistently with photos of campus events to promote to prospective students.”
