Facebook is still the granddaddy of social networks, with 2.4 billion monthly active users, according to one measure.
In 2019, the Bates Facebook page offered its 18,856 followers about a post per day, or 354 total. Of those posts, 190 offered links to Bates stories, 96 featured photography, and 69 displayed a video.
Those posts garnered 55,097 reactions:
- 49,360 “Likes”
- 4,480 “Loves”
- 660 “Wows”
- 315 “Hahas”
- 243 “Sads”
- 39 “Angrys”
One way to measure the popularity of a post is by looking at total “engagements”: the number of reactions, comments, and shares that the post receives.
In 2019, posts on the Bates Facebook page had 88,902 total engagements. And here are the top 10!
10. Feb. 16 — Fulbright good news, Part I (980 engagements)
Each year, two Fulbright-related news items draw lots of attention. The first is in February, an announcement of Bates’ rank among U.S. liberal arts colleges for producing Fulbright U.S. Student award recipients. The second is a spring announcement of a new cohort of recipients.
For 2019, with 13 awards, Bates ranked fourth as a producer of Fulbright U.S. Student award-winners. It was the college’s fourth straight year as one of the top five “Top Producers.”
https://www.facebook.com/batescollege/posts/10156861733815822
9. June 10 — The 2019 Bates Summer Reading List (996)
As eclectic as the community that contributes to it, the annual Good Reads: The Bates College Non-Required Reading List for Leisure Moments always captures attention when it’s published each spring.
Founded by Sarah Emerson Potter ’77, now retired as the director of the Bates bookstore, the list is going strong in its 23rd year.
https://www.facebook.com/batescollege/posts/10157128485400822
8. June 2 — Franky’s fist bumps (1,000)
Famous on campus for his fist-bump greeting, always delivered with a kind word, beloved Bates custodian Franky Urueta was elected by the Class of 2019 to deliver the Baccalaureate Address.
An Apache Native American, Urueta used his address to talk about his path from California to Maine, and he urged the seniors “to give positive energy to people” so that “they give you positive energy back.”
https://www.facebook.com/batescollege/posts/10157107598145822
7. March 27 — Bates announces 2019 Commencement speaker (1,006)
Around the country, the announcement of a college’s Commencement speaker is the unofficial start of graduation season.
At Bates, the 2019 speaker was Jennifer Doudna, CRISPR gene-editing pioneer. Her fellow honorands were Megan Smith, a high-tech visionary; and Travis Mills, an advocate for combat-injured veterans. (A fourth honorand, labor and social justice icon Dolores Huerta, accepted her degree at Convocation.)
As one Bates follower commented, “Kudos to Bates for their stellar Commencement speaker choices. From Bryan Stevenson to Jennifer Doudna…so impressive!”
https://www.facebook.com/batescollege/posts/10156947561775822
6. April 29 — Texas teenager pays tribute to Vietnam casualty David Nash ’68 (1,018)
For her high school English class, Annakate Kelley of Westlake High School in Austin, Texas, was assigned to create a video tribute of an American killed in Vietnam.
The assignment was linked to a reading, The Things They Carried, author Tim O’Brien’s collection of short stories about combat soldiers in Vietnam.
With sensitivity and respect, Kelley created a video honoring Bates alumnus David Nash ’68, who died in Vietnam in 1970. Along the way, Kelley’s work has catalyzed conversation and memory-sharing among those who loved Nash.
https://www.facebook.com/batescollege/posts/10157025620735822
5. Aug. 16 — Bates announces its largest federal grant ever (1,046)
It was a big year for Bates grants from the National Science Foundation.
In August, the college received a $3.97 million NSF grant to create a groundbreaking Visual Experience Database to support visual recognition research with applications in neuroscience and artificial intelligence.
Then, in October, Bates announced that Holly Ewing, a professor of environmental studies and the Christian A. Johnson Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Bates, is one of four co-principal investigators on a $5.9 million NSF grant to use high technology against a low-tech problem: the increasing hazard posed by cyanobacterial blooms in lakes.
https://www.facebook.com/batescollege/posts/10157295020240822
4. May 26 — Commencement 2019 photo album (1,090)
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s the total from a Facebook photo album from Commencement?
Published on the afternoon of graduation day, the album features stem-to-stern coverage of that climactic occasion, from the arrival of diplomas at the Coram Terrace stage to the final family portraits.
https://www.facebook.com/batescollege/posts/10157102556140822?__xts__[0]=68.ARA5fDpvvvlkoAXXk6BL-Wjed92Jc9NX_z87rOw_MEAAlk7nQIBhYtuq8Oge2abtpadLedTzCLnS9G5eM96ud8Iz1f-CZayTSo7ehHJBfefZIlDFQqgza7_Zyki4jC1KcarvWhIoN4GWCf2HvE6cuiTY8UDFo2-tDiCje6o6nmP55WjmN4m9ui6bw6uFPBRMRCQQvkL6oWcDFTChmlLT53xEKNx6djPiGpp6q9wJcrAHQ-fygg8Z3ue3YUp3hvxrZeKmNrLOThwdsKBhNnK4XC7c2uy8dsMpHE7BRoou8jP46rBD73Z1TALoe0Z58nForylGFYk11CB2QyfVPz07vEnln6yPcz2PQIq5lkm6hqMiM39fBX1gSIaff6kOZNeBhmip6ezWu24ahVUZt7VIHWNRjmZNmoObATvw39y1fm6VQrisC2kO9EyvOc0gT1VMc-TGxPH6KDJuPC8OX1Ng6qyHxeVeiiUG8rsws46fgNTaqOhCFV6vTO7zcQrWwpA&__tn__=-R
3. Oct. 20 — Women’s rowing wins Head Of The Charles (1,107)
Bates made history in October — and Facebook followers responded — as the Bobcat women’s rowing team won its third straight Collegiate Eights race at the Head Of The Charles Regatta, becoming the first women’s or men’s team to achieve a three-peat of that race.
Earlier in the year, the Bobcats won their third consecutive NCAA Division III national championship.
https://www.facebook.com/batescollege/posts/10157461454095822
2. May 22 — Fulbright good news, Part II (1,273)
Around Commencement each year, the college announces the new cohort of seniors and young alumni who’ve received offers of Fulbright Student awards.
This year, 20 Fulbright awards were offered to graduating seniors and five to recent graduates. It was the second time in three years that offers to Bates people touched the college’s high-water mark of 25.
https://www.facebook.com/batescollege/posts/10157080349350822
1. May 16 — Bates achieves carbon neutrality (2,279)
Bates seniors who last spring celebrated the college’s achievement of carbon neutrality were still tweens when, 12 years ago, the college committed itself to that goal.
“This achievement shows Bates at its best,” said Bates President Clayton Spencer. “Our mission statement calls for responsible stewardship of the wider world, and at this point in our history on this planet, there is no higher need than addressing climate change.”
https://www.facebook.com/batescollege/posts/10157065170270822
Out of some 700 U.S. colleges and universities to sign a carbon-neutrality pledge in 2007, Bates is one of only seven to date that have reached that goal. The college beat its own 2020 target for attaining neutrality, announced in a 2010 Climate Action Plan, by a year.
“We have met this goal through shared effort, commitment, and creativity by the entire college community with students leading the way,” Spencer said.
