A UNH Today article about a UNH research breakthrough in the mysterious dog illness that was impacting the nation gained over 40k views (mainly through Facebook and Instagram) and received news coverage.
The Goal
When Keith Testa, editor of UNH Today, saw news stories about a mysterious dog illness spreading across social media, and learned that UNH researchers were playing a critical role in solving the mystery, he saw an opportunity to interview UNH researchers for a UNH Today story. “The cool thing about this was it was breaking news,” Keith says. The illness’s widespread reach would provide the opportunity to show the far-reaching impacts of UNH research.
Dog at UNH’s New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory
The Process
While the UNH Today story was written by Keith, the project was a collaborative one. Keith interviewed David Needle, pathology section chief at the New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and clinical associate professor in the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture. Needle described UNH researchers' discovery: a small portion of the genome of a previously uncharacterized bacteria that may be causing the mysterious dog illness.
Keith also collaborated with Beth Potier, Communication Director for Research Communications, on writing the story’s headline, making sure to include words that resonated with the research community and also Search Engine Optimization (SEO) keywords to help the story be picked by search engines. Keith believes the use of the phrase “mysterious dog illness” was especially key, since many people were using that phrase to learn more about the illness.
A photo of dogs in a UNH lab, taken by Jeremy Gasowski, Senior Producer for Photo and Video, has become the face of the story. Sam Gorski, Social Media Producer, Alex Hatch, Media Communications Specialist for the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, and Beth Potier collaborated on the project by sharing the story across social media channels, including Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.
After seeing the UNH Today story, local residents began emailing Keith with information about their dogs’ illnesses in hopes that they could help further crack the case. The story also spurred local news channels, including WBZ News, to reach out and conduct interviews with David Needle. News coverage was coordinated by Robbin Ray, Communication Director for Media Relations.
The Success
With nearly 42,000 views as of mid-January, this story was the most-viewed UNH Today story for 2023 (surpassing by far the second-most-viewed story about welcoming the highest-achieving class ever with 7,000 views). The mysterious dog illness story was also the most-viewed story on UNH Today since Keith has been editor.
Within the first 48 hours the story was published, it received 25,030 views, making it the most-viewed page on the entire UNH website by more than 15,000 views. From its publication date (11/30/23) to mid-January, it remained the second-most-viewed page behind only the UNH homepage. The story received over half (24,130) of its views from Facebook and Instagram, where the story was posted on UNH's flagship, research and College of Life Sciences and Agriculture accounts.
Hundreds of views for the story also came from Reddit, where a post in the r/news subreddit linked to the UNH Today story. The other 20,000 readers found the UNH Today article through a wide array of sources, including the UNH website, the UNH Today email newsletter, google search and news websites.
According to Keith, this story opens up the opportunity to create more content that connects UNH’s researchers with breaking news and important current events. Showing that UNH researchers have something vital to contribute to timely topics and investigations helps elevate our voice as an R1 research university.
