A Christmas photoshoot with a St. Bernard got the perfect last-minute touch from Mother Nature.
Andy Murphy ’17, Siena’s assistant director of digital strategy, is always developing engaging content for Siena’s social media accounts. He hit on his latest bright idea while helping his brother decorate his Christmas tree. His spied his brother’s golden retriever puppy playing cute under the tree, peeking through some dangling lights. The (Christmas) light bulb went on over Murphy’s head.
Switch out the golden for a Siena mascot St. Bernard, and bring the multi-colored holiday lights to campus. What’s not to “like”?
Siena’s social media followers agreed – the holiday Instagram post garnered nearly 3,000 likes – one of the most popular Insta posts ever for the College. The message fared just as well on Facebook – it’s one of the most popular posts of the year.
Local media turned out as well to share the heartwarming holiday message: “It's been a ruff year, let's paws to celebrate the Christmas season!” Click for News10 and Times Union coverage.
Murphy brought the Christmas lights, the camera, and the Santa hat – who brought the dog?
Jessica Williams ’21 lives in Lake George, N.Y. with her family and their two rescue St. Bernards. Crush (192 lbs.) has been to campus before – he sat in on a political science class, and has gone on a few strolls around campus. It wasn’t his first modeling gig either: he’s done some shoots with the men’s basketball team. (“It was super-cute,” said WiIliams. “The players were all so giant, and Crush was the right size to match.”) Murphy reached out to Williams, who was happy to pack her fur babies in her Subaru and head down the Northway to campus. Sister Bella (110 lbs.) came along for the ride.
Murphy went to three different Wal-Marts to find the right kind of lights, including a battery- operated strand for Crush. Good thing he got three packages – Crush, well, crushed one box with his massive paw. And for that perfect finishing touch, as if on cue, it started to snow shortly before the shoot.
For those who like to post personal pix on Insta and other platforms, or are planning on a career in social media marketing, take a page out of Murphy’s playbook: If you want maximum exposure you have to select the right content and post it on the right platform at the right time. It’s a skill Murphy has been honing since his days as a Siena marketing intern.
“We try to post something new on social media very week,” said Murphy. “We hadn’t posted in about a week, so the time was right. We like to be more creative – it gets better engagement. We review the analytics to see what works well.”