Posted December 23, 2014

What’s buzzing at Temple: Top posts of 2014

Betsy Manning
This photo of the Philadelphia skyline was the top Temple Facebook post of 2014.

Temple’s most popular social media posts of 2014 reflect the university community’s love of Philadelphia, celebrate its entrepreneurial students and accomplished faculty, and mourn one of its most beloved members.

The caption of Temple’s No. 2 Instagram post of 2014, which hovers over a Temple “T” and an image of the Philadelphia skyline, exemplifies how Owls feel about Philly: “This is our city.”

This sentiment was reflected across Temple’s social media platforms in 2014. A photo showing Hooter the Owl in front of Philadelphia’s City Hall earned more likes on Instagram than any other image in 2014. Six of the top 10 Instagram images, the top four Facebook posts, and two of the top four tweets were dramatic photographs of the Philadelphia skyline.

The Temple community likes Philadelphia and “liked” images of the city, as seen from Temple’s Main Campus, thousands of times on Temple’s Facebook and Instagram feeds.

The feeling is mutual: Philadelphia likes Temple University. Last fall, two of the university’s top leaders were voted among the Most Admired CEOs in the Philadelphia region. In 2014, 24 positive, front-of-section feature stories about Temple appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, doubling Temple’s previous annual record. And Temple partnered with the city on initiatives that ranged from a $2.2 million grant in support of middle-grade teacher training to a $1 million commitment to create educational programs and career training in North Philadelphia.

Temple’s handsome campus was also celebrated on its social media platforms, with stunning photos of Mitchell and Hilarie Morgan Hall, the Bell Tower, and Sullivan Hall among the top 10 on Instagram and Facebook. But Temple fans don’t just like the university for its good looks—they appreciated its innovative programs, entrepreneurial alumni, groundbreaking research and athletics achievements, as well.

Among the most popular posts of the year on Facebook was a story about the Temple Option, a new admissions plan that allows students to apply to the university without submitting standardized test scores. The Temple Option underscores the university’s commitment to providing talented and motivated students of all backgrounds the opportunity for a high-quality college education.

The No. 1 social media post of the year, a YouTube video with almost 50,000 views, showcases how Temple researchers made a groundbreaking stride toward finding a cure for HIV, one of the many ways that Owls sparked change that matters in 2014.

Another way? The No. 9 Temple YouTube video is a profile of twin sisters Rachel and Sarah Stanton, FOX ’14. While students at Temple, the Stantons launched a T-shirt company that donates a portion of its proceeds to Philabundance, a Philadelphia food bank.

Also among the top 10 Temple YouTube videos, Temple bid farewell to the Class of 2014 and welcomed the Class of 2018, the university’s largest, most diverse and most accomplished class ever.

The top tweet of the year reported the final score of Temple men's basketball team's December upset of No. 10 Kansas at the Wells Fargo Center.

But perhaps the most moving social media post of 2014 was one that mourned and honored an irreplaceable member of the Temple community. Click here to watch a YouTube video celebrating the life of beloved Temple alumnus and trustee Lewis Katz, CST '63, who died in May of this year.


—Kate O’Neill

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