Virtual Commencement Celebration: An Engaging Success!

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2020 commencement celebration logo

As with many things related to the COVID-19 pandemic, finding a way to celebrate the Class of 2020 virtually on what would have been the 150th commencement at UMass Amherst required creativity and outside-of-the-box thinking. The result, however, was joyous and enthusiastic participation by the tens of thousands in the university community with both the online content and UMass social media channels during commencement weekend May 7-9.

“When we knew we wouldn’t be able to hold an in-person ceremony in May, our plans quickly changed to delivering an epic virtual event for our graduates and their families,” said Nancy Buffone, associate vice chancellor for University Relations. “We are thrilled that the response to the May 8 event – as well as the celebrations by the schools and colleges – has been overwhelmingly positive. Thank you to our campus partners for making the weekend such a success, and we are still looking forward to honoring the Class of 2020 with a campus ceremony in the future.”

A 20-minute video celebration, initially streamed live Friday, May 8 and then readily accessible online, was led by Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy and featured several entertainers, athletes and well-known politicians and business people who call Massachusetts home – including Ben Affleck, Rachel Maddow, Elizabeth Warren, Julian Edelman and Robert Kraft. University Relations worked with Element Productions in Boston to produce the video. The resulting audience for the video and related commencement content resulted in very impressive numbers:

  • Website metrics show that a total of 64,003 page views from May 7-11 on the UMass commencement pages. Traffic indicated that viewers from all over the world joined the livestream event, including the United States, Mexico, Canada, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. The majority of viewers watched the event on a mobile device.
  • Nearly 12,000 video views of the celebration occurred on May 8. Another 13,869 views occurred through May 11.
  • UMass Amherst social media platforms also saw high levels of engagement during May 8-10. On Instagram overall impressions on the UMass account topped 2.3 million impressions, compared to 508,729 for commencement weekend in 2019. Similarly, impressions on Twitter more than doubled over 2019, from 287,228 impressions in 2019 to 707,173 in 2020. LinkedIn, with its large audience of alumni, had a smaller increase over 2019, logging 194,657 impressions from May 8-10, compared to 159,988 in 2019.
  • UMass Facebook helped host the livestream of the event on May 8 and relied on student-generated content to generate 3.8 million impressions, also up over 2019. The resourcefulness and the enthusiasm of the Class of 2020 shined through. Seniors who graduated sent in nearly 1,100 photographs of their commencement celebrations to the social team, which turned them into content all weekend across various platforms.

In addition to the main livestream video event, the Graduate School and other schools and colleges hosted their own virtual events that generated further engagement throughout the weekend. Links to those celebrations can be found at www.umass.edu/umass2020.

Meanwhile, the virtual commencement celebration was also widely recognized across the state with outstanding media coverage including features in the Boston Globe and MassLive as well as a number of Boston and Springfield TV stations.