Engaging Alumni Through Social Media

Maintaining contact with alumni is vital for universities. This provides a great way to maintain relationships with those who represent your brand and can also market your brand. Alumni are a great source of inspiration for current and prospective students, as well as being there to reach out to for donations or scholarships. When alumni have a good relationship with universities it shows that they enjoyed their college experience and saw a good return on their investment. With college being as expensive as it is these days, maintaining relationships with alumni is fiscally responsible as well as great image branding. Here are four ways to maintain relationships with alumni using social media

1. Facebook Groups

Facebook is the most common social media platform for older adults. Facebook has only been in existence since 2004, many alumni did not have social media when they were in college. This gives alumni the opportunity to reconnect with their university in a new way and stay more up-to-date on what is going on, including events that are specific to alumni like the anniversary event shown below. Facebook most likely reaches the largest number of alumni in comparison to other social media tools like LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter, making it important for communication. Also, with the ability to make private event pages it makes it possible for all of the information to be shared quickly with alumni. Before social media, communication with alumni was typically done through mail or phone calls which took much more time and money. Social media speeds up the process and is free. Alumni are typically contacted about donating money to their alma mater and many universities have campaigns and a “giving back” day which is heavily promoted on social media. With the ease of donating online as opposed to having to mail in a check, colleges are more likely to increase the amount of money they receive from fundraising.

2. Use Linked-In to promote networking

Linked-in is such a powerful tool for networking and searching for jobs and internships – which one of the main goals of college graduates. LinkedIn makes it possible for professional groups and communities to be formed, giving an online network for alumni to help each other as well as current students at their alma mater. Below is an example from the official alumni page for Illinois State University. As you can see, there are over 12,000 members who all have connections in variety of job fields. Universities often have alumni panels for specific majors and student organizations on campus where recent alumni come back and speak about their jobs and what they did in college to attain their jobs now.

3. The Importance of Nostalgia

For many alumni, college is referred to as the "good old days" and it's important to remind alumni why the loved their university. Most campuses have traditions or certain spots on campus that are always visited when alumni come back to their college. With your social media presence, post pictures of these spots, of the university before/after a renovation takes place, and of current students carrying on the beloved traditions. At Illinois State University, there is the "Those Who Fell In Love At ISU" bench which is frequented by alumni who met in college and got married. These pictures are often shared on social media with a "love story" behind the couple and where they are today. Also, often times these couples have a child who attends ISU which makes the university give off a family feel.

4. Track Your Social Media Effectiveness

With the importance of social media in alumni relation - analyzing the effectiveness of your posts is vital to ensure your social media presence is resonating with the alumni. There are so many tools for tracking your social media and seeing which posts and pictures people were the most interactive with and which ones did not click with people as much. Tools like Google Analytics, Hootsuite, and Meltwater are all great for monitoring social media. The most important thing to remember is that your social media has to be what alumni want to see for it to be effective, so tracking the data behind social media posts is vital for success. 

For more tips on social media strategy for alumni, check out SproutSocial, MobileCause, and Hanover Research.