How To Best Engage Alumni with New Technology
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The best way to engage alumni is to drive engagement throughout the student experience and steward engagement opportunities post-graduation. Ideally, engagement begins as soon as students set foot on campus and lasts a lifetime.
The most effective engagement strategies meet alumni expectations in terms of programming and in the technology delivering the experience. To stay relevant, the technology used to manage and boost involvement continuously needs to evolve alongside technology trends.
This article provides best practices for alumni engagement: It covers the importance of:
โฐEngaging early
๐ฑKeeping up with technology
How to Best Engage Alumni from Day One
An engagement strategy that spans the entire learning journey benefits everyone. It helps students, alumni, and higher education institutions:
๐Connect
๐ฅCollaborate
๐๐พSucceed
One-stop shop for Engagement
For higher education institutions, having a centralized platform to manage engagement is critical. Students use an engagement platform to manage their co-curricular life on campus and access student service information. Alumni use digital alumni communities to stay connected with campus, network, and support their alma mater.
While serving as the central resource, a digital alumni community tracks and measures engagement. A digital student community creates a single place for students to collaborate and engage with their campus. When both student and alumni engagement exists in a single platform, engagement strategies tend to be more informed, purposeful, and effective.
It also means that relationships built on campus can continue to live within the system post-graduation. These include connections with peers, student clubs, Greek life organizations, faculty members, athletic coaches, and alumni.
In terms of user experience (UX), a single system makes the transition from student to alumni seamless. Making this shift, without downloading a new app or learning a new password contributes to higher retention rates and assures continuity of engagement with the institution post-graduation.
The UX should be simple and intuitive for administrators and end-users. Based on our feedback from Campus Partner alumni and advancement teams, the following features are critical:
Club & Group Management
Email marketing
Mobile app
Directory
Mentoring and networking
Best-in-class integrations
Online Giving and Membership fees
Chat
Job Board
Building a Culture of Engagement
It is important to build a culture of engagement while students are still on campus. Advancement and alumni teams do this by being active in the campus community year-round.
Alumni teams can become a trusted campus partner by attending key student events. Starting with student orientation through to senior breakfast during finals week - make sure your teams are present and accessible for students!
They can also be a go-to resource for career related support. Industry-specific panel discussions with alumni or faculty experts in the field, topical sessions are an excellent way to connect students with leaders in the industry and help them expand their network.
Student-alumni mentoring programs can also be powerful engagement programs, contributing to student retention and success. They also demonstrate how active alumni can engage with their alma mater by donating their time and talent.
Campuses that foster a culture of engagement on campus have higher levels of engagement post-graduation. The quality of alumni engagement is also better because these institutions have already invested in relationship building and have robust data to leverage.
How to Best Engage Alumni with New Technology
The past few years have brought incredible digital transformation. Technology has enabled us to work remotely, order groceries online, and attend celebrations virtually. Further, mobile devices have enabled us to connect with peers, check-in to ticketed events, and receive updates in real time.
According to research, 95% of adults aged 18-49 and 61% of adults 65 years and older own a smartphone. Further, American adults on average reportedly check their mobile phone 344 times per day, which equates to approximately once every 4 minutes!
These digital technology trends, precipitated by the pandemic, are set to continue. Alumni engagement is no exception: alumni teams should continue to evaluate their alumni engagement strategy against new technology norms.
Mobile-First Alumni Experience
This digital-first movement translates into new expectations for modern alumni engagement. While having a mobile friendly website is great, it may no longer be enough. In this age of on-demand information, having a mobile presence is key to creating a positive alumni experience.
At CG we understand this. In addition to providing our Campus Partners with online alumni engagement tools, we offer a unique mobile-first experience. This commitment was further underscored when we joined forces with the leading mobile-first student engagement platform in higher education- Ready Education (Ready).
Customized and Personalized Alumni Experience
In the modern technology landscape, customization and personalization are core to engagement. Today, in a world where consumers expect Amazon-level personalization, simply connecting with alumni is not enough. You need to connect with a purpose.
In addition to the key features mentioned above, the more successful alumni engagement platforms and mobile apps include:
Alumni centric UX
Alumni home page
Custom onboarding for alumni
Customizable directory
Virtual and Hybrid event formats
Mobile check-in to events using QR codes
Gamification (i.e. custom engagement scoring or badges)
Content based on user preferences (i.e. events based on location and interests)
Targeted communication and tags
Group structure that allows for public and private content
Developing a Data Driven Alumni Strategy
Alumni strategies backed by strong data are most effective. This is because they can quickly be adapted based on current engagement trends and preferences.
Having insight into student involvement profiles (club memberships and interests) and engagement preferences (mobile and/or email) is critical to keeping them engaged post-graduation. It also enables the identification of influencers that can become stewards of alumni engagement or help run campaigns.
This is especially true for new and Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) alumni. The profiles of GOLD alumni are changing and more diverse than ever before. They stand out because, transformed by the Covid-19 pandemic, their student experience was mostly virtual.
Unlike other alumni, these students did not have the traditional college experience. The way that they engaged with their campus was vastly different than previous generations. Therefore, how they engage as alumni will also be different and increasingly dependent on digital technology.
If you donโt have a means of measuring engagement, know that it can start small. Identifying 5-10 meaningful engagement metrics for your institution is a great place to start. Things like email open rates, event participation, volunteerism or mentorship can be great indicators.
Once key indicators have been defined and measured, they can be used as a benchmark for future campaigns. Over time they will uncover trends and specific activities with the most success. This can inform the overall engagement strategy and define where to focus resources.
Are you looking to create a more positive experience for your alumni? If so, we would love to help you develop your alumni engagement strategy.
CG is the only platform that provides student engagement data to inform alumni engagement strategies. Further, we understand that the current digital-first movement translates into new expectations for modern alumni engagement.
Lastly, we are continuously optimizing our platform and mobile app to keep up with new technology trends and meet the needs of our CampusPartners. We are a true partner in higher education alumni engagement and can help you meet the evolving needs of your alumni engagement strategy.
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