Social Media Trends: #keepingupwithyouralumni KATIE YOUNG, Alumni Relations Associate, Greenhill School Dallas, Texas AMY SPENCE, Director of Alumnae Relations, The Hockaday School Dallas, Texas
If social media were a high school.
Social Media Explained Twitter: I am visiting my alma mater. #homecoming Facebook: I like my alma mater. Foursquare:I am on the campus of my alma mater. YouTube: Watch a video of me in high school. Flickr:Every photo ever taken at my alma mater. Instagram: Here is a vintage photo of my school! LinkedIn: Here are the skills I learned at my alma mater. Pinterest: Here is my favorite book from middle school.
Why use Social Media to engage Alumni/ae? Keep in touch easily Connect alumni to each other Create advocates and ambassadors for your school Encourage alumni generated content Solicit input and feedback Allow non-engaged alumni to lurk and observe Every one-on-one interaction on a social media platform is shared with a larger community. Give your alumni something they can t get anywhere else Target multiple audiences easily
Social Media in your Alumni/ae Office Have a plan. Start with small goals. Find and assign in-house expertise; don t out-source. Be authentic. Use real names and photos. Have a personality, but don t cross the line! Adhere to your school s communications ethics guidelines. Have guidelines for your staff contributors; manage your online reputation.
90-9-1 Rule for Audience Engagement 90% lurkers 9% intermittent contributors 1% heavy contributors 90% of your communication should be geared toward engaging that 10% of your audience who contributes
Tips for Managing Social Media Seek more alumni social media followers. Seek school-related pages and groups. Be remarkable give them something to remark on! Accept negative feedback. Don t censor. Promote your social media on your webpage, in your print material, on mailings Participate in other discussions, comment on walls, re-tweet. Listen!
Find your Social Media voice Target multiple audiences. Check out who follows you, likes your posts, checks - in Observe your page to see what draws attention. Check for grammar and spelling before posting. Use Google Alerts to help you find alumni mentions
New Resources and Ideas What are you listening for? How do you listen? Fundraising through Social Media New Tools for Social Media Multi-tasking and Metrics
What should you listen for? Your brand Who is talking about you? What are they saying? Your peers and competitors Are there best practices we can learn from? Your category What are people saying about your area of focus?
How Do You Listen? GoogleAlerts: Free email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your queries.
How Do You Measure Reach? Bit.ly: URL shortener that tracks link performance
How Do You Measure Engagement? HootSuite: Social media management dashboard
How Do You Measure Engagement? TweetDeck: Social media management dashboard
How Do You Save Time? ifttt.com -If This, then That
How Do You Save Time? Buffer - Bufferapp.com
Fundraising through Social Media Don t be afraid to talk about fundraising! (But don t abuse social media for ONLY fundraising) Send out periodic reminders and good news about your alumni giving. Incorporate social media tools into your fundraising calendar End-of-Year push Challenges Reunion Giving Special Annual Giving Days Use your volunteer leaders (Class Agents, Board Members) to motivate classmates to give by sharing your posts Make it easy to give through hyperlinks and giving buttons.
New Tools Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Instagram Foursquare Flickr Google+
Twitter Seek out your alumni accounts and follow them Re-tweet an alum about an accomplishment Re-tweet scores from your athletic events
LinkedIn Post links to alumni submitted job opportunities to your group Encourage alumnito add your school to their profile Check out www.linkedin.com/alumni
Pinterest Create boards based on campus events, life milestones Boards for favorite student books, pictures of campus Link pins back to your school website
Instagram Encourage Check-in on campus at a school event Create a contest for alumni photographs Use images in marketing/ event materials
Foursquare Encourage Check-in on campus at a school event Check-in at an off-campus alumni event (reunion) Scavenger hunt: Give away prizes for checking in
Flickr Encourage alumni to share photos Share account with school to multi-purpose Alumni Reunions can be shared and remembered
Google+ Easy to contact Gmail users Use Hangouts live video chats Similar to Facebook
Challenges How do we entice alumni to come back and connect on campus? How do you stay on top of the new social media tools? How do you keep up with social media activity in your office? How do you maintain a personality through social media when it is maintained by many employees?
Social Media Trends: #keepingupwithyouralumni KATIE YOUNG, Alumni Relations Associate, Greenhill School, Dallas, Texas youngka@greenhill.org AMY SPENCE, Director of Alumnae Relations, The Hockaday School, Dallas, Texas aspence@mail.hockaday.org