Let’s look at how to begin drafting an alumni engagement strategic plan that will guide you to increased interaction and input from your alumni. You know you want to improve your alumni engagement, and you have an idea for what success looks like—but how do you get there?
Ways to build alumni engagement
Build programs that directly benefit alumni
It’s no good aiming solely to garner donations from alumni. Many of your alumni will likely detect that you’re looking for their money, and all too easily.
Instead, look for ways to give them opportunities and impart both personal and professional support in their lives. Careers advice and mentoring opportunities are great ways to create a balanced give-and-take relationship with alumni that doesn’t simply aim to get their financial support.
Facilitate communication and connection
This applies not only to the relationships between alumni and university, but also between alumni. This can take the form of in-person gatherings like reunions or networking events, or it could be through alumni engagement software that gives graduates an ongoing means of maintaining their own relationships.
Ideally, both approaches can be combined to create a thriving network that keeps alumni informed of events, allows them to make connections before attending, then maintain those bonds and continue conversations afterwards.
Listen to your alumni
Tailor your communications to their wants and needs, and give them value in the forms they’re looking for. Showing alumni that you’re listening intently and directly acting on feedback to improve your actions is a fantastic way to build loyalty and instil a sense of pride in your graduates.
Answer their needs directly, but also try to read between the lines and interpret what they need. If the dominant conversations between alumni is that it’s tough out there in the job market, perhaps you build a careers fair to try and boost their prospects. If they feel they’re lacking the soft skills needed for job hunting, perhaps a free course in CV writing and attending interviews will go the extra mile.
Give them the tools
Students have many ways to communicate and engage with each other when they’re attending a university, but they lose these when their studies come to an end. Email addresses close down and meeting places are no longer open to them.
By giving alumni access to an alumni platform such as our alumni engagement software, built specifically for people like them and tailored to their needs, you show that they still matter to your institution long after they walk out the door for the last time.
Creating your alumni engagement strategic plan
By looking at what your alumni need and thinking of ways to answer those needs, you can draft an alumni engagement strategic plan that is built on imparting value to their lives, making their status as an alumni mean even more than it already does, and building a sense of trust and loyalty between alumni and university.
To find out more about Aluminati’s products for alumni engagement, contact us today.
