in the shadow of the colossi: alumni online communities in the age of facebook and linkedin
DESCRIPTION
Your alumni online community can’t compete with Facebook for social conversations, and it can’t compete with LinkedIn for career connections – so don’t even try. It can, however, provide tools and information that alumni cannot find anywhere else. Find out how to combine the benefits of your proprietary network with the major social media outlets to create a one stop toolkit to help your alumni do what they want to do quickly and easily. Unlike admissions, where the demographic is largely homogeneous in terms of age and technological aptitude, alumni span many different generations and a wide spectrum of comfort levels with technology and preferences for media consumption. It is a real challenge to successfully leverage the right online tools for the right alumni sub-audience while keeping everything under one cohesive brand. I hope my experience at SUNY Geneseo as manager of the U-Knight launch project and ongoing role as online community manager can help others who are undertaking such projects. I’ll speak about the approach I took to U-Knight and what progress and stumbling blocks have been encountered along the way. Specifically this presentation will be useful for those working with: * Harris Connect, iModules, and other online alumni directory software * Alumni relations websites * Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages that are targeted towards alumni audiencesTRANSCRIPT
IN THE SHADOW OF THE COLOSSI
Alumni Online Communities in the Age of
Facebook and LinkedIn
#soc12#heweb11
That’s Me.That’s You.
Who am I?
Fran Zablocki,
Online Community Manager
SUNY Geneseo Alumni Relations
What have I done?!!
Planned, built, branded and launched SUNY Geneseo’s new online alumni community.
What am I talking about?State of the alumni online community industry
Strategy and execution behind U-Knight
Results and lessons learned
State of the Industry
Full Service Alumni Systems
“Walled Gardens”1
Closed to non-alumni
Trade size in for exclusivity
Use alumni trust as competitive advantage
1. From Andy Shaindlin @alumnifutures - http://www.alumnifutures.com/2011/03/groups-online.html
State of the industry
Full Service Alumni Systems
State of the industry
Niche tools that are targeted to alumni
EverTrue mobile alumni apps
State of the Industry
Crossover solutions not specific to alumni
State of the industry
Open Public Networks
Colossi that dominate public social media space
Overlap most if not all features of private networks
Private Network Challenge:
Be Relevant
•My moment of panic…
• The Harris Connect 5 year contract was already signed before I arrived.
• Did I just inherit a system that is already dead in the water?
• I needed to figure out a way to make it work.
• I had 10 months. %#$!
A solution…hopefully
The Project Plan
What is U-Knight?
The elevator speech
U-Knight is a collection of online sites and services that help Geneseo alumni find and connect with each other and the institution by sharing news, conversation, experiences and expertise.
What is U-Knight?
One sentence
A place online for alumni to do the things that they want to do to engage with each other and Geneseo.
Goals
Launch U-Knight in 10 months (by Oct. 2010)
Achieve 5,000 alumni registrations within one year (10% of all alumni)
Goals
Establish and grow the alumni online social media presence
Get 50% of the graduating class of 2011 registered for U-Knight
Components of a Successful Launch
Collaborative Project Team
Data Integration
Feature Selection
Marketing and Promotion
The Project Team
Cross Divisional Project Team
Advancement Data Services
Alumni
IT
Marketing
Project Manager (Me)
Data Integration
Data Integration
The online community is only as good as your online directory
The online directory is only as good as your data
Garbage data will undermine your efforts
Data Integration Issues
Integrity: missing/incorrect information
Privacy: what is hidden by default
Authentication: getting IDs to users
Timeliness: must synchronize nightly
Feature Selection
Feature Set Selection
What actions do alumni want to take? Share Find Promote Participate Discuss
Feature Set Selection
What actions does Geneseo want alumni to take? Share Find Promote Participate Discuss
Lead Support
Feature Selection
Find the right mix of features
Find the best provider for each feature
Don’t use a solution just because you’ve already paid for it – ie: Harris social media
Feature Selection
Feature ProviderOnline Directory Harris Connect
Alumni Search Harris Connect
Permanent alumni email Harris Connect
Event Registration Harris Connect
Class Notes Harris Connect
Broadcast News Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
Direct Dialogue Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
Feature Selection
Feature ProviderJob Postings LinkedIn, Harris Connect
Job Search LinkedIn, Harris Connect
Photo Sharing Facebook, Flickr
Photo Galleries Flickr
FAQ Alumni Website
Social Media Directory Alumni Website
Mobile Site / Apps TBD
Marketing and Promotion
Umbrella Strategy
Every site and feature tied to one brand
Allows flexibility to change feature mix without losing brand identity
Recognizable, Memorable Logos
Keep It Simple
Funnel everything to a single place
Let people take action quickly
go.geneseo.edu/uknight
Marketing and Promotion
Cross media effort through many channels
Website
Social Media
Blog
In Person
Online Presence
U-Knight Homepage
Login for Every Page
Alumni Blog
Social Media Directory
Print Advertising
Email Promotion
In Person Engagement
Registration Kiosks
Registration Kiosks
Social Media Business Cards
Social Media Business Cards
Staff Manuals
Results
Results After 1 Year Almost 4,500 (90% to goal and 9% of all
alumni) registered users
Over 55% (600) of class of ‘11 signed up before graduation
2,660 Facebook fans on new page
10,000 unique visits to U-Knight homepage
Results After 1 Year
15,000 alumni directory searches performed
250 Class Notes submitted online
2011 SUNYCUAD award of excellence for U-Knight as Best in Category: Alumni Programs
Lessons Learned
Creating an online alumni community involves a ton of offline work
Successful implementation requires an entire division, not just one person
Using traditional media to promote new media works, cross media is the goal
Lessons Learned
Private networks can be relevant in conjunction with public networks because your alumni trust you
Private network software contains a ton of bloatware, so be skeptical
Lessons Learned
If the vendor’s writing isn’t up to par, scrap it and write it yourself
Self-service ID tools save tons of customer service time
•My new moment of panic…
• Purchased Harris Career Advisory Network in July
• LinkedIn Classmates just released Oct. 20
• Is our new module irrelevant overnight?
• %#$!
• Stay Tuned!
Next Steps
Social Media Mashup Page
Fran Zablocki
Online Community Manager
SUNY Geneseo
www.franzablocki.com
@Zablocki