Well aware of the environment in which schools and Alumni associations thrive, we have developed a social professional network, which gathers the traffic on one unique platform but also relies on public social networks. AlumnForce is both a communication medium and a powerful tool for multi-communities management. Throughout this article, we are going to sort out how public social networks can drive traffic to your Alumni platform.
As a brand or a media would do, it is interesting to plan the digital strategy as a an actor of the private sector by defining reachable goals. Moreover at a time where digital tools are everywhere, the aim is to fill the numeric landscape efficiently in order to create content and federate your Alumni.
But some questions remain: in the multitude of social networks, how can you define a proper social media strategy? Which channels to choose in order to broadcast your platform’s contents? How can you enhance your presence in the digital field ?
In order to give you tools to develop a good social media strategy, we are going to answer these questions (and many more) in this article.
1/ Social Media Networks
Social networks have all been built following the same rule: they develop a series of “mind traps” to deviate your attention from what you were initially looking for in order to capture users’ interest during a maximum time. For instance, Facebook is the website that holds the maximum connection time by users amongst all the internet pages. Having this in mind, it is compulsory for every Alumni network manager to think out the activation of their community throughout these medias.
They might differ in their design but the real differences remains in their respective audiences and the contents they publish. Having this in mind, it is highly important to identify the targets of each channel you use to maximise your posts’ reach.
3 of the main social networks seem more relevant for Alumni content:
– Facebook. THE global network. 1,5 billion users, 85% of the social content is shared there. Nowadays, it is unthinkable to deny your presence on Mark Zuckerberg’s platform. All of these points make Facebook an essential tool for the animation of your Alumni community but also for your contents’ broadcasting.
– Twitter, the “instant network” which gave full digital sense to the # symbol. Here, the goal is to mark the contents you want to share inside the great digital trends. 40% of Twitter users are more than 35, it is a great opportunity to target all the generation of your Alumni network.
– LinkedIn, the professional network. The tone is more serious and formal. According to its DNA, LinkedIn is more valuable for the development of your organisation’s employer brand.
2/ An efficient editorial line
Defining a social media strategy must be done throughout a center element: your editorial line. As for your favorite magazine, the contents you share must create a meeting point with your final target.
If you find it hard to imagine headings for your posts, you can start with an editorial line that comes directly from your website’s categories. This technique’s aim is to drive traffic directly to your Alumni platform.
You can still think of secondary headings, in order to create engagement and retention. For instance, a “Faces” category about your Alumni portraits or a newsjacking category to gain reach by placing your news on a very trendy topic (mannequin challenge, bottleflip challenge, etc…).
The Paris School Of Business mannequin challenge
3 / Your Alumni network’s brand
As we have seen it previously, it is interesting to think your digital presence as a brand. Every user has to deal with thousand of informations every day. So the question is, how can you make your contents more relevant for them ? One solution is to strengthen your words by adding recognizable visual elements to your publications. Associate logos with your categories, create a graphic presentation for your videos, try to establish some recurrent hashtags that point out to your Alumni network’s brand.
4 / Tips
At last, some best practices for you to keep in mind while you’ll be preparing your further publications on the social networks:
– Do not duplicate an event. Give a preferential treatment to the content that is posted on your platform rather than Facebook. If you publish an event on both platforms, they will cannibalize each others’ reach and the number of subscribers won’t get to your expectations.
– Put some diversity in your publications’ formats. The social networks’ algorithms are made in order to highlight the contents of a publisher that changes his posts’ types (videos, links, photos, animated gifs)
– Measure your results. Set consistent objectives for your reach, engagement and fan base size.
– Allocate your human resources efficiently. Do not try to assume a viral presence on every social network at the same time. The idea is to spread your content not scatter.
With all of these advices in your hands, you are now finally ready to set up great links between your Alumni platform and your social pages.
AlumnForce also provides Social Media tailor made solutions for your Alumni organisation. Get in touch with our experts and learn more about our products.
