Why a quick guide to your alumni strategy? In this article, our main aim is to give you as many best practices and actions as possible to put in place quickly. Depending on your level of maturity, pick and choose what interests you! Just remember that to ensure the success of your network, it’s not enough to set up a communication platform and organise a few events. It’s crucial to prepare a strategic action plan that will enable you to measure and continually adjust the efforts you make. Such planning not only helps to establish clear objectives, but also to assess the real impact of the initiatives implemented.
Creating and managing an effective alumni network is essential for any higher education institution. This article explores the key steps to establishing a successful alumni strategy, drawing on best practice and concrete examples.
Here is a rapid view of how to build your alumni strategy:
- Define the objectives of your alumni strategy
- Engage students from the outset
- Communicate in a personalised way
- Promote your community on social networks
- Offering quality services
- Soliciting and managing donations and subscriptions
- Measure and adjust
- Tools and technologies
- Good communication practices
- Innovative networking activities
- Long-term planning
- Legal and ethical aspects
1. Define the objectives of your alumni strategy
Before launching your alumni network, clearly define your objectives. Why do you want to create this network? Here are some common objectives:
– Improve employability: an active network can provide career opportunities for graduates and current students
– Enhance reputation: a strong alumni network can improve the visibility and reputation of your institution
– Encourage donations and contributions: alumni who have benefited from their education are often willing to contribute financially
2. Engage students from the outset
To ensure the loyalty of your alumni, start by engaging them as soon as they start their studies. A student who is happy and well supported during their studies will become an ambassador once they graduate. Here are a few things you can do:
– Integrate students into the network: give them access to the alumni platform to interact with graduates.
– Organise regular events: meetings, conferences and workshops that involve alumni and students help build strong links
3. Communicate in a personalised way
Targeted communication is essential to keep members interested. Avoid useless information that risks losing their interest. Concentrate on :
– Career opportunities: inform them about relevant job offers and internships
– Institution news: share the successes of your alumni and developments at your school
– Invitations to events: invite them to conferences, symposia and other interesting events
4. Promote your community on social networks
Social networks are powerful tools for engaging and developing your alumni community. Use platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to stay in touch and share regular updates. This way you can find members who aren’t yet on your platform, and engage them on it.
5. Offering quality services
An effective alumni network must offer services that meet the needs of its members:
– Career Center: a space dedicated to career opportunities, professional retraining and content specific to the world of work
– Mentoring programme: facilitate mentoring relationships between experienced graduates and young alumni
– Networking events: organise evenings, afterworks and virtual forums to encourage interaction.
And to the needs of your institution. Either to save you time, or to add value to your actions:
– Statistical monitoring: quick and easy access to measure the commitment of your community
– Electronic internship agreements: save time managing your internship and work-study contracts
6. Soliciting and managing donations and subscriptions
Alumni donations can be a valuable resource for your institution. To encourage financial contributions, it is important to maintain regular contact and keep them informed of your institution’s development projects. Make it clear how their donations can make a difference.
7. Measure and adjust
Finally, regularly measure the effectiveness of your alumni strategy and adjust it according to feedback and developments. Use indicators such as event attendance rates, engagement on social networks and amounts of donations collected to measure your success.
8. Tools and technologies
Une plateforme de gestion des alumni, comme celle proposée par AlumnForce, offre des fonctionnalités avancées telles que la gestion des contacts, les outils de communication, la gestion des événements, et les analyses de données pour suivre les métriques d’engagement des alumni.
An alumni management platform, like the one offered by AlumnForce, offers advanced features such as contact management, communication tools, event management, and data analysis to track alumni engagement metrics.
9. Good communication practices
Frequency and relevance: tailor the frequency of communications to alumni needs and interests. Use targeted email campaigns and personalised content to maintain engagement.
10. Innovative networking activities
Creative events: Organise hackathons, personal development workshops and themed conferences to attract and engage alumni.
Partnerships with companies or associations: Collaborate with companies to offer exclusive opportunities to alumni, such as internships, job offers or collaborative projects.
11. Long-term planning
Define 2, 5 and 10-year objectives for the alumni network, including operational and engagement benchmarks. For example, measure the number of alumni registered, attendance at events, and engagement on social platforms. Adjust according to your results.
12. Legal and ethical aspects
Ensure that your alumni data management complies with data protection regulations, such as the GDPR in Europe. AlumnForce guarantees you a 100% GDPR solution, and trains you in best practices for managing your network and database.
