Learning Center Webinar Series Strategies for Alumni Associations Using

Learning Center Webinar Series

Strategies for Alumni Associations Using

Presenting: Molly Wasko, PhDEmail: [email protected]

www.linkedin.com/in/mwasko

Enhanced opportunities through better connections

About the presenter


How do we stay connected with our students once they graduate?


Learning objectives

The purpose of this session is to provide you with an overview of how to leverage LinkedIn® as an integral part of your alumni strategy. Topics include:

• How to effectively use LinkedIn® to find lost alumni• How to effectively use LinkedIn® to engage with alumni

and build stronger alumni communities• Understand the strengths and weaknesses of LinkedIn®

as a research platform


Agenda

• What is LinkedIn®• Why LinkedIn® is relevant to you• What kind of alumni are on LinkedIn®• Best tools for using LinkedIn®• College Alumni Application• Advanced Search• Premium Accounts• Groups• Personal Connections

• Limitations of LinkedIn® and how HEP can help


What is

Source: http://marketing.linkedin.com/audience


What is

Source: http://marketing.linkedin.com/audience


Why you need employer data on alumni

Reporting Pressures: Need tracking• Higher education accreditation• Greater accuracy and transparency

Regulatory Pressures: Need Data• Higher Education Scorecard • What’s a degree worth?

Financial Pressures: Need Alumni• More reliant on alumni giving• Public criticisms over tuition hikes


Why does this matter to you?

There are 54 million people with college degrees in the US, but universities have no idea how to contact about 65% of them. And given that the average giving amount is $100 per alum, that’s $3.5 billion dollars in lost potential!

About 10% of employers offer matching gifts, so add another $350 million dollars in lost potential.

But most alumni are not even aware of this benefit, and those who are aware are significantly more likely to give.


Current Methods

Exit Surveys: 30-40%

Mail & Home Phone: 10%

Email Campaigns: 35%

Events, collect cards etc. 50%



Raise your hand if you have an updated alumni page with your alma mater……

Why should matter to you?


Raise your hand if you have an updated LinkedIn profile……

Why should matter to you?


Alumni on

1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 20100%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

On LINot Found

<1% 7% 15% 26% 28% 37% 33% 50%

Source: internal data analytics


Alumni on

ASN BSNMAED

PhD/PostDoc BA MA JD BBA

MHADM BSMBA MS

MACC0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

6%13% 15%

22%25%

30% 32%39%

48% 48%55%

60% 60%

Source: internal data analytics


So, how can you get started…

1. LinkedIn® College Alumni2. Advanced Search3. Premium Accounts4. Groups5. Personal Connections


1. LinkedIn® College Alumni


1. www.linkedin.com/college/alumni

You can change the school name using the drop down



Drill down on a specific date range



These are actually hyperlinks, so you can target alumni searches



Allows you to see the LinkedIn profiles of your alumni…

… one by one



Let’s go live now and see it in action

www.linkedin.com/college/alumni

http://www.linkedin.com/college/alumni


2. Advanced Search


2. Advanced search


2. Advanced search


2. Advanced search

You can enter the name of the alumni you’re seeking


2. Advanced search

Make sure you add your university name too….


2. Advanced search

You may have to try a few different versions of school name: St. John’s; Saint John’s; SJU


2. Advanced search

Location also fun. Make sure it’s “anywhere” if you are searching globally. You can add a zip code if you want to target.


2. Advanced search

You can also drill down by industry


2. Advanced search

Let’s go live now and see it in action

www.linkedin.com/in/mwasko/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mwasko/


2. Advanced search

Great tool to see more profile information than may be

available through the public profile link….


3. Premium Accounts


3. Premium accounts


3. Premium accounts


3. Premium accounts

Comparing account typeswww.help.linkedin.com

http://help.linkedin.com/ci/fattach/get/2305331/0/filename/Compare_Account_Types.pdf


3. Premium accounts

Who’s viewed your profile


3. Premium accounts


3. Premium accounts

Premium search fields


3. Premium accounts

Freebies


3. Premium accounts

Premium search a great place to start, but still need to do more research…


4. LinkedIn® Groups


4. LinkedIn® groups

Can be a great way to maintain alumni

communities



What groups are out there about your

school?



How many are out there…



You have no control over which ones

come first…



Find out who owns the group by

viewing the Group Profile



Reach out and see if they will work with

you if this is a critical group



Your group page is not the same as your “Company”

page



A Company Page/Profile is

where you can post news/events, but

targets employees



…and also allows “Followers”, so you

can encourage alumni to follow the

“company”



There currently is no “University” page



Let’s check out Groups and

Company Pages live…


5. Personal Connections


5. Personal connections






5. Personal connectionsAdd a personalized

message, include your alumni group name

and encourage them to join
















5. Personal connections - Pros

You can export your connection

information:NameEmail

Current PositionCurrent Employer


5. Personal connections - Pros

You can also see their connections!


Downsides to LinkedIn®


Downsides with college alumni




You can’t see full names of non-connections



You can’t download data - have to go through profiles

1 by 1



You have no idea how this person

links back to your alumni records



You can have more than 1 affiliation to

the university – these are

non-overlapping networks



Education is entered in

“free form” fields, so people can type

whatever they want


Downsides with advanced search



Must search and click on each

person one at a time




For generic searches, like zip code, the amount of info is limited



Limited terms that you can

search on with basic account


Downsides with College Alumni


Downsides with premium accounts


Expensive and hard to measure

return on investment


Downsides with groups




It may be hard to get a group

strategy organized for the

university



You need activity in order to

motivate people to engage



If you make the group “private”

you have to manage

membership


Downsides with personal connections




LinkedIn® is a person-to-person

network



Alumni might not be appropriate for your professional

network



If you switch jobs, you take your

LinkedIn® contacts with you



Must comply with LinkedIn’s User

Agreement




Agreement




Agreement




Agreement


How HEP Can Help


How HEP can help

HEP’s EmployerFind service now includes LinkedIn® profiles to find out where donors/alumni are now, where they work AND LinkedIn® URLs so you never lose touch


How HEP can help

1. Provide us with a list of alumni

2. We match to LinkedIn profiles

3. We combine data sources to provide alumni tracking and analytics


How HEP can helpCurrent LocationCurrent IndustryLinkedIn URLCurrent PositionCurrent Employer


How HEP can help

We also pull this information from

the Education Fields so you see match

data

Current LocationCurrent IndustryLinkedIn URLCurrent PositionCurrent Employer


How HEP can help

We return this data to you in an Excel file so you can easily upload into current systems


Providing an integrated solution

Determine match eligibility and append current match policy

guidelines to your donor database

24/7 access to proprietary and

international data about key constituents

Append up-to-date employer names and

job titles to your donor records using LinkedIn®

& 100+ data sources


How to contact HEP for more info

Learning Center Webinar Series

Strategies for Alumni Associations Using

Thank you!

Documents

Learning Center Webinar Series Strategies for Alumni Associations Using