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Connecting With Alumni Using Online Communities
Elizabeth AllenAssistant Director for Communications
Caltech Alumni [email protected]
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
• Located in Pasadena, CA• 2,100 students
– 900 undergrad– 1200 grad
• Science & Engineering
• 21,000 living alumni• Independent 501c3• Dues-based membership• ~ 9,000 Association members
– Students, postdocs eligible to join
Online Communities:What are they?
• Group of users who connect on the internet (self identify)
• Part of “Web 2.0” (user generated)• Communities grow, change,
educate and police themselves
Online Communities:What are they? Examples:
• Facebook• MySpace• LinkedIn• InCircle• Virtual Worlds
– Second Life– There.com
Online Communities:What are they?
• Who is using them?• How are they using them?
How to choose?
• Hard to know• See where your alumni “live” online• Open as many doors as possible
Online Networking:Business vs. Social
Social• Facebook• MySpace• Friendster
Business• LinkedIn• Xing
Online Networking:Business vs. Social
Social• Personal profiles• Photo albums,
videos, music• Find activities and
events• Make new friends
Business• Resume-like profiles• No photo albums or
other media• Find leads, clients,
candidates• Make business
contacts
LinkedIn for Groups
• Ties a group of people with a common interest together – Alumni associations– Conference attendees– Professional organizations
CAA and LinkedIn
• Verify alumni status• Connects internal network with
external network• LinkedIn has more than 20 million
users, spanning 150 industries all over the world
Caltech’s LinkedIn Group
• Snapshot:– Launched in June 2005– Currently: 2,017 members – Online and print advertising– Members are in diverse locations
and industries
• More than 69 million active users• Began as a student-only site, has
a large college-age population• Open to anyone with an email
address• Fastest growing demographic:
25 years old and older
Personal ProfileNetworksGroups Pages
Applications
Connecting on Facebook
Facebook Groups
• Ties a group of people with a common interest together – Alumni associations– Social groups (book clubs, etc)– Classes– Rants, Opinions, Causes
Caltech’s Facebook Group
• Snapshot:– Launched in May 2007– Currently: 272 members – Viral advertising– Mixed population (not just young
alumni)
Facebook Pages
• User profile for a business or brand
• Users become “Fans”
Facebook Applications
• Create a custom application for user profiles
• Football games, events, rivalries, games….and zombies?
• Coded by a web developer
Flickr
• Social Photo Sharing• Individuals• Groups• Comments, tags
Caltech on Flickr
• “User” for the alumni association• Group for alumni to join• Groups for specific events/travel
Caltech’s Flickr Group
• Snapshot:– Launched in August 2006– Currently: 20 members– Difficult to measure success; Flickr
used for Association photo galleries as well
What’s the Point?
• Motivations– Alumni already using these sites– Provides a service that you can’t– Participation is optional– Good visibility – Can drive traffic through your site
What’s the Point?
• Benefits– Provides a valuable service– No location restrictions – Advertise events– Connect with new grads
What’s the Point?
• Pitfalls– Little to no customer service– No data flow to your database– Hard to gather stats and info on your
users within the site
Beware the Privacy Issues
• Harvesting data: ethical and legal questions
• Check the Privacy Policy: yours AND the service’s
• Link to their Privacy Policy
Next Steps
• Don’t be intimidated. You won’t break it!
• Try it for yourself• Investigate Web 2.0• Constituents will respect you for
being up to date
Next Steps
• Start to think strategically• Stay informed
Links• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com• Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com• Flickr: http://www.flickr.com• Caltech Alumni Association:
http://alumni.caltech.edu• Blog for AR Professionals:
http://www.alumnifutures.com
