The Best Habits for Successful Digital Alumni Engagement
Digital engagement strategy is – and should be – unique for every higher education advancement organization. There is no single roadmap to drive alumni engagement success. There is no lone blueprint to build a model foundation for alumni engagement. Digital engagement strategy requires a keen understanding of the institution, its alumni, and its goals. Plus, an intimate understanding of the array of digital engagement platforms, channels, content types, and formats that can be deployed from an advancement shop’s arsenal. And, of course, creativity and adaptability are essential.
Though each institution ultimately crafts a unique tapestry of alumni engagement, quite a few consistent behaviors are woven throughout organizations that are finding success through digital.
Here are the first 10 of 30 questions to consider as you reflect on your digital engagement habits and develop strategy for your institution’s digital alumni engagement efforts:
Is your content connecting with alumni? And do you have strong engagement metrics to back that up?
Are you consistently offering up creative content? And is there purpose and strategy behind it?
Is there brand and messaging consistency across digital channels?
Do your social media channels have a voice?
Is there variety in your posts – whether in terms of content, format, or tone?
Are you embracing emerging functionality on social media channels?
Are you following what others in higher ed are doing on digital? How about beyond higher ed?
Are you actively and regularly looking at analytics across digital and improvising and driving strategy from there?
Do you have good digital engagement tools and platforms (e.g. event registration, email marketing, online giving) in place that provide the functionality and access to metrics needed to run your operation? Are those tools intuitive so as to not be a burden on staff? And are they intuitive and useful for alumni and volunteers?
Are you staffed appropriately around all aspects of digital? Do you have a staff member or team dedicated to digital?
Curious about which other questions you should be considering? Check back soon for the next batch of questions.
Read More
The Best Habits for Successful Digital Alumni Engagement, Part 2
The Best Habits for Successful Digital Alumni Engagement, Part 3
on Horowitz is a digital strategy consultant for higher education advancement and alumni relations. Follow Jon on Twitter @hrwtz and check out horowitzstrategy.com for more on Jon and his work.