"We all take different paths in life, but no matter where we go, we take a little of each other everywhere."
One studies in various educational institutes during the course of their life and each one of these plays a pivotal role in shaping up the individual.
Due to this, it is quite natural for the person to remain in touch with their Alma mater and give back to the institute whenever possible. The institute also wishes to remain in touch and keep the alumni thoroughly updated about all sorts of events and information.
To keep the alumni community updated and connected, the institute uses various platforms.
In this article, we shall take you through the most used means of communication between the institute and alumni.
Once we know the most used means of communication, we can understand what percentage of alumni is reachable through that means and the response rate for the same. The knowledge of this aspect helps in setting goals for alumni engagement which is the very basis of a strong alumni network.
What channels are used most by colleges to communicate and engage with alumni?
Communication is the most important pillar of a strong alumni association and network. It keeps the alumni community bonded and keeps the alumni connected to the institute. The first step to building good communication is having proper platforms in place to communicate with alumni.
Alumni should be comfortable with the channel that the college uses for communication. A Voluntary Alumni Engagement in Support of Education (VAESE) study has come up with a detailed research on various factors around alumni associations.
One of the most important part of this study is the research on the most widely used channels of communication by the college.
After analyzing the data from the study, we can easily conclude that following are the top modes of communication used by the college to connect with alumni:
Email
Website
Facebook
LinkedIn
Postcard/Mail
Email is the most commonly used mode of communication by the college. Be it private or public institutes or institutes with much less alumni size or with a huge alumni size, all sorts of institutes prefer sending out emails to their alumni to keep them updated.
After emails, the college uses either their own website or use alumni management websites in order to keep in touch with their alumni. It generally requires the alumni to sign up on the website and on the portal they get to engage with other alumni and get all the updates from the college too.
Facebook groups are very common for almost every purpose these days. A lot of colleges have official Facebook groups or pages for keeping their alumni engaged. This provides the college a casual platform to interact with the alumni and keep them posted about all the updates in a very hassle free manner.
Broadcast advertising, Snapchat and other social media apps are used least by the colleges to communicate with their alumni.
Once the college has decided upon the channels to use, they can start searching about the coordinates of their alumni on those channels and how to reach out to them on those platforms.
Is every alumni member accessible and reachable by the institute?
If one sees on a superficial level, then it might seem that once a person graduates, they have their email ids which the colleges possesses and it is very easy for the college to keep in touch with alumni.
But, so is not the case always!
The VAESE study reveals that over 70% colleges feel that more than 70% of their alumni are reachable through proper email ids. Over 20% colleges feel that they can reach out to over 90% of their alumni through emails.
These figures do seem very over whelming and very good in case they are true. These are simply the numbers which the college feels are attainable and reachable.
Now the question is, are these figures practical or even observed? Let's deep dive into the currently realized targets and then work towards setting the best attainable targets.
What percentage of the alumni is actually in proper reach of the college?
Most colleges expect to easily possess email ids of over 70% of their alumni but the actual figures are quite surprising.
The VAESE study reveals that around 60% of the colleges have a valid email address for only 40-69% of their alumni. Only 0.7% of the colleges have a valid email id for over 90% of their alumni which is a very small number.
This, clearly highlights that actual figures are very far from what is expected by the institutes. Realistic targets are very important because unrealistic aims might put undue pressure on the already small staff that the alumni association has. Reaching out to alumni without a valid email address for a majority of them is a very challenging task.
Thus, it is of utmost importance to build a proper database right from the start to have a valid email address for a majority of the alumni. Even after maintaining a proper database, having realistic targets is important to plan things out accordingly.
Setting realistic alumni database goals
To sum it up, engaging with alumni and keeping them updated is very important. Identifying the best means of communication is the next step. Emails, college websites or alumni management websites and Facebook are the most preferred channels to communicate with alumni.
Since emails are the best and most commonly used, the college needs to have email ids of maximum alumni members to build a strong network. But, having every graduate's valid email ids isn't really possible.
Thus, going by statistics, an alumni association should aim to have proper database of around 70% of their alumni.
This target is realistic and good too. It accounts for a majority of the alumni strength and having this 70% alumni engaged too can make a very strong alumni network. Alumni associations should keep this percentage of alumni in touch with the college always and maintain their records well.
Alumni associations should plan their working with this aim in mind and build an amazing and active alumni network!
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