“Nobody is bothered about an institution more than its alumni” – N.R. Narayan Murthy. This quote by the founder of Infosys shows how alumni can be a school’s greatest asset. However, to continue being an asset, a school must conduct alumni engagement activities to bring value to them.
93% of alumni organisations choose not to offer any benefits to their alumni. This and other statistics were a result of a survey conducted in 2019. If organisations do not conduct alumni engagement activities, they will never be able to benefit from their alumni. There are several ways by which alumni can contribute to an institution. You can check how alumni can benefit an organization here – https://www.instagram.com/p/CaZcLEUJnc4/?utm_medium=copy_link
Being a part of an institution is something that is sacred to alumni and contributes to their identity. This loyalty towards their alma mater is a school or a college’s biggest advocate. To maintain a positive influence on alumni, an institution must be proactive in alumni engagement activities. From driving interest towards your school to providing opportunities for them, the scope is endless!
A Touch Of Nostalgia, Or All Of It
Most institutions offer nostalgia as a service for alumni engagement. From reminiscing about school trips to sports activities, connecting with batchmates. However, nostalgia is not the motivation for the alumni to keep coming back or maintain interest.
Even though the communication module changes, the theme of nostalgia is usually recurring in the communication that schools send out. Even though this works well in the beginning, it does not show promising results for the future of alumni engagement.
To offer value to your alumni, the themes and modes of communication must keep varying to keep up with the times and interests. And, not just dwell in nostalgia.
Here are the top 5 alumni engagement activities for school
It’s All About Communication
When people say, “It’s all about communicating”, it applies to everything. Even with alumni engagement. It is important to maintain a constant communication system for alumni and keep them engaged. Having strategies in place via emails, newsletters, articles, and other forms of print media can ensure retention among your alumni.
Stories, quizzes, blog exchanges, updates on alumni activity all across the world can be a means of alumni engagement.
Imagine a platform where your alumni can engage with you, juniors, seniors, and more! Not only so, but they can also participate in school events, conduct webinars, offer career guidance, and post job opportunities!
Intriguing isn’t it? But not impossible.
Social Media
With the increasing usage of social media, schools can engage their alumni through social media as well. With most alumni being present on different social media platforms, various alumni engagement activities can be done on either platform.
Polls, reels, giveaways, and live sessions can be some of the activities that can be done for alumni engagement. Schools can then analyse the performance of the activities to optimise campaigns.
With new updates in various social media platforms, alumni engagement can also be in the way of live sessions, videos, contests, and much more.
Social media can also be a platform to share stories of the school, the alumni, faculty and students. Based on various themes, stories can be shared with the alumni to create engagement.
Alumni Assemble
Among the many other alumni engagement activities, one of the most effective activities is conducting alumni events. Events have a way of catering to different agendas under one platform. From connecting students to alumni, alumni to alumni, and even school to alumni, it caters to all.
Alumni events are common in colleges and universities. However, in schools, it has been considerably less. To leverage the maximum advantages from your alumni, organising an event online or offline can enable you to reconnect, converse, and engage.
Building An Alumni Engagement Database
For a school, the alumni are many. Keeping up with them individually is often a task and usually, time-consuming. Creating and maintaining a database of alumni with their data can be effective to maintain a consistent communication model.
With the help of a database, alumni can not only be updated on their school, but it opens up a lot of scopes. Communicating with their juniors, batchmates, and teachers to building a profile, showcasing achievements, and more.
An alumni database can help schools know more and plan alumni engagement strategies for them. From achievements, further education, to their work and skillset. This can open a wide range of opportunities for alumni to be a part of their school activities.
Alumni is among the greatest assets of a school if leveraged correctly. For schools, alumni can be advocates by offering students guidance, job opportunities, and assistance in various ways.
At Univariety, we have worked with some of the Top Schools in India to held them build a strong alumni network and engagement strategy. If you are curious to know more about alumni engagement,
Aditya
Aditya is a Marketing Manager at Univariety. He loves writing about anything and everything. With a passion for writing and his vision to help students with their education, he wishes to see a better future for them. Aditya loves sports, reading, and photography.
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Adityahttps://www.univariety.com/blog/author/aditya/
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Adityahttps://www.univariety.com/blog/author/aditya/
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Adityahttps://www.univariety.com/blog/author/aditya/
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Adityahttps://www.univariety.com/blog/author/aditya/
