Your alumni online community can’t compete with Facebook for social conversations, and it can’t compete with LinkedIn for career connections – so don’t even try. It can, however, provide tools and information that alumni cannot find anywhere else. Find out how to combine the benefits of your proprietary network with the major social media outlets to create a one stop toolkit to help your alumni do what they want to do quickly and easily. Unlike admissions, where the demographic is largely homogeneous in terms of age and technological aptitude, alumni span many different generations and a wide spectrum of comfort levels with technology and preferences for media consumption. It is a real challenge to successfully leverage the right online tools for the right alumni sub-audience while keeping everything under one cohesive brand. I hope my experience at SUNY Geneseo as manager of the U-Knight launch project and ongoing role as online community manager can help others who are undertaking such projects. I’ll speak about the approach I took to U-Knight and what progress and stumbling blocks have been encountered along the way. Specifically this presentation will be useful for those working with: * Harris Connect, iModules, and other online alumni directory software * Alumni relations websites * Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages that are targeted towards alumni audiences

1. Alumni Online Communities
in the Age of
Facebook and LinkedIn
#soc12
#heweb11

2. That‟s Me.
That‟s You.

3. Who am I?
Fran Zablocki,
Online Community Manager
SUNY Geneseo Alumni Relations

4. What have I done?!!
Planned, built, branded and launched SUNY
Geneseo‟s new online alumni community.

5. What am I talking about?
State of the alumni online community industry
Strategy and execution behind U-Knight
Results and lessons learned

6. State of the Industry

7. State of the industry
Full Service Alumni Systems
“Walled Gardens”1
Closed to non-alumni
Trade size in for exclusivity
Use alumni trust as competitive advantage
1. From Andy Shaindlin @alumnifutures -
http://www.alumnifutures.com/2011/03/groups-online.html

8. Full Service Alumni Systems

9. State of the industry
Niche tools that are targeted to alumni
EverTrue mobile alumni apps

10. State of the Industry
Crossover solutions not specific to alumni

11. State of the industry
Open Public Networks
Colossi that dominate public social media space
Overlap most if not all features of private networks

12. Private Network
Challenge:
Be Relevant

13. •
My moment of panic…
• The Harris Connect 5 year
contract was already signed
before I arrived.
• Did I just inherit a system that
is already dead in the water?
• I needed to figure out a way
to make it work.
• I had 10 months. %#$!

14. A solution…hopefully

16. The Project Plan

17. What is U-Knight?
The elevator speech
U-Knight is a collection of online sites and
services that help Geneseo alumni find and
connect with each other and the institution by
sharing news, conversation, experiences and
expertise.

18. What is U-Knight?
One sentence
A place online for alumni to do the things that
they want to do to engage with each other and
Geneseo.

19. Goals
Launch U-Knight in 10 months (by Oct. 2010)
Achieve 5,000 alumni registrations within one
year (10% of all alumni)

20. Goals
Establish and grow the alumni online social
media presence
Get 50% of the graduating class of 2011
registered for U-Knight

21. Components of a
Successful Launch
Collaborative Project Team
Data Integration
Feature Selection
Marketing and Promotion

22. The Project Team

23. Cross Divisional Project Team
Advancement Data Services
Alumni
IT
Marketing
Project Manager (Me)

24. Data Integration

25. Data Integration
The online community is only as good as
your online directory
The online directory is only as good as
your data
Garbage data will undermine your efforts

26. Data Integration Issues
Integrity: missing/incorrect information
Privacy: what is hidden by default
Authentication: getting IDs to users
Timeliness: must synchronize nightly

27. Feature Selection

28. Feature Set Selection
 What actions do alumni want to take?
 Share
 Find
 Promote
 Participate
 Discuss

29. Feature Set Selection
 What actions does Geneseo want
alumni to take?
 Share  Lead
 Find  Support
 Promote
 Participate
 Discuss

30. Feature Selection
Find the right mix of features
Find the best provider for each feature
Don‟t use a solution just because you‟ve
already paid for it – ie: Harris social media

31. Feature Selection
Feature Provider
Online Directory Harris Connect
Alumni Search Harris Connect
Permanent alumni email Harris Connect
Event Registration Harris Connect
Class Notes Harris Connect
Broadcast News Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
Direct Dialogue Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

32. Feature Selection
Feature Provider
Job Postings LinkedIn, Harris Connect
Job Search LinkedIn, Harris Connect
Photo Sharing Facebook, Flickr
Photo Galleries Flickr
FAQ Alumni Website
Social Media Directory Alumni Website
Mobile Site / Apps TBD

33. Marketing and Promotion

34. Umbrella Strategy
Every site and feature tied to one brand
Allows flexibility to change feature mix without
losing brand identity

35. Recognizable, Memorable
Logos

36. Keep It Simple
Funnel everything to a single place
Let people take action quickly
go.geneseo.edu/uknight

37. Marketing and Promotion
Cross media effort through many channels
Website Print
Social Media Email
Blog In Person

38. Online Presence

39. U-Knight Homepage

40. Login for Every Page

41. Quick Links on Alumni
Homepage

42. Alumni Blog

43. Twitter

44. Facebook

45. LinkedIn

46. Social Media Directory

47. U-Knight and Social Media
Tutorial Videos

48. Print Advertising

54. Email Promotion

55. In Person Engagement

56. Registration Kiosks

57. Registration Kiosks

58. Social Media Business
Cards

59. Social Media Business
Cards

60. Staff Manuals

61. Results

62. Results After 1 Year
 Almost 4,500 (90% to goal and 9% of all
alumni) registered users
 Over 55% (600) of class of „11 signed up
before graduation
 2,660 Facebook fans on new page
 10,000 unique visits to U-Knight homepage

63. Results After 1 Year
 15,000 alumni directory searches
performed
 250 Class Notes submitted online
 2011 SUNYCUAD award of excellence
for U-Knight as Best in Category: Alumni
Programs

64. Lessons Learned
Creating an online alumni community
involves a ton of offline work
Successful implementation requires an
entire division, not just one person
Using traditional media to promote new
media works, cross media is the goal

65. Lessons Learned
Private networks can be relevant in
conjunction with public networks because
your alumni trust you
Private network software contains a ton of
bloatware, so be skeptical

66. Lessons Learned
If the vendor‟s writing isn‟t up to par, scrap
it and write it yourself
Self-service ID tools save tons of customer
service time

67. My new moment of
panic…
• Purchased Harris Career
Advisory Network in July
• LinkedIn Classmates just
released Oct. 20
• Is our new module irrelevant
overnight?
• %#$!
• Stay Tuned!

69. Next Steps

70. Social Media Mashup Page

71. Event Curation Using Storify

72. Mobile
Mobile

73. Fran Zablocki
Online Community Manager
SUNY Geneseo
www.franzablocki.com
zablocki@geneseo.edu
@Zablocki