a case study of building virtual relationships
Anne Sta sLe
tte te vitt
Dire to Alum Re tio
c r, ni la ns
Illino Sta Unive ity
is te rs

a o Illino Sta Unive ity
b ut is te rs
•
First public university in the state, non-land grant
•
20,000 current students/177,000 alumni
•11% of our students/8% of our alumni are from under-represented
groups
• of our employees are alumni of the institution
1/3
• -dues based Alumni Association
Non
•Alumni Relations office -- 7 professional staff, 3 support staff, and 1
graduate assistant

 Over 32,500 members of the Illinois State
Network on Facebook
 Over 500 Illinois State Groups
 23 different fan pages
 Evidence of prospective students
 Protect our brand
 Begin building relationships with
students/young alumni

 December 2005 – created personal profile on MySpace
 March 2006 – took the idea of using MySpace/Facebook for alumni to boss
 June 2006 – researched what other association’s were doing
 July 2006 – received approval from our legal counsel/licensing folks
 July 2006 – acquired generic reggie@ilstu.edu email address to use for
accounts
 August 2006 – received approval to begin working on profile designs
 September 2006 – finished profile designs, received approval to go public
 September 2006 – began populating “friends”
 October 2006 – went live with promotion in e-newsletters, Homecoming,
and friend-mining
 October 2007 – created YouTube profile for home-grown spirited video, and
one for official promotional videos
 March 2008 – created LinkedIn profile to assist in building career networks
for alumni
 November 2009 – Reggie Redbird Facebook profile pulled – begin official
Fan Pages

Our Go ls–
a

The Reggie Redbird
Facebook profile
•September 2006 – November 2009
•Daily birthday greetings
•Over 3,200 friends
•Tagged images

Facebook notes
Facebook profile

Facebook events – no cost, we currently have the
ability to personally invite 2,500+ students and
young alumni

Professional profile
•Base all other pages
•Create consistency & authenticity
•Set personal/professional
boundaries

REGGIE REDBIRD ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY
www.Alumni.ilstu.edu/reggie www.Alumni.ilstu.edu/facebook

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION CLASS OF 2013
www.Alumni.ilstu.edu/reggie www.Alumni.ilstu.edu/2013

Using Functions for Marketing
Status….it’s addictive!

•Facebook “fan-initiative”
through ads and other
marketing
• Created automatic pulls with
Facebook Connect technology
(and really smart web guy)
•Ability to track data & activity on
Fan Page
•Tool for connecting those who
cannot be in attendance
www.Alumni.ilstu.edu/facebookhomecoming

www.IllinoisStateHomecoming .com

http://www.illinoisstatehomecoming.com/become-fan/

Campus-wide Initiative
•Identifying partners hip opportunities
•Developing bes t practices /branding
guidelines
•Cons olidating duplicate pages
•Planning and preparing for future
technologies

HOW WE’VE MEASURED SUCCESS?
 Number of friends
 Opportunities to post for other campus groups
 Page views
 Comments/e-mails
 Page insights
 Requests for promotions

Measuring results -- Facebook

Measuring results -- Facebook

Measuring results -- Facebook

What should you expect?
-Be prepared to show people how to use the tools!
-Consider professional vs. personal profiles
-Users expect a sense of freedom, but also desire an element of
moderation to sites
-Maintenance can be quite time
consuming
-Users may not “trust” your profile,
you will have to prove your authenticity,
don’t over-do the connecting

www.slideshare.com
Additional questions?
Find me:
www.facebook.com/annette.isu.alumni
Annette Levitt-Alumni Relations
annette@alumni.ilstu.edu