The document reviews the social media activities of various university alumni associations. It finds that most are not utilizing social media effectively and are missing opportunities for engagement. It provides best practices for using different social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn to better connect with alumni through content, organization, personalization and interaction. Recommendations include developing social media strategies, dedicating resources to it, and involving students.

1. A REVIEW OF SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVIES BY UNIVERSITY ALUMNI ASSOCIATIONS Prepared by Renegade interns Laura Burns and Zach Prager August, 2011

5. POTENTIAL ROLE FOR EACH SM CHANNEL Alumni Association Twitter “ Broadcasting Channel” Locating & Tracking Conversations about the school Facebook “ Celebration Channel” Social, charitable and cultural aspect of the Alumni Network LinkedIn “ Professional Channel” Intellectual conversation & professional resources YouTube “ Showcase Channel” Highlighting the best of the school (Events, Speakers, Alumni) Flickr “ Reunions Channel” Albums of Alumni and events at Class Reunions Blogs “ Community Channel” Space to feature Alumni and their successes

6. DETAILED REVIEW

7. TWITTER

10. BIO I was founded in 1701, am quintessentially Ivy League, and have some powerful networking circles. In short, I'm kind of a big deal.http://www.yale.edu LINKS & CONTACT Website: http://www.yale.edu (doesn’t link directly to Alumni page) PERSONALIZATION There are no team names, pictures, or personalized wallpaper. FOLLOW POLICY Yale follows several other Yale related accounts in addition to other alumni associations. The vast majority of followers are the personal accounts of Yale Alumni. Yale: TWITTER CONTENT Tweets consist of latest events/ news at Yale, related news articles for alumni, and some questions. This account has some sense of humor, however, with a more personal voice in the tweets rather than strictly information.

11. UNC: TWITTER BIO Your General Alumni Association exists to keep you informed about and connected to The University of North Carolina, your classmates and Tar Heel friends.http://alumni.unc.edu CONTENT They retweet from several other sources- not all directly related to UNC. They post news articles and events related to UNC. Little direct engagement with alumni. LINKS Alumni Website PERSONALIZATION The UNC General Alumni Association uses a personalized background.

12. Notre Dame: TWITTER The Notre Dame Alumni Association does an amazing job of retweeting people who mention anything to do with Notre Dame. Even a tweet about the famous Notre Dame football player Rudy is retweeted. The Notre Dame Alumni Association uses a cool image of Notre Dame’s beautiful campus. PERSONALIZATION INTERACTION

13. Notre Dame: TWITTER (cont) Notre Dame Club of Chicago PERSONALIZATION An example of a great, eye catching Twitter background. PERSONALIZATION Another example of a great Twitter background. BIO An example of a solid Twitter bio. It’s short, animated and includes a link to their website.

14. Northwestern: TWITTER Northwestern Magazine: TWITTER INTERACTION The Northwestern Alumni Association does a great job of replying to others’ tweets. INTERACTION Here the Northwestern Magazine reaches out to its alumni on a personal level. Not only does the Twitter account wish happy birthday and happy anniversary to alumni, but it also says goodbye to alumni who are leaving the area.

15. Kellogg: TWITTER Kellogg Alumni NYC: TWITTER CONTENT Constant updates on events in NYC. The KACNY Twitter account is extremely reliable and frequently updated. BIO Another example of a good bio. It explains exactly what the purpose of the Twitter account really is. CONTENT Here the Twitter account shows some personality, giving its following some feelings of warmth and compassion.

16. Vanderbilt: TWITTER CONTENT Here the Vanderbilt Alumni Association tweeted a picture of a professional baseball player, who is also an alum, that was sent in by an alum. CONTENT This Twitter account often tweets its location by posting via foursquare. This way alums always know where to go if they want to meet up with other alums.

18. FACEBOOK

21. Notre Dame: FACEBOOK CONTENT Who doesn’t love summer? Here the Notre Dame Alumni Association is engaging alumni by asking them to share their summer plans. CONTENT Notre Dame alumni love their football team. Here alumni are pointed towards the official twitter of their football coach, Brian Kelly. It’s a good strategy to use one social media channel to promote another social media channel. Content Great way for Notre Dame alumni to show how much they love their school on a big website like www.espn.com. CONTENT Engaging alumni with a question regarding their experience as a student

22. Notre Dame: FACEBOOK (cont) CONTENT 2011 Challenge: a tab that encourages and challenges alumni to support the university. The Notre Dame Alumni Association uses football coach, Brian Kelly, as the “spokesman” for the 201 challenge. CONTENT A poll is a great way to keep alumni engaged. The Notre Dame Alumni Association added a tab on the page specifically for polls.

23. Notre Dame: FACEBOOK (cont) CONTENT The Notre Dame Alumni Association has posted a few videos concerning members of their staff, events that took place at Notre Dame, and alumni related events that already took place

24. Northwestern: FACEBOOK CONTENT This is a great way to engage alumni. Here the Northwestern Alumni Association shows a picture of a campus building and quizzes alumni about what building it is. CONTENT Another great example.

25. Northwestern: FACEBOOK (cont) CONTENT Quite a unique idea. The Northwestern Alumni Association offers Northwestern themed ringtones for their alumni. CONTENT The Northwestern Alumni Association has posted hundreds of pictures of alumni events that they have sponsored over the years.

26. Princeton: FACEBOOK CONTENT Every week the Alumni Association of Princeton posts a link to the Princeton Alumni Weekly’s “Tiger of the Week”. This way alumni are able to see the great accomplishments of their fellow alumni on a weekly basis. CONTENT Another great example of Princeton’s “Tiger of the Week”.

27. Vanderbilt: FACEBOOK CONTENT The Vanderbilt Alumni Association has set up a tab on their Facebook page that makes it very easy to learn about their Travel Program. The tab even has a video that talks about the program. CONTENT The Vanderbilt Alumni Association also created a tab where alumni can give money just by clicking one button

29. Info page should be shorter with welcoming information that looks simple with the basic information and stated purpose of the page. Provide links to sites with other information. UNC Stanford FACEBOOK: BEST PRACTICES (Information Page)

30. YOUTUBE

32. UNC: YOUTUBE CONTENT Instead of linking to a YouTube channel for the Alumni Association, UNC has a directory of every program that offers videos online with an easy way to search.

34. Kellogg: YOUTUBE Total Upload Views: 5, 992 CONTENT The Kellogg School of Management posts videos of news that showcases the impressive members of their faculty as well as student profiles. INFORMATION None. LINKS One link to the home website. COMMENTS None. ORGANIZATION They have Uploads and a Playlists tab, with only two subcategories. FAVORITES Not used.

36. LINKEDIN

39. FLICKR

41. CONTENT On the Princeton Reunions Flickr page, photos of alumni and the many events at Princeton reunions are posted. Princeton: FLICKR

42. INTERACTION In the “Discussion” section of the Princetonians Flickr page, alumni have taken it upon themselves to start discussions. This section of the page is a great source of engagement for alumni. Princeton: FLICKR (cont)

44. BLOG & COMMUNITIES

46. Princeton: BLOG CONTENT Here “The Weekly Blog” tests its alumni’s knowledge of the Princeton campus by displaying an image and asking alumni what part of Princeton’s campus this image refers to. CONTENT Quite often a blog post is about the “Tiger of the Week”. In these posts, the bloggers choose an alumni and highlight that alum’s successes. LINKS To Twitter and Facebook are provided. PERSONALIZATION Pictures of the actual bloggers are displayed on the side of the page.

47. BLOG: BEST PRACTICES TITLE Clearly define the purpose STATS Track your views and other information with ALEXA and other software. FUNTIONALITY Easy to use RSS feed Easy to navigate organization Use of tags and archive LINKS Clearly links out to all other active forms of Social Media Twitter Facebook LinkedIn YouTube ABOUT Clearly identify the author(s) Gives a bio of authors as well as describing the relationship of the author to the company. CONTENT Regularly posted articles Interactive content to engage the reader

48. SOCIAL MEDIA SCORE CARD

49. ALUMNI ASSOCIATION SOCIAL MEDIA SCORE CARD Name Twitter Account Twitter Followers Facebook “Likes” YouTube views Flickr Linked In Blog Mobile Harvard Alumni Association @HarvardAlumni @HarvardMagazing 6,899 9,882 X 5,651 X 2,647 14,896 (unofficial) X 2 Princeton Alumni Association (Princeton Alumni Weekly) @princetonalumni @PrincetonClubNY @PrincetonNYC @pawprinceton @ptonreunions 1,902 208 265 920 784 3,485 1,043 X 32,601 Y 3,731 X X Association of Yale Alumni (Yale Alumni Magazine) @YaleAlumni @Yalealumnimag 1,254 818 X 1,959 X X 1,579 X X Stanford Alumni Association (Stanford Magazine) @StanfordAlumni @stanfordmag @StanfordCareers 1,427 622 183 5,198 X X 17,514 X 1 UNC General Alumni Association @UNCGAA 3,220 40,862 X X 3,546 X X Northwestern Alumni Association @nualums @Northwesternmag 1,538 1,291 7784 51,379 X 21,961 X X Notre Dame Alumni Association @NDAlumni 2,301 6,744 X X 21,138 X Y Vanderbilt Alumni Association @VanderbiltAlum 394 3,307 300 Y 8,190 X X