Having an alumni management platform is one of the best ways to engage with graduates from your institution. With such a forum, you can easily keep tabs on alumni and their progress, but also inform them about everything that is new, and important, and relevant to them.
Additionally, with an effective alumni management platform, individuals can grow their careers and professionals by leveraging existing networks. For a long time, schools and institutions weren’t aware of the importance of communications platforms, but today, technology is allowing us to make that thing easy for everyone. These are just some of the evident benefits of an active platform.
However, in some cases, you may not reap these benefits as the platform struggles with effective communication – which is the most important thing to maintain when you run some important department, class, or institution. Many of these benefits are tied to consistent communication.
For example, if you have an opportunity that could benefit someone on the platform, you can easily update on the platform. If there’s effective communication, even without going to the platform, the opportunity will end up reaching the right audience. Miscommunication is one of the biggest problems people are facing when working in bigger groups, or managing big teams. Sometimes they can name one person to be responsible for that, but there must be someone who will monitor the process, and see if it’s done properly. If you have a proper strategy, there won’t be miscommunication ever again, or if there is, it will be tiny, and won’t cause too many problems.
An overly busy online alumni management platform will also prove ineffective when it comes to communication. This is because relevant communication may end up being buried in information that may not be as useful. Many experts in this field struggle with that information, and they try to make some focus points, so the involved individuals can understand what is important, and stay informed about everything that is relevant to them.
As a result, the success of any alumni management platform such as Hivebrite lies in the adequate flow of communication. This applies to both parties – the institution and the alumni.
Is your alumni management platform streamlined? Unfortunately, the answer in most cases is a resounding no. This then begs the question: What can you do to ensure an effective communication flow between the institution and the alumni? Here are a few effective yet practical tips.
Tips to streamline alumni management platforms communication
1. Roll out the welcome wagon
How do you welcome a new alumnus to the platform? Most institutions have no engagement plan when it comes to new registries. However, the way you welcome new parties to online engagement platforms sets the standard of communication. Setting an automatically generated message to welcome everyone who is new is always better than silence.
You don’t have to overdo the welcome message. In fact, you can have an automated system set to welcome any alumni joining the platform. This can be a short series of emails or information explaining the platform and how communication will happen, or you can make an effort to create a wizard that will lead the new users through the whole process in the first few days until they get to know the platform better.
This initial engagement helps the new alumnus reconnect with the institution and feel right at home, but also to develop trust and loyalty.
2. Tailor your communication
The other major mistake that often happens is having generic and uninspiring communication on the platform. Engagement levels drop when the content being shared is out of touch or doesn’t resonate with the target audience.
For example, recent graduates who just joined the platform are most likely looking to build professional networks and possibly get lucrative opportunities. In such a case, they would be more engaging if they see opportunities on the platform.
When there aren’t any opportunities, you can also arrange for older and seasoned professionals to offer recent graduates’ guidance.
In short, to build effective communication on your alumni management platform, you should appeal to the parties’ desires.
Generic content is a big no because it needs to be engaging, so they can stay longer, and encourage someone to be a part of it. That’s also good for the institution because they are building up their relevance this way.
3. Nurture a safe space for all
Have you ever been in a position where you’re trying to say something but the other person won’t let you? This can often be the feeling in many alumni management platforms. In order to understand better how it works, you can compare it to a forum, where everyone can give their opinion, and it will be taken as relevant, discussed, and no question will stay unanswered. We all know how messy can be in Skype or Slack groups when everyone is chatting, and no one really pays attention to the important things that are shared or asked.
Some parties may feel entitled to the platform, which will likely lock others out. A great way to proceed is by creating a safe space where everything is respectable to the other person’s opinions. Additionally, everyone should feel free to contribute to the platform.
Ultimately, your alumni management platform’s success hinges on the communication and engagement levels of all parties. These tips will help you create a functional and interactive platform where everyone can benefit from.
Communications, in general, is important for every school, university, institution, or company. In this article, we are talking about internal communication, which means only the relevant sides are involved. There is another aspect of that, that is oriented to the audience, but in this case, it’s not applicable, and we won’t lose much time explaining that. But, no matter the background of the institution, it’s always better to embrace the new things that may only improve the communication and the way things are done and completed. We really hope this article will teach you the basic things, so you can be able to build up your own strategy in the future.
