Facebook vs Website Alumni Portal

[Susan Morgan]

After trying for months to get our alumni to visit our alumni portal on the website with little success, we created a Facebook account and befriended many of them. In a matter of minutes, we had former students joining the school's group.
So now, what do we do? I'm not sure I want to maintain the Facebook account to connect, but it is certainly an easier way to send out group notifications and to gather current email/address information. For now, I've placed a link on the Facebook account back to the portal. But that's not getting them there.
What are other schools doing?

[Lisa Sjogren]

I can give you an example of what my high school is doing. My 10-year reunion is coming up and the reunion planners are using Facebook to get in touch with many of the alumni. Additionally, I want to work with our school to do a Facebook group for our alumni as they are not visiting our alumni page on our website to share their information.

[Drew Forsberg]

Not sure it has to be an "either or". I think grads, certainly more recent grads will check Facebook more. However grads that are looking for specific school information should probably have a school branded place to be able to go. It will be a bit more work certainly, but I think the payoff will probably be worth it.

The Alumni portal will always be a harder sell, but I think the presence is still necessary.

[Robert Kennedy]

I agree with Drew. It's a generational thing, Susan. You will probably be smart to gather cell numbers and send the occasional text message as well. LOL

Old farts like me appreciate the more traditional snail mail pitches, and, of course, email.

Remember that each generation has to be catered to and met at its own level. The important thing is to stay connected. Keep your web portal as just another tool in your fund raising kit bag.

[Deborah]

I agree with Drew that it should not be an "either or" situation. I am coming up on my 10 year college reunion and am surprised that neither my college nor my high school have used Facebook to reach out to alums. I am on Facebook often during the day and only check my home mailbox 3 times a week. I think that schools need to explore and use all venues of reaching alums.

[Susan Morgan]

Thanks for the responses. At this point, we are keeping both options open. Yesterday, our alumni director posted a request on Facebook for alums to send information and current address info. Within minutes, she had the replies! However, she is going to transfer the information to the portal AND use it in the next edition of the magazine. We were trying to avoid double entry, but at least we are getting what we need.

[Robert Kennedy]

Speaking of snail mail, what should appear yesterday but an appeal from my eldest daughter's school - Kent School! So, in addition to keeping the alums in the loop, don't forget those parents and grandparents. Keeping them connected is very important.

[Karen Douse]

A word of caution - learned the hard way.

If you read the terms of service, it says you may not "register for a User account on behalf of any group or entity." Our alumnae office did just that only to find one day that our page had been unceremoniously shut down by Facebook. We never got it back.

Be sure that whoever is going to maintain it signs up to get an individual account and then creates a group from there. The individual page can't serve as the group page - does this make sense?

Just want you all to avoid what we suffered - we had several hundred alums friended and one day they were all just gone.

[Matt Montagne]

I second the idea of a group for your alumni. You could even create a few groups if that works (eg North High School 1970's Alumni, North High School 1980's, etc). One big group might work as well, depending upon your needs and that sort of thing. Search for groups, too. There might even be a few out there that some of your alumni created already.

We're using a group on facebook as one tool to reconnect with old high school pals for our upcoming reunion. I have to say that I've really enjoyed FB as a way to catch up with old friends.

[Susan Morgan]

Thanks, Karen. I realized this first, and I set up an individual page. That meant I had to first befriend them and THEN ask them to join the group. It's working, though!