Connecting with Alumni Online

Connecting With Alumni Using Online Communities

Elizabeth AllenAssistant Director for Communications

Caltech Alumni Associationelizabeth@alumni.caltech.edu

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

• Located in Pasadena, CA• 2,100 students

– 900 undergrad– 1200 grad

• Science & Engineering

• 21,000 living alumni• Independent 501c3• Dues-based membership• ~ 9,000 Association members

– Students, postdocs eligible to join

Online Communities:What are they?

• Group of users who connect on the internet (self identify)

• Part of “Web 2.0” (user generated)• Communities grow, change,

educate and police themselves

Online Communities:What are they? Examples:

• Facebook• MySpace• LinkedIn• InCircle• Virtual Worlds

– Second Life– There.com

Online Communities:What are they?

• Who is using them?• How are they using them?

How to choose?

• Hard to know• See where your alumni “live” online• Open as many doors as possible

Online Networking:Business vs. Social

Social• Facebook• MySpace• Friendster

Business• LinkedIn• Xing

Online Networking:Business vs. Social

Social• Personal profiles• Photo albums,

videos, music• Find activities and

events• Make new friends

Business• Resume-like profiles• No photo albums or

other media• Find leads, clients,

candidates• Make business

contacts

LinkedIn for Groups

• Ties a group of people with a common interest together – Alumni associations– Conference attendees– Professional organizations

CAA and LinkedIn

• Verify alumni status• Connects internal network with

external network• LinkedIn has more than 20 million

users, spanning 150 industries all over the world

Caltech’s LinkedIn Group

• Snapshot:– Launched in June 2005– Currently: 2,017 members – Online and print advertising– Members are in diverse locations

and industries

Facebook

• More than 69 million active users• Began as a student-only site, has

a large college-age population• Open to anyone with an email

address• Fastest growing demographic:

25 years old and older

Personal ProfileNetworksGroups Pages

Applications

Connecting on Facebook

Facebook Groups

• Ties a group of people with a common interest together – Alumni associations– Social groups (book clubs, etc)– Classes– Rants, Opinions, Causes

Caltech’s Facebook Group

• Snapshot:– Launched in May 2007– Currently: 272 members – Viral advertising– Mixed population (not just young

alumni)

Facebook Pages

• User profile for a business or brand

• Users become “Fans”

Facebook Applications

• Create a custom application for user profiles

• Football games, events, rivalries, games….and zombies?

• Coded by a web developer

Flickr

• Social Photo Sharing• Individuals• Groups• Comments, tags

Caltech on Flickr

• “User” for the alumni association• Group for alumni to join• Groups for specific events/travel

Caltech’s Flickr Group

• Snapshot:– Launched in August 2006– Currently: 20 members– Difficult to measure success; Flickr

used for Association photo galleries as well

What’s the Point?

• Motivations– Alumni already using these sites– Provides a service that you can’t– Participation is optional– Good visibility – Can drive traffic through your site

What’s the Point?

• Benefits– Provides a valuable service– No location restrictions – Advertise events– Connect with new grads

What’s the Point?

• Pitfalls– Little to no customer service– No data flow to your database– Hard to gather stats and info on your

users within the site

Beware the Privacy Issues

• Harvesting data: ethical and legal questions

• Check the Privacy Policy: yours AND the service’s

• Link to their Privacy Policy

Next Steps

• Don’t be intimidated. You won’t break it!

• Try it for yourself• Investigate Web 2.0• Constituents will respect you for

being up to date

Next Steps

• Start to think strategically• Stay informed

Links• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com• Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com• Flickr: http://www.flickr.com• Caltech Alumni Association:

http://alumni.caltech.edu• Blog for AR Professionals:

http://www.alumnifutures.com

Thank You!

Contact me:elizabeth@alumni.caltech.edu