June Gudeman

Gail, Who else do you plan to include on your advisory board? June Gudeman

Mary, These are certainly all areas that build into a positive perception of your institution. June Gudeman

Mary, You may also want to think about asking them for their feedback or success stories. These are great tools to use for general marketing, to post on your alumni site, use to encourage your current staff, etc. Also, you may want to think through how you could provide a way for them to update their information on the website so you can stay connected with them. June Gudeman

Mary, I like your idea of learning about social media. It changes almost daily and it's important to stay on top of what's out there. I would also challenge you to talk with some of your grads and get their feedback on the services they are looking for that you could provide with your alumni website. June Gudeman

Lauren, This is also a great idea! Again, if you a venue to share their stories and how your institution contributed to their success -perfect! June Gudeman

Lauren, In a sense your graduates are living breathing commercials. We use our alumni website both to gather and share their success stories. There is incredible power in a 'story'. We gather those stories and then use them on Alumni Success Story Posters, in our marketing materials, in an Alumni Success Story Book that is displayed in our school lobbies, to share with potential employers, etc. There are many avenues for getting these stories out into your community. The website is a great avenue for this. June Gudeman

Jeane, Funding is probably the most common barrier. If a significant goal of your connection with graduates is to gather and share their alumni success stories, this will certainly provide incentive for your administration to provide funding. In a sense, having our grads tell their stories is the powerful form of marketing there is! June Gudeman

Jeane, Good ideas! If you include some graduates on your Advisory Board, they would certainly have some feedback on what would be a draw for them. You could even ask some current students what benefits might draw them in. Sometimes what we view as a benefit, does provide much attraction to our graduates. June Gudeman

Lauren, I'm in total agreement! Don't ask a thing of them - just let them feel appreciated! June Gudeman

Lauren, Sounds perfect! I think starting with a small program event is certainly the way to go. It will give you a feel for how it goes, what works and what doesn't, and it will help you prepare for a larger event down the road. Good ideas. June Gudeman