Disgraceful Data Sets: A Review of College Alumni Offices

A business is only as good as the data that it has on which to operate and make decisions. Finances need to be in order to better anchor a growth strategy, provide the necessary capital for product development, or fuel a marketing campaign. For every department and facet of a business, data is generated on a daily basis. The question is whether or not it’s being collected and then leveraged as part of the decision making process.

In higher education, there exists a sub-industry that relies heavily on data and on building relationship capital among its constituents: the alumni and development office. With thousands of potential graduates waiting to be added to a university’s Rolodex, it is imperative that there not only exist a baseline of data about each and every former student (customer) but the processes in place to collect and use this information.

Today’s information landscape makes it easier than ever to locate and engage graduates. The rise and adoption of Facebook and LinkedIn as THE standards for sharing information should be every alumni office’s bread and butter. Why not capitalize on the free exchange of information, almost all of which is self-posted, solidifying the likelihood that the data is accurate and reliable?

Questions that an alumni office should ask itself:

How many alumni graduated in a certain year? Of that number, how many have we obtained good information about? Is the information current? When was the last time the information was updated?
Can we identify 15-20 alumni from each year that could become social media advocates? If so, are they on a social media website? What can we offer each individual for helping participate? (Send each alumni involved stickers, coffee mugs or a sweatshirt. Don’t be cheap: this simple notion could help generate handsome returns over time.)
How often does the college communicate with its alumni? Is there any record of communication being kept?
What does our online presence look like? Is the content relevant to our audience? Why would alumni use the website or connect with the college online?
Would alumni be willing to stump and share a page among their classmates?

So how would you go about creating a baseline? Check back tomorrow and read what FundFive suggests your team should do in order to address the issue getting your data in order.

Steps for Building a Baseline (All Free)

Create a Facebook Fan Page for the alumni office. Hang this page off the main university Fan Page if one exists. Be sure that navigation is intentional (cross reference the university athletics website, the admissions office, the main university website, etc.) and that others are aware that you are interested in helping drive traffic to their websites. Ask for each area to add links back to your new Fan Page. Also request that they promote on occasion your presence as a partner page.
Reach out across the university and identify other individuals that are collecting information about alumni (community relations, admissions, and registrar’s office, for starters). University employees often fail to recognize that they have a role as part of a greater entity to collaborate and work across departments and disciplines for the betterment of the school’s student, parent and alumni population. (Sorry, but we've seen this time and time again on scores of campuses across the country.)
Place an individual in the alumni office in charge of collecting the information that each member freely shares on their profile pages. Put together a spreadsheet with basic demographic columns (first name, last name, city, state, job title, industry, married status, number of children), and then set goals for collection. For example, if the college graduated 1,000 students between 1990 and 1992, make it a priority to obtain information on at least 40-50% of the graduates.

Other ideas for getting a hold of data:

Form a data standards committee and agree on the types of data being collected, and define a process for sharing. Map out a workflow for collection and identify a central data storage and owner.
Define a communications strategy for marketing to your audience. Be sure that the timings of mailings, emails, etc. are consistent and do not overlap. Also be sure that messages are personalized. Do not ask for information without first checking that the data doesn't exist elsewhere on campus, and do not collect information without sharing it back to the other offices across the business.
Be sure that there is a consistency in the messages that are sent. (There’s nothing worse as an alumnus than receiving multiple mailings asking for the same data. It reflects poorly on the brand and demonstrates that communication is broken internally.)

Have other suggestions that you'd like to share? We'd love to hear how you are approaching this need at your institution. Please comment below or contact FundFive for other suggestions on how to address these types of concerns on your campus.

Additional Resource

How college applications change in the era of Big Data
Marketplace Education
January 14, 2014