alumni futures

New Publication: Internationalisation of European Higher Education

I recently had the honor of contributing to a newly-published handbook, Internationalisation of European Higher Education.

My contribution is a section on Challenges in Global Alumni Relations.

The book consists of a hard copy (loose-leaf) physical edition, supplemented three times a year with digital updates that reflect new developments, best-practice examples from across Europe, and hands-on advice. The target audience is European education professionals navigating an increasingly international landscape.

Subscribers to the volume get online access to digital versions of all the Handbook's articles – useful for those who are constantly traveling because of the international role they play.

A description, full table of contents, and pricing information are available from the Handbook website:

Internationalisation of European Higher Education

The book is edited by the European Association for International Education.

I don't make any money from people purchasing the volume; but I'll gain great satisfaction if it helps a few Alumni Futures readers with their everyday professional challenges.

 

Do Events Have a Social Graph?

In a recent article titled The Next Big Thing, social network analyst Valdis Krebs pointed out that just as a person has a "social graph" that depicts how they connect and interact with others, a book can have a social graph too. His network map displays connections between the purchasing behaviors of individuals who bought a specific book on Amazon.com: 

Below is a network map of a very interesting new book – Too Big to Know [2B2K] by internet scholar David Weinberger. David's book is shown by the magenta node in the center of the network. Directly connected to his book are the books that Amazon mentions that customers also bought [green nodes], in addition to 2B2K. These books are probably more similar than different to 2B2K. The blue nodes are books that are 2 steps away from 2B2K, they are probably more different than 2B2K, but retain similarities also. The arrows show the direction of the majority of also-bought activity. 

His conclusion? Amazon is building an "Interests & Passions network...under the radar."

"Social Graph" of the book Too Big to Know on Amazon.com, via The Network Thinkers - Click to enlarge

It occurs to me that if a thing (like a book) can have a social graph, so can some of the "things" we use to engage alumni and donors. For example:

Events can have a social graph.

Is someone who attends a particular event more or less likely to attend certain other events? The answer could improve our target marketing for events.

Volunteerism can have a social graph.

Is someone who volunteers for a specific role more or less likely to fulfill another, specific role? The answer could improve volunteer recruitment.

[If a book can have a social graph, why can't an event?]

And directionality matters here too. For example, arrows would show which volunteer roles lead to future activities.

This is hardly a new idea. Overlay behavior onto a social graph and you're creating an interest graph. That's how several popular online services work, in a general way: Zappos, Netflix, and of course Amazon. But these sites mostly aggregate past users' behaviors to influence the next user's behavior, without those users being connected otherwise. A true "interest graph"–based system would interpret your behavior to help organizations understand why you attended that additional event, or how you felt about your volunteer experience.

Intrigued by this idea? Then see this article by Derrick Harris: The personalized web is just an interest graph away.

Do events, volunteer roles, and other engagement tools have social graphs?

If they do, should we be capturing and analyzing them?

Why – or why not? 

Related articles

• Amazon is building a social graph under the radar (thenetworkthinkers.com)
• [2b2k] Too Big to Know's network (hyperorg.com)
• Looking Beyond the Social Graph, Capsule Aims To Map the 'Experience Graph' (prweb.com)
• The personalized web is just an interest graph away (gigaom.com)

What Makes That App So Great?

There's a fairly frequent discussion about mobile apps taking place among alumni professionals. I've seen it on listservs and in LinkedIn Groups, and I've heard it in hallways at conferences. It goes something like this:

"We're considering launching a mobile app for alumni, and I'm curious whether your school has one, and if so, are you happy with it?"

Most of the replies come from people who say they are "very satisfied" with their app. Others say that a particular app is "great."

But I almost never hear anyone say why their app satisfies them, or what makes it great.

In other words, I'm wondering: which metrics indicate a successful app? And how do those metrics fit into the context of a particular institution?

[Which metrics indicate a successful app?]

What would be useful to know? Anything that explains what your goal was in creating an app, and how you know those goals have (or haven't) been met.

I made up these hypothetical examples that might illustrate useful information (these examples are not necessarily going to be relevant for you):

You decide that it would be useful to learn how many alumni click through to your alumni website from within the app. You further decide that a 1:10 "click through-to-download" ratio is your arbitrary goal for the first 6 months. You get 1,000 app-driven web visits from your 10,000 downloads. Success.

Or....

You decide to correlate new Facebook "Likes" with use of the app. You check the last 3 months as a baseline (using Facebook Insights), and discover 10% of monthly Likes are from mobile devices. Then you launch your app. Six months after launching the app you see a doubling of mobile-based Likes. You have a useful proxy for the effect of the app on a specific kind of interaction with your page.

[Which metrics characterize your app's success?]

Even numbers like these aren't that useful, because the goals must be somewhat arbitrary, and you can't yet attribute many outcomes to the use of your mobile app. For example, did it generate increased giving? Greater brand awareness for your institution? More applicants for admission? Higher event attendance or volunteerism? It's hard to know.

But one thing we do know is that counting downloads doesn't tell us much. Sharing interaction metrics will provide context for satisfaction with the app. And others can then assess your results for relevance to their own institution.

What metrics are you using to characterize your alumni app's success?

Related articles

• Alma Mater Going Mobile: 5 Quick Takeaways (alumnifutures.com)

How the Internet Changed Alumni Relations Forever

I recently met Don Tapscott, a leading author and speaker on technology and innovation. He graciously invited me to contribute to the blog he writes for Huffington Post. My article there appeared on March 23, 2012, and I am including a brief excerpt below, with a link to the original article for those who would like to read the rest.

Excerpt:

Many alumni associations stubbornly cling to the idea that alumni relationships should be hosted on a .edu website. But we've grudgingly populated Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

And many of us haven't yet acknowledged that online social platforms aren't broadcast outlets. People join Facebook to share their interests, ideas and activities with friends and family, to tell stories about what matters to them. They don't join to download a PDF of the press release announcing this year's teaching awards.

[Associations cling to the idea that alumni relationships
should be hosted on a .edu website]

Communities like ours must learn to maintain slightly more modest expectations about how alumni will interact with us online.

And yet, things are changing at last. Several signs point to a more effective accommodation between alumni associations and the online ventures that have usurped their roles...

 

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To read the full article, click through to:

Will the Internet Obsolete Alumni Associations?

Upcoming Talk: EdSocialMedia Summit, San Francisco

Next month in San Francisco I'm speaking at the EdSocialMedia Summit. The event is for "professionals involved in any way with social media in their organization." The focus is on schools, universities, and non-profits.

The sessions, along with great networking opportunities, take place during a single day:

Wednesday, April 4, 2012 

NOTE: Alumni Futures readers earn a 20% discount on registration.
The link at the bottom of this posting takes you to the registration page.

Seven presenters (including me) will examine current trends and roles for social platforms from a pretty diverse range of perspectives.

The other speakers are:

Brian Carter (author of The Like Economy: How Businesses Make Money with Facebook)

Georgy Cohen (co-founder of Meet Content)

John Hill (higher ed evangelist at LinkedIn)

Erin Swanson (marketing programs manager at Water.org)

Ian Symmonds (president & founder of Ian Symmonds & Associates)

and

Rand Fishkin (CEO and co-founder of SEOmoz)

[Alumni Futures readers get 20% off the registration fee]

Topics
Everything from viral video to inbound marketing, from integrated social fundraising campaigns to Facebook marketing, and from brand story-telling to alumni networking online.

Great Venue
Beautiful historic Fort Mason Center overlooking the Marina and San Francisco Bay.

My Talk
I'll review some recent research in experimental psychology to show why "strong leadership" doesn't usually seem compatible with innovative efforts such as social media. And I'll suggest what decision-makers can do about it to succeed. 

I hope I'll see a few Alumni Futures readers at this event next month.

Register

Register for the EdSocialMedia Summit – April 4, 2012 – San Francisco

Note: 20% discount ($40 off the regular cost of $199) is built in to this link, but you can always click "Promotional Code" on the registration page and type in: AlumniFutures

And...EdSocialMedia will donate 25% of profits to local charitable education organizations.

See you there!

 

Photo: Port of San Francisco sign by Andy Shaindlin

 

Alumni Networks: People, not Data

Recently I exchanged ideas about alumni networks with a senior advancement colleague from another university. Seeking to reconcile what associations do with what alumni need, he said:

We give alumni a directory, but what they're looking for is a network. We think the data forms a directory because that's what we know how to build. What alumni need is a web of connectivity based on common affiliation and experience as former students.

This sounded so familiar to me...then I remembered. I had quoted Brigham Young University's Keith Lue in a comment he contributed to Alumni Futures, and which I featured at the end of 2011. Keith said,

Alumni relations mistakenly focuses on who is in the database instead of why people might want to stay connected.

Two different ways of saying the same important thing:

Knowing who is in the database helps you publish a directory. Knowing what their problems are and who might help them find solutions – for that, alumni need a network.

["We focus on who is in the database instead of why people want to connect"]

Takeaways:

Your database isn't "information."
It's like Soylent Green: It's people. 

Alumni need solutions.
Connect them with people who can help solve their problems.

It sounds simple, but it's hard to execute.

However, one thing is certain: if your alumni organization can broker relationships and connect people effectively, alumni will see you as a solution. 

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Image: Soylent Green diorama by h.d. lange via Creative Commons.

Related contect from Alumni Futures

• Review: LinkedIn Alumni 
• Top 5 Alumni Futures Reader Comments of 2011
• Is Alumni Relations a Form of CRM?