Navigating Common Elements of an Alumni and Students Professional Network

In creating a robust online community for career mentorship and alumni programming, you should consider your existing efforts and what modifications may need to be made for an online effort. Wisr encourages our partners to think about their online community as an extension of their existing infrastructure, not something to be built on an island. Here are some examples of common programs and components that you may already have in operation and how they can be part of your Wisr site.

Your First 90 Days of Programming

Just as you layout your calendar of events and programming for the year, you will want to consider what content-rich experiences you can offer through your Wisr site. In addition to finding professional connections, students and alumni will be hungry to digest career webinars, discussion topics, faculty research, and school spirit activities. Providing an engaging first impression and providing reasons for users to return on a regular basis is the key to continual site usage and lasting engagement.

Pay attention to what programming should be available during the first 90 days of launch. Frontloading a great experience can be an anchor reason for users to join the site and start interacting. This will be populated through existing content and events and maybe some new experiences offered exclusively through your site.

Think of planning your site launch in the same way you would get organized for a reunion. You’ll want an anchor engaging experience, a variety of events, and some connection back to campus. Your audience will be composed of people who are already connected as well as students and alumni who have been less engaged and need a stronger reason to interact. Solidifying a great first experience will have your users creating their own content, asking for more, and inviting their friends.

Using Volunteers to Create Content

Volunteers can be a huge asset in creating relevant and organic content that keeps your site active. Just like any other volunteer role, setting expectations and empowering volunteers are essential to engaging them. The benefit of digital volunteers is that there are opportunities that are not time nor training intensive. With a little training guidance, you will have volunteers starting discussions, engaging their peers, and inviting other collaborators to share. In terms of expectations, it is helpful to reiterate a code of conduct (if you have one in place), how much time you think the activity will take, and what role (if any) there is to play in moderating interactions.

Recruiting Alumni Volunteers (Mentors)

When asked about using volunteers in their program, many alumni and career offices say their biggest challenge is recruiting them in the first place. Before you list some of your usual suspects (the alumni board, young alumni council), take a look at some places where you might find people pre-disposed to being digital volunteers. Talk to your communications team or department about some of your most active social media posters, their switch to a new platform can be easy and a very engaging opportunity. This is also an area to look at leaders of student organizations, past and present. They are comfortable representing an extension of your institution and often are happy to play a role in inviting their network to join as well.

Most importantly, while you are thinking about recruiting volunteers you should be thinking about stewarding them as well. Make sure you have a plan in place to say thank you and acknowledge their efforts. Even though their efforts are almost entirely online, they will have put in a lot of work and deserve the same accolades you would give any other volunteer!

Managing Staff and Faculty Who are Alumni

Many universities have an incredible asset within their alumni base: staff and faculty employees who are now working at their alma mater. This group has an insiders’ perspective and the ability to demonstrate their school pride through their employment. Alumni faculty and staff are often thought of as a target group to build support for new initiatives; however, providing clarity around roles (and therefore member type) helps allay confusion as to the way they’re supposed to interact on the site.

In our experience, unless alumni faculty/staff have day-to-day management responsibilities for your Wisr site, we suggest inviting them to specifically participate as alumni. Faculty and staff tend to have a difficult time understanding where their work role ends and their volunteer/mentor role begins. Understanding their role will be particularly important as they select their member type and therefore the corresponding goals and volunteer items during onboarding. You may need to communicate directly with these individuals versus sending a mass email invitation so they know they should onboard as an alumni member type.

Code of conduct

To create an understanding that your Wisr site is an extension of campus and subject to the same behavior deemed appropriate, we recommend two codes of conduct be available through your Wisr site. Students are under the jurisdiction of a campus code of conduct, which most likely contains specific “netiquette” language. For alumni, you may adapt the student code or to both help your audience understand expectations for using the site as well as provide coverage to moderate/remove users and content that does not fit within guidelines.