Have We Met Before Online Communities In Alumni Relations (Tin180 Com)
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2. Have we met before? Online Communities in Alumni Relations Barney Ellis-Perry BA ’87 CFRE University of British Columbia & Abe Geiger Affinity Circles
Why do BGSU students use Facebook? party notices locate more information about the guy/gal they met at a party the night before embarrass friends self-expression pass time/procrastinate set up study time with classmates brag contact friends on their “wall” (instead of AOL IM, cell phone, or email) people watch – online style post announcements post photos (new capability now students can create photo albums which creates even more of an issue) “ poke” other students meet new/other students (particularly first year students) reconnect with old friends from high school/other colleges Campus Organizations use to advertise upcoming events either through groups and messages or paid advertisements Sorority recruitment advertise (i.e. Group at BGSU I’m interested in Going through Sorority Recruitment)
Where are they going? MySpace Over 100 million profiles #1 website in the US Facebook Over 7.5 million users Average time per user is 20 minutes a day LinkedIn Over 7 million professionals around the world
University Builds equity in institutional brand Increases quality of alumni data Creates monetization opportunity through value-added services (recruiting, event planning, etc) Alumni Increases social interaction opportunities within community Enables participation in university-sponsored events Creates environment of trust required for value-added transactions The value of the GNN can be explored in two ways. First the value to the end user, and second the value to us as an association. You can see here a general overview of both of these. I’m going to talk about the value to the alumni user by showing you some use case examples, then I’ll dig in to the value we derive as an institution. Very generally, hosting a community that appeals to our constituents allows us to promote our mission, our brand, and our need for alumni data.