There’s no doubt that communicating with your alumni (especially recent grads) on social media is effective. 

Alumni are already familiar with their alma mater, but they may lose their immediate connection once they have graduated. Keeping your alumni community engaged on your school's social media channels helps connect them to your institution, while keeping them in touch with fellow alumni.

Connect with alumni on social media and you will engage with them on platforms where they already spend time. Social media allows for interactive, two-way conversation so you can ask questions and alumni can respond and share their thoughts.

To foster these connections and increase engagement, every advancement office should have a social media outreach plan in place. 

Steps to Developing an Effective Social Media Outreach Plan

1. Understand your alumni

Before you start your social media strategy, you’ll need to gather information and data about your alumni/ae. Here are some questions to get you started:

• How much do alumni give, broken down by graduation year? 
• What social media platforms are most popular among your alumni? 
• What would your alumni like to see from their school on social media?
• General demographic information (e.g., income, marital status, children, occupation - assuming they're out of college)
• What were their favorite subjects and teachers?

2. Set your social media goals

Defining what you’d like to achieve through your social media strategy can guide the direction you’d take on how to reach out to alumni. Is it to grow alumni followers or simply to have a presence? Is it to engage with the audience, or do you also want them to take action? Setting some clear outcomes that you’d like to achieve can help set the course ahead and calculate ROI.

3. Identify which social media platforms you want to use 

There are many different social media platforms, and each has its own personality and strengths. What works on one platform does not necessarily work on another. This means you have to tailor your social media messaging to each platform you use. You probably don’t have the means to be on every platform, so select the ones where your alumni already are and where you can have the most interaction.

You’ll use different content and tone on different platforms. For example, your Facebook page posts will more likely be more personal than posts on your LinkedIn group. You could explore using video to connect with younger alumni on TikTok, while using curated images or reels on Instagram.

4. Use effective social media tactics

Now that you’ve identified what channels you will use, explore social media tactics that make the most sense for your alumni community. Try these: 

• Develop a social media calendar with particular reference to alumni-specific events such as homecoming and reunion.
• Create and share quality content.
• Experiment with sharing user-generated content from your alumni.
• Use video and reels when possible. Video is clickable and shareable and can be consumed on the go. (Almost half of social media users spend at least an hour a week watching videos. That number is exponentially higher with the under 40 crowd)
• Cross-post and cross-promote. For example, on your blog posts, send people to view video on your YouTube channel. Create a LinkedIn group post featuring your school's latest accomplishments, with a link to your website.
• Create and use relevant hashtags. Hashtags increase reach and engagement.
• Appeal to nostalgia. Piggyback on “throwback Thursday” for example, share pics of campus in earlier years.
• Promote your faculty by sharing milestones, memories, and accomplishments
• Elevate your alumni by sharing professional achievements or personal successes

For more ideas for your social media program, explore valuable CASE resources on social media. 

5. Set your social media policy

Once you have your social media strategy in place, you’ll have to develop policies for issues such as privacy and commenting (what is allowed and what is not). You’ll also need to establish guidelines for diversity and inclusion, and what is appropriate to share.

For ideas on how to develop a social media policy, be sure to check out the CASE’s collection of sample social media policies.