MasterSoft: Transform Alumni Interaction Like Never Before

Students, faculty, heads of departments, and administrators play a crucial role in institutional progress and eventual expansion. Likewise, the alumni are key contributors to the college or university’s growth and reputation.

But how can the institute establish and maintain a connection with the alumni? Outdated mechanisms, such as sending emails a few times a year, are ineffective. The solution lies in the alumni management system, which facilitates a smooth institute-alumni interaction.

What is an Alumni Management System?

An alumni management system is an innovative software solution that has been designed to set up and maintain connections with alumni. A major functionality of the tool lies in connecting existing students with alumni.

At the same time, members of the alumni association of a college or university can correspond conveniently. In fact, that is where CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) proves to be instrumental in terms of streamlining and handling alumni data.

Furthermore, its usability and specializations extend beyond simplifying communication, especially in terms of administrative tasks. For example, sending invitations and updates regarding upcoming academic events has become easier.

Also, planning and implementing initiatives such as mentorship programs, career expos, alumni conventions, etc. becomes smoother with the system. However, in order to engage them in such activities, identifying the inherent challenges is important.

Challenges to Alumni Interaction and Engagement

Infrequent Interactions

Institutes take the initiative to establish correspondence with ex-students; hence, they strive to include them in respective events. Such events occur annually, so the admin sends the alumni members invitations a month or so in advance.

However, some of them may or may not be available at that time of the year; hence, they might not attend the events due to such short notice. Therefore, it is hardly a surprise that many prominent members miss the events.

Random Messages

When schools and colleges attempt to engage alumni as frequently as they can, the outcome might be unfavorable. For instance, sending weekly or monthly emails, including updates regarding top-performing students, has little to no value.

Newsletters, news media, or website blog articles covering the details of courses or program modules might not interest alumni. Therefore, a better strategy would be to send them messages that cater to the alumni’s interests.

Institute Admins can opt to include details regarding the upcoming events, wherein alumni members can participate.

Disorganized Communication

Digitalization and ICT tools have certainly revolutionized the communication method, enabling institutes to connect with alumni. In fact, they have several ways of reaching out to the members, such as emails, personalized text messages, and social media.

Nevertheless, the communication method lacks structure and a proper strategy. That is why the administrative team must focus their efforts on streamlining communication.

The first step lies in identifying their needs and then catering to them accordingly. Consequently, when the outreach strategy is purpose-driven and relevant, alumni will respond. Also, it will motivate them to acknowledge the institute’s messages and engage.

Low Alumni Retention

A well-thought-out strategy to establish and maintain connections becomes successful when institutes witness alumni participation. However, the sustenance of the alumni network is subject to uncertainty due to a lack of effective measures.

For instance, some alumni members volunteer for events initially, but they refrain from participating in the next ones. Also, the prior commitments of the alumni members might not be the reason every time they cancel. So what could be the underlying reason?

Many would agree that monotonous or dull alumni meetings might cause members to become apprehensive about attending them. Lack of adequate planning, wherein chief guests or professors are prominent speakers, can be another reason.

Besides, when alumni members don’t find the events interesting or engaging enough, they might avoid them in the future.

Ways to Enhance Alumni Interaction and Participation

Webinars and Online Meetings

Professional and personal commitments take up most of the time, leaving little to no time at all for alumni to spend on other pursuits. Although annual alumni meetups are prominent events, institutes can host other such events through online platforms.

Furthermore, institutes can utilize alumni management software to streamline and conduct webinars and online meetings. Nevertheless, elaborate planning is necessary, including creating and sending schedules to all the members.

Also, institutes can host online meetings or webinars at any time of the year, depending on the availability of the members. It is a perfect opportunity for alumni to connect with their peers and institute heads for formal or informal conversation.

Identifying Communication Indicators and Gaps

Strengthening the alumni network is equally important as monitoring it; the best way to do so is by monitoring their engagement rate. For instance, the admin must check if the members acknowledge the emails or respond to the social media posts.

Similarly, they need to keep an eye on whether or not the members fill out the survey forms and assess their responses thoroughly.

Career Conventions

Ex-students respect and admire the institute they passed out of and are eager to demonstrate their gratitude. However, the latter must provide an appropriate medium or opportunity for the alumni.

One of the best platforms is career conventions, wherein institutes can invite alumni to participate as industry experts. Furthermore, they act as strategic events where alumni members can connect with existing students.

What’s more, they can offer insights into future-oriented or in-demand jobs, skills, and competencies. Moreover, it is a golden opportunity for students to obtain mentorship from prominent professionals in specific fields or sectors.

Interest-Based Discussion Groups

Ex-students have already encountered and learned from lectures and passive observation during their college days. Therefore, most of them would hardly enjoy sole speakers or lectures at alumni meetings.

Nevertheless, demonstrations and presentations can be part of such events, but only if they have been planned effectively. On the other hand, alumni members love to reconnect with their batchmates and old acquaintances.

Therefore, institutes can accommodate a continuous communication system by opening chat groups on instant messaging applications. Simultaneously, they can divide the groups based on their respective education field, occupation, and year of graduation.

Also, the current working domain of the members is a specific field that the admin must take into account while adding them to the group. Consequently, it will foster peer-to-peer interactions, helping to create a sense of community.

Alumni Feedback

An interaction is inconclusive and incomplete if it does not lead to a two-way exchange; therefore, institutes must prioritize feedback. They can send surveys and polls through digitalized forms containing relevant questions.

As a result, it will allow alumni members to share their thoughts and points of view regarding ongoing events and initiatives. Also, the institute management will consider the responses and improve the alumni meetings accordingly.

In fact, that is where robust tools like MasterSoft’s alumni management system can make a vast difference through their varied features.

Why is MasterSoft’s Alumni Management System the number one choice for many institutes?

MasterSoft is a premier ed-tech company that specializes in ERP solutions and caters to the specific requirements of educational institutes. One of its latest innovations is an alumni management system that surpasses other tools on the market due to its various features.

Some of the prominent features and benefits of MasterSoft’s alumni management system include:

• Alumni Directory: It enables alumni members and ex-students to connect and network conveniently.
• Donation Portal: Alumni can donate through a highly secure donation portal, helping to support institutional initiatives.
• Streamlining Events: Institutes can organize and plan academic events effectively with the help of the system.
• Cloud-Based System: It has a cloud-enabled system that automates various core and administrative functionalities.