Alumni-relations PR pros must out-compete social networks

Alumni relations offices spend a lot of time on events, newsletters and awards but our work boils down to something much simpler—making connections.

To reach alumni, we should better understand the people we serve. We should think beyond our relationship with them.

Three realities I’ve observed about engaging alumni:

Reality 1.

Alumni have greater access to networks besides their alma mater’s than in the past. They don’t need us like they did.

When someone graduates from Cornell, for example, he or she doesn’t just belong to the Cornell Alumni Association and rely on that network to open doors. Maybe she takes a coding class at General Assembly and joins GA’s rich alumni community of techies and digital marketers. Perhaps he starts a company and goes through the TechStars accelerator program, becoming part of a network of entrepreneurs and mentors.

Maybe she works at McKinsey and joins its elite community of consultants and executives. These companies offer robust knowledge-sharing and connection-building for alumni. More organizations outside higher education create alumni communities every day—look at the flurry of job postings for corporate alumni program managers.