Think about what makes your college or organization special. Is it the rankings? Is it the state-of-the-art gym? How about that fancy smoothie shop? (Okay, maybe it’s the smoothie shop.)
All those things are lovely. But when I think about what makes my university special, I immediately think about the people: The student teachers learning how to make a difference in the classroom. Nursing alums carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders while caring for Covid patients. Faculty members guiding tomorrow’s counselors, engineers, artists, and doctors through difficult classes to reach meaningful careers. It is your people — not your amenities — that make your institution unique.
We often talk about communicating our differentiators in marketing. Yet, when we market what makes us different, we should step away from conveniences and comforts and instead focus on authentic stories from our communities. And we should crowdsource this content.
What is Crowdsourcing?
TheStreet explains that “crowdsourcing is the practice of utilizing the wisdom of a group for a common goal. It is best applied when attempting to solve complex problems in an innovative way or streamline intricate processes.” Since every organization has different goals, crowdsourcing often takes on different shapes depending on projects that need completion.
However, most organizations share the common aim of clearly communicating their mission, values, and work in exciting and efficient ways. Crowdsourcing helps us achieve this goal by asking for assistance from our audiences and communities. For example, between 2003 and 2006, the BBC asked their audiences to share memories and artifacts from World War II. This request resulted in 47,000 stories and 15,000 images. Rose Holley points out that the number of responses to this project demonstrates that people are eager to supplement content on various topics with their own knowledge. Crowdsourcing allowed the BCC to capture content while also engaging their community in a meaningful, new way.
Crowdsourcing in Higher Education
Crowdsourcing happens in higher education every day. Countless colleges crowdsource research, community initiatives, and library projects. But what about higher education marketing? If you are an admissions officer or marketer, are you leveraging the power of crowdsourcing your alumni to obtain content to help meet your institutional goals?
As an admission or marketing pro, you probably already know that your alumni community can assist with calling campaigns, staffing events, recruiting new students, and even reviewing applications. What you might not realize is that alumni stories can be a powerful addition to all your communications.
Sure, your website and brochures might include alumni profiles, but are they recent? And are you also featuring these stories in your social media, email, and content marketing efforts?
If not, maybe you don’t know where to begin or how to collect alumni stories. Good news: It doesn’t have to be complicated. Crowdsourcing can be pretty darn easy.
Three Ideas to Get Started with Crowdsourcing Your Alumni for Stories
1.) Work with your advancement officers to obtain alumni lists. You might not know your advancement officers or alumni relations staff intimately, but the chances are high that they’re interested in creating connections with alumni in fresh, meaningful ways. Send your advancement team an email and explain that you would like to reach out to your alumni community to learn more about their unique experiences in your programs in order to create recruitment communications. Upon obtaining this list, send your alums an email blast and ask them to complete a brief form to detail their experiences at your institution.
I have utilized this method to reach out to recent alums from our teacher education and higher education programs. In doing so, I was able to ask these communities about their experiences, how our programs prepared them to work through a pandemic, and for advice for new students entering the field. Within just a week, I was overwhelmed by the responses I received. These stories were thorough, captivating, and emotional. I have since shared them in email campaigns and our social media channels. The stories were so impactful that they’ll appear in future content marketing pieces as well. Just make sure to ask for permission to share their stories in future digital and print communications.
2.) Work with faculty to identify alumni. Going directly to your faculty members can be more effective than casting a wide net. Asking faculty for alums who would be great to feature in communications is a more targeted approach that will likely result in a greater response rate. Have a program that needs a boost in enrollment? Email a faculty member from that program and ask for a few names. This method allows you to tell these alums that their professors specifically recommended them as outstanding students to feature in communications. Who doesn’t like feeling special?
I recently used this approach to identify school administration and educational psychology alumni. Half the individuals I reached out to responded and were honored to be asked to share their graduate school stories. And you could feel their excitement in their responses, which made their words perfect for sharing with prospective students in application deadline reminder messaging or on social media. Even sharing only one sentence can make a social post more interesting.
3.) Look at your private students and alumni groups. Does your college have an alumni group on Facebook or LinkedIn? How about an accepted student group? Crowdsource group members for advice they want to share with new students. With their permission, use their words of wisdom on your website or social channels. See if they’re willing to be listed on the website for prospective students to contact or if they’d like to participate in a virtual recruitment event.
You can also step outside of your private groups and crowdsource alumni ambassadors on your institution’s social channels, like we did last year.
Above All Else, Before You Reach Out to Alumni…
Make sure you know exactly what questions need answering and who is best to answer them. Keep in mind that your alumni are busy, and sometimes asking fewer questions will garner more responses. Whenever possible, a targeted, more personalized approach is going to be more meaningful. I learned this when I sent a message to a vast audience without targeted questions and received zero responses.
Alumni stories authentically show future students what they can achieve by pursuing your programs. Crowdsourcing enables us to gather details about student experiences, career outcomes and earning potential that we otherwise would not be able to attain. Asking for this content regularly allows us to keep communications relevant and fresh while also facilitating meaningful engagement with your alumni community.
Agree or disagree: Crowdsourcing your alumni will help you create new content and improve the creative resources you already have.