Alumni are the greatest asset an institution can have. They are the ones that represent you in the real world. Maintaining and nurturing Alumni networks has become important in recent times with the acknowledgment of the benefits it reaps. When starting to build an Alumni network, the question that is often asked is about having a vast and updated Alumni Database. As it can be said, the starting step of an Alumni Network is accumulating and maintaining an alumni database.
How do we get the details and up-to-date information of our Alumni that are long gone? While this is quite a tricky one, it’s not something that can’t be done. With experience in helping 1200+ institutions for their meaningful Alumni Engagement, we at Vaave, have found one of the best techniques that would help you build an updated database and help Alumni register is by Identifying Batch Captains.
Who are they?
Batch Captains are the Alumni that can represent each class. They act as the connecting point between the Institution and the Alumni of their class. List down streams for every pass-out year and identify a potential Alumni who could be given the ownership to influence his classmates.
How?
Identifying Alumni from batches that have passed out some decades back is a tough one, but then, there are certain simple ways you can do it. Distribute ownership among the Head of Departments to pick out Alumni from their respective branches one from each class.
1. Asking for Volunteers — Alumni always want to give back to the institution, they just need to find a way, and giving back can be in many ways. Ask for Volunteers, market it on your institution’s social platforms, and let your Alumni know that you’re seeking their support.
2. Connect your Placement Officer — The common tendency to “be grateful” if we gain something from them can’t be neglected. Alumni who got placed through Campus interviews are obliged to help out their institution. Connect with your Placement coordinator, go back to your placement records, and get in touch with your alumni who have received opportunities through On-Campus hiring, they are your Prospective Batch Captains.
3. Clubs and Councils — No doubt, education is not just about Academics. Alumni who have shown great interest and participation in the Social, Sports Clubs, and Students Councils during their course, don’t want to skip away from the connection they hold with the institution. They can be the best candidates to be approached for being the Batch Captains because of the contacts they hold while at the institution. Also, finding the list of registered Alumni who participated in the events that were held would help.
4. Access their Private Groups — Staying in touch with the institutions may not be something that every alumnus does but they would still maintain the bond they share with their batchmates or classmates through Private Groups they create for themselves. You can get access to any of those groups and can identify your Batch Captain who has the ability to influence others.
5. Social Platforms — Alumni Connect has become fairly easy with platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. Not even a single batch goes by without having a handful of Star Students who excelled in Academics/ Sports/ Campus Placements. Find those Notable Alumni and let them help you in finding other Alumni.
To increase and Enhance the engagement on your Alumni Platform, propose incentives that are either big or small like gift cards to the batch captains that helped you. This will inspire other Alumni to be a part of the Network that you’re building.
Benefits —
Identifying Batch Captains will gather other Alumni and thus help in building your database either by:
- Peer-to-Peer Connect — Imagine having around 50 Batch Captains who would share about your Alumni Platform among their network. It gets reshared and more Alumni would be encouraged to come to your Platform and register.
50 X 5 = 250 (X4) = 1000 (X2) = 2000 . . . .
- Identifying Others – Batch Captains would help you to reach out and add other Alumni through your Social media Platforms. They would help you to run multiple campaigns and reshare your Institution’s happenings on their accounts, thus bringing more traction to your Alumni Platform.
A well-maintained and up-to-date Database of your Alumni comes in handy in many of your Institution’s activities, be it for showing records or seeking funds. While it is important to build an updated database, marketing and attracting Alumni to your Alumni platform is one of the easiest ways to do it. Identifying Batch Captains has been a promising solution for the same.
Start today, if you haven’t already.
To know and understand more about how Team Vaave is successfully helping institutions engage their alumni, write to us at hello@vaave.com