Is your educational institution as visible online as you would like? Do you have a strategy that links your goals with digital? This session will help you understand how a digital strategy can underpin activity in digital channels to reconnect with lost alumni, improve your online presence, raise the profile of your college, school or university and increase engagement.

1. What is digital strategy?
And why it is important for
Development & Alumni Relations
JAMES BURDEN
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2. It took radio 38 years to reach an
audience of 50 million
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3. It took television 13 years to reach
an audience of 50 million – a third
of the time that it took radio.
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4. It took the internet four years to
reach an audience of 50 million –
less than a quarter of the time it
took TV or nearly a tenth of the
time it took radio.
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5. It took the iPod three years to
reach an audience of 50 million.
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6. And it took Facebook two year
to reach the same audience.
This year they will reach the
landmark of 1 billion active
users – about one in
every seven people on
earth – and around half
of them log in on any
given day.
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7. THE GOAL IS NOT TO INCREASE HOW
E F F E C T I V E Y O U A R E W I T H D I G I TA L .
THE GOAL IS TO INCREASE HOW EFFECTIVE
Y O U A R E B E C A U S E O F D I G I TA L .
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8. SO WHAT IS DIGITAL STRATEGY?
DIGITAL = any stuff you have online
STRATEGY = a plan to achieve a goal
More than just your website
More than just social media
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9. SO WHAT IS DIGITAL STRATEGY?
Content
CRM Mobile
E-commerce Applications
ALSO INCLUDES:
Digital marketing Digital fundraising
User experience
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10. SO WHAT IS DIGITAL STRATEGY?
• Communication across all digital mediums
• Everything that communicates with your audience
• Plan for adding content to your digital platforms
Digital
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11. Does your organisation feel like this?
Digital investment, but slow and cumbersome?
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12. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over
again and expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein
Change is here to stay. We have to be light on
our feet, responsive and adaptive.
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13. RESIDENTS, VISITORS AND MONKS
Different generations and approaches to digital:
• Residents – continually connected to digital
• Visitors – use digital when the need arises
• Monks – conscious decision to stay separate
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14. RESIDENTS, VISITORS AND MONKS
• Your alumni are a mix of digital residents, visitors and monks
• You need different inputs and levels (media and frequency) for
each of these channels
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15. DIGITAL RESIDENTS
• We grew up in a different world
• We are different
• The imperative is to meet incoming
digital natives on the social platforms
where they interact
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16. • Don’t worry about picking the “right” technology or tool
• Segment your data
• Use the right tools to interact with different segments
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17. “Ride the wave, not the board”
Duke Kahanamoku
The technology is a tool. One that
will change over time – you might
even use different types of
technology for different types of
community. The technology isn’t
important. The goal is community
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18. NETWORK MODELS
• ‘Fully Connected’ model is most powerful
• Only achievable through digital
• Gives best opportunity for growth
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19. COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
Website
Print
Email
ALUMNI
ASSOCIATION
Social
Media /
blogs
Face-to-
face
Are your channels connected? Relational?
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20. ALL SOCIAL NETWORKS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL
Reunions
channel
Flickr
Professional
channel
Celebration LinkedIn
channel
Facebook
SOCIAL MEDIA
Broadcast
channel
Twitter
Showcase
channel
YouTube
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21. THE SELL TO ALUMNI
• Advance your career through networking
• Reconnect with friends and colleagues
• Share expertise with students
• Benefit through exclusive discounts and offers
• Be part of the growth: give to be counted
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22. SO WHY THE NEED FOR A DIGITAL STRATEGY?
• High profile successful students will attract more students
to your college
• Greater pool of talent and knowledge to provide input into
college or school
• Alumni lend credibility to professional dialogue
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23. WHY DIGITAL STRATEGY IS IMPORTANT
Strategy makes your life easier
• More confidence in your content and brand
across online platforms
• Know what you have and where it’s coming from
• Understand what’s working and what isn’t
• Have a roadmap for creating and improving content over time
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24. WHY DIGITAL STRATEGY IS IMPORTANT
Strategy makes your supporters’ lives easier
• Give them what they’re looking for at the right time
• Make it easy to take action and get satisfaction
• Make it easy to share your story
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25. WHY DIGITAL STRATEGY IS IMPORTANT
Saves time and money
• Better workflows, governance
• Better understanding and outworking of goals
• Better organisation = better content management
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26. DIGITAL STRATEGY – THE POTENTIAL
• Better reputation
• More strategic communication
• More involved alumni
• More successful fundraising
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27. DIGITAL STRATEGY – THE RISK
• Not aligning with evolving communication
• Disconnected or lost relationships
• Upset alumni
• Less donors and donations
• Weakened reputation
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28. THREE ELEMENTS OF DIGITAL STRATEGY
Broadly in common with all charities and nonprofits – the
macro goals of digital strategy
Brand
building
Acquisition
Retention
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29. THREE ELEMENTS OF ALUMNI STRATEGY
Once you begin to dive within the different sector of the
industry you find the micro-goals of your sector
Time
Talent
Treasure
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30. BUILDING A STRATEGY
THE GOALS OF ALL NONPROFITS
Be helpful
Increase the revenue
Improve organisational efficiency
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31. LAYERS FOR EACH OF THREE GOALS
Improve
Increase the
Be helpful organisational
revenue
efficiency
We want to... We want to... We want to...
Our audience Our audience Our audience
needs to... needs to... needs to...
How digital How digital How digital
will help will help will help
achieve it achieve it achieve it
How we will How we will How we will
know we did know we did know we did
it it it
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32. THEN MAP SCHEDULED ACTIONS AGAINST GOALS
Improve
Be helpful Increase the revenue organisational
efficiency
Q3 2012 Headline Action
Q4 2012 Headline Action
Q1 2013 Headline Action
Q2 2013 Headline Action
Q3 2013 Headline Action
Q4 2013 Headline Action
Q4 2013
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33. SOME OF THE DIGITAL ACTIVITY YOU CAN SUPPLY
• Online webinars
• Job postings
• Online directory
• Resources & Advice (online toolkit)
for job hunting / career advice
• Advertise events
• Promote relevant news
• Talk about smart fundraising goals
• Integration with social media
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34. THE WALLED GARDEN
• ‘Walled garden’ communities such as private alumni
networks trade size in exchange for exclusivity
• Power of network is realised when the community is open
• Most open networks now include both kinds of experience
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35. ONLINE COMMUNITY
• Don’t try to compete with Facebook for social connections or
LinkedIn for professional connections
• Focus on tools and information that alumni cannot find
elsewhere
• Find out how to integrate benefits of proprietary network with
main social media outlets
• Leverage the right tools for the right segment of your alumni
market
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36. TEN WAYS TO ENGAGE ALUMNI WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
• Helping Alumni find jobs
• Collaboration and connecting with students
• Fundraising from emails to tweets
• Training Alumni to use social media
• Meeting Alumni where they’re at
• Providing tools to spread information
• Alumni-generated content
• Promoting Alumni networks
• Mobile reunions
• Connecting the dots using Google maps
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37. DRIVING ENGAGEMENT ON LINKEDIN
• Don't wait for alumni to join your LinkedIn Group
• Try to understand graduates' needs
• Listen closely, respond only when necessary, and be brief
• Find and share valuable content
• Run interference for your Group
• Don't censor
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38. DRIVING ENGAGEMENT ON TWITTER
• Alumni expect immediate responses on Twitter
• Retweet and favorite alumni followers' tweets regularly
• Build Twitter lists of alumni to help them find each other on
Twitter
• If someone mentions you by name then reciprocate
• Diversify your content and be inclusive
• Stay transparent and don't shy away from all controversy
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39. “[Blogs] are not merely alternate sites of
publishing; they are alternatives to publishing
itself…”
Here Comes Everybody – Clay Shirky
Substitute ‘blogs’ for ‘social networks’
“Online social networks are not merely
alternate sites for alumni networks;
they are alternatives to alumni
networks themselves…”
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40. DIGITAL STRATEGY IS CORE TO THE
SURVIVAL OF ALUMNI ORGANISATIONS
Alumni are already organising –
without alumni organisations.
Don’t get left behind!
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41. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HOW WE CAN
HELP YOU WITH YOUR DIGITAL STRATEGY
James Burden
Digital Consultant
Email: james.burden@blackbaud.com
Twitter: @jamesburden
Or search for James Burden on LinkedIn
www.blackbaud.co.uk
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