The document discusses strategies for engaging alumni through social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. It outlines Harvard Business School's approach of identifying alumni on platforms, engaging with them by sharing their content, and leveraging those relationships for user-generated content. Data on alumni interests is collected and used to target tweets. Reporting tracks engagement levels. Facebook strategies included sharing campus news and events but proved most effective through private chats. Limited resources require prioritizing goals and platforms and starting engagement with a small focused group. Twitter strategies suggested include weekly questions and photo/tweet contests. Experimentation is key for Facebook and Instagram.

1. Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College
“What’s Next?: Using Social Media to Engage
with Your Alumni”
Social Media Strategies Summit-Higher Education
Boston, MA, July 23, 2015
Robert Bochnak, Assistant Director, Alumni Marketing and Communications, Harvard Business
School

2. A little bit about me….
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-Assistant Director of Alumni Marketing and
Communications at the Harvard Business
School where I manage the office’s
social media channels.
-Graduate of UMass-Amherst and the Tufts
University Graduate School of Arts and
Sciences
-Author, Social Media Matters blog,
http://robertbochnak.wordpress.com/
-Sidekick of Aniceta and Mateo

3. My (Simple) Goal
Use social media—Twitter,
Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram,
etc.—to forge meaningful digital
relationships with Harvard
Business School Alumni.
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4. The Obstacles
“71 percent of tweets get absolutely no
response from the world.”
-Wired Magazine, October 2010
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5. The Obstacles cont.
“The average Twitter user has 208
followers.”
-The Analytics Firm Beevolve, October
2012
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6. The Obstacles cont.
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This guy

7. The Obstacles cont.
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8. Overcoming these challenges has meant taking a
number of different approaches….and, when it
comes to Twitter, it all starts with this.
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9. Our Twitter Approach
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Identify
EngageLeverage

10. 10
Identify
Engage
Leverage
We find alumni on
Twitter and add them
to the appropriate
Twitter list
We connect with
alumni by sharing
their blog posts,
career news, etc.
We involve alumni
in the creation of
user-generated
content
Our Twitter Approach cont.

11. Our Approach: Identify HBS alumni who are on
Twitter and add them to the appropriate list.
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We have
identified and
“tagged”
more than
6,000 alumni
on Twitter

12. Our Approach: Engage alumni through retweets,
original tweets promoting their work, tweets
sharing events, tweets connecting alumni with
each other, tweets to alumni based on their
interests, etc.
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13. Our Approach cont.
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14. Our Approach cont.
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15. Our Approach cont.
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16. Our Approach: Leverage the relationships we have
developed with alumni so they participate in discussions
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17. Our Approach cont.
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18. But before all this engagement could happen
we needed to collect data on our alumni….
So we decided that each alumni interaction
we had on Twitter would be tracked on an
excel spreadsheet. This sheet would include
information drawn from the Twitter profile
and alumni directory file of each alumnus/a
and would include information such as city
and state of residence, interest, year of
graduation, and section.
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19. Data Collection
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We gather data on
everything from when an
alumnus/a graduated to
what their personal interests
are

20. Data Collection cont.
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Our “interests”
field

21. Data Use
With this data—as earlier slides conveyed—we’re
able to send targeted tweets to alumni based on
their interests.
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22. Data Use
This data-driven approach allows us to
engage with alumni around almost any
topic…and by “any topic” we mean any
topic.
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23. “The Case of the Panda”
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24. “The Case of the Panda” cont.
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25. “The Case of the Panda” cont.
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26. “The Case of the Panda” cont.
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27. “The Case of the Panda” cont.
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28. “The Case of the Panda” (cont.)
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29. Reporting and disseminating the data
-Each interaction with an alumnus/a is “scored” on
a tracking spreadsheet: 1-2 “touches” a month
equals “minimally engaged”; 2-4 “touches” a
month equals “moderately engaged”; and 5 or
more “touches” equals “highly engaged.”
-Interactions are retweets, favorited tweets, or
original tweets by individual alumni.
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30. Reporting and disseminating the data cont.
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More than 5
“touches”
during a
month makes
an alumnus/a
“highly
engaged”

31. Reporting and disseminating the data cont.
-We also measure the connections we help make
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32. Reporting and disseminating the data cont
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33. Reporting and disseminating the data cont.
-Twitter-based interactions are included in monthly
reports.
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34. Reporting and disseminating the data cont.
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35. Our Facebook Approach
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We share
glimpses of
campus life,
news about
alumni, event
coverage, etc.
with our alumni
audience

36. Our Facebook Approach cont.
In 2014, these efforts helped us
generate 4,451 “likes,” 321 post
comments, and 7,492 web
clickthroughs, all of which is great
but….what about alumni engagement?
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37. Our Facebook Approach cont.
For this, we needed to get a little bit
creative.
First, we tried to “cross the (social
media) streams.”
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38. Our Facebook Approach cont.
We identified people we had interacted with on both
Facebook AND Twitter
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39. Our Facebook Approach cont.
Then we tried to pull these alumni over” from
Twitter to Facebook.
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40. Our Facebook Approach cont.
The result, at least initially? An increase in engagement
across EACH platform.
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41. Our Facebook Approach cont.
But our success was short-lived. We tried
this same approach on a number of other
occasions with VERY little success…so, as
they say here at HBS, we decided to “pivot.”
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42. Our Facebook Approach cont.
We reached out to a number of alumni via a back
channel (i.e., email) to participate in a chat.
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43. Our Facebook Approach cont
Alumni posted more than 40 individual
comments during the chat!
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44. Our Instagram Approach
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Share glimpses—via
photos—of campus
life, information about
alumni, event
coverage, etc. with
our alumni.

45. Our Instagram Approach cont.
Monitor alumni “likes” and engage them in
conversation when possible.
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If an alumnus/a
“likes” a post, we
usually ask him or
her a related follow-
up question

46. Our Instagram Approach cont.
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Like with Twitter, we
collect Instagram-related
data of our alumni and
use it to engage with
them.

47. Our Instagram Approach cont.
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48. Our Instagram Approach cont.
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49. Our Instagram Approach cont.
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50. Our Instagram Approach cont.
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51. By the numbers
-Since January 2013, our Twitter outreach has
resulted in:
a)20,283 unique interactions with 1,539 alumni
b)5,380 new followers
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52. But this is my full-time job and I, like Dawson
Leery, feel your pain…
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…because before I came to HBS I had to
balance my social media work with MANY other
things.

53. Naturally, it was a challenge to fit social media into
the mix.
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54. What did I do? I sharpened my focus as much as
possible on this fellow…
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55. …and used social media to extend the reach of the
brand (i.e., the Tufts University Graduate School of
Arts and Sciences)
1) We identified individual higher education “influencers” on Twitter.
2) We added them to a Twitter tracking list.
3) We reviewed the list regularly over the course of six months and
engaged with these followers as often as possible by tweeting out
their blog posts, asking them higher education-related questions,
etc.
4) Once we launched our blog—we posted a new article each month—
we sent direct messages to all of these influencers letting them know
we had a new post.
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56. This outreach led to….30,000 unique page views
of our blog over a one-year period.
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57. So, how can YOU engage your alumni on
social media given limited resources—time
and staffing—and other work
responsibilities?
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58. #1: Ask the RIGHT questions and try to answer
them
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59. -What are your social media goals?
-What platforms can help you achieve these
goals?
-How are you going to illustrate the Return
on Investment (ROI) of your efforts?
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60. #2 Develop a plan of attack
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61. -Who is going to be responsible for each
social media platform?
-How many hours a week can you dedicate
to each platform (the answer to this question
may inform the platform you choose. Twitter,
for example, requires much more time than
Facebook or Instagram)?
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62. My suggestions…..
Twitter:
-Use the Twitter list function to engage with the
people YOU want to have a relationship with.
-Start small if you need to. Start with 50 alumni.
Follow them, share their content with your
followers, and try to build a (digital) relationship
with them.
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63. Twitter (cont.)
-Question of the Week: Ask your alumni a
different question each week (making sure to
include the handles of the tweeters you want
to engage in the tweet(s)); collect the
responses, possibly ask follow-up questions
of respondents; and gather the conversation
into a Storify.
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64. Twitter (cont.)
-Tweet of the Week: Each week, copy and paste
the tweets from alumni you like onto a word
document and near the end of the week, let’s say
Thursday, put the tweets (with the handle of the
authors) into survey monkey or another online
polling platform, and have your followers vote. The
top vote getters each week move onto the “Tweet
of the Year” contest with a chance to win a prize of
some sort at the conclusion of the contest.
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65. Twitter (cont.)
-Photo Contest: Invite your alumni to submit
photos they have taken for an end of year
photo contest. Like the “Tweet of the Year”
contest, there will need to be a prize of some
sort involved.
(If possible, have a photo release form
process so you can own the photos for use
in print materials)
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66. Facebook and Instagram
Experiment, experiment, experiment. Due to changes to
Facebook’s algorithm, organic reach is a very difficult thing
to predict so….
-Post content at different times of the day to see if this
matters in terms of “likes” and “reach”
-Monitor the type of content that resonates most with your
alumni. For example, we found that information about
alumni receiving awards significantly outperforms our other
content on both Facebook and Instagram
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67. Facebook and Instagram
-Take a “back channel” approach. Ask alumni—via email—to participate in
conversations on Facebook or Instagram
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68. Questions?
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69. Contact Information:
Email: rbochnak@hbs.edu
Twitter: @RobertBoc, https://twitter.com/RobertBoc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertbochnak
Blog: https://robertbochnak.wordpress.com/
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