Fostering and promoting a community of online alumni mentors - the warwickgrad.net story

Hi! Claudie Combelas, Head of Alumni Engagement Dave Musson, Senior Online Communications Officer (social media)

A bit about Warwick Founded in 1965 Russell Group member Over 200,000 alumni warwickgrad.net launched 2014

Coming up… Why create warwickgrad.net? The warwickgrad.net journey How do we promote it? What has worked well? What hasn’t worked so well? Top tips to takeaway

WHY CREATE WARWICKGRAD.NET?

Why? Digital has disrupted things It’s what our graduates wanted A USP for Warwick Great for data!

THE WARWICKGRAD.NET JOURNEY

The journey Linkedin Group Funding Volunteer tab Personal invitation 0-500 Transfer of emails E-journals Students become alumni

SEE OUR PLATFORM: WWW.WARWICKGRAD.NET

HOW DO WE PROMOTE IT?

Promotion - online Social media E-newsletters (AE, SCS, Depts) Our website (& others)

Promotion - offline With individual departments With our careers department / advisors Showcase/demos in our Library spaces

Useful tool 1 – an infographic

Useful tool 2 – a case study

WHAT HAS WORKED WELL?

Yay… E-journal access boosted numbers Linked-In plugin – easy sign up & good for our database warwickgrad.net is becoming THE go-to space for our graduates and soon-to-be graduates Reporting using a simple infographic has been a big help for internal buy-in

WHAT HASN’T WORKED SO WELL?

Nay… Not enough case studies – we need to chase mentor/mentees Need to train our users more to ‘complete’ a mentoring stint Reporting Admin log-in

TOP TIPS TO TAKEAWAY

Tips 1 Thank you emails Tell members to add a photo Want to get students involved? Show them how to use it Add things like journal access & lifelong email to make it a really compelling offer

Tips 2 Don’t just talk about it online – promote IRL too Push it regularly on social media A simple graphic can be really effective Keep at it!

alumni@warwick.ac.uk ANY QUESTIONS?