In today’s world, universities recognize the significance of building and nurturing relationships with their alumni. This not only helps to establish meaningful and life-long connections but also fosters a sense of community and engagement. However, as time goes by, it becomes increasingly difficult to obtain accurate data about alumni through surveys and other data collection methods. To bridge this gap, universities often rely on external sources of data to track their graduates’ progress. To facilitate this process and strengthen the bond between institutions and their alumni, Steppingblocks offers a powerful solution. Our innovative platform enables university staff to target alumni based on a wide range of parameters, including location, salary, major, and skills. With the ability to filter and create highly specific lists of alumni, the platform makes it easy to stay connected with the right people. Additionally, the platform allows for these lists to be downloaded, and email integration makes contacting them a breeze. Below, we highlight a few of the uses of Steppingblocks to support your alumni relationships:
Leveraging location and employer information to engage alumni
Click here to read about how our partners at Husson University have leveraged Steppingblocks Graduate Insights data to figure out where their alumni are located, and work with their top employers to develop meaningful alumni engagement programs.
Segmenting alumni by geographic or firmographic parameters
One of our partners, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, took the importance of building a community for life with their alumni and understands that data and a rich analytics process must be in place to do so. UNLV, supported by our Graduate Outcomes data, created a refreshed and up-to-date alumni database and then utilized that in creating a strong bond with its alumni. Click here to read more about how UNLV used Steppingblocks to enhance its alumni relationships.
Leveraging multiple filters to develop targeted approaches to engage alumni
In recent years there has been a decline in the engagement of alumni. However, there are some ways you can utilize technology and data to begin to mend those relationships and increase the overall engagement of your alumni. With technology like Steppingblocks you can start to identify campaign goals by analyzing your alumni to reveal opportunities, tap into geographic, demographic, and employment data that defines your alumni population further, and understand interests and needs at the individual level to optimize campaigns down to the person. Click here to hear more about how you can develop those targeted approaches, and how that can be beneficial to your university.
Building alumni affinity groups
Your alumni are each individual people, with different passions, interests, and career paths. In order to connect with them, your outreach and communication have to be personal, and of interest to them. Universities must move away from the blanket outreach, and fragment their alumni pool to be sure they are connecting with folks who will connect to and resonate with the content. By structuring campaigns to a targeted alumni group, and connect to their identities, you will ensure more participation and engagement from your alumni. Click here to learn more about segmenting your alumni, and how you can use this strategy to build and connect with meaningful alumni affinity groups.
Building connections between students and alumni to support career exploration
The graduate explorer tool serves as an exceptional resource to initiate meaningful connections between alumni and current students. In the pursuit of career and internship opportunities, networking plays a pivotal role and what could be more advantageous than linking students with alumni who share a deep-rooted passion for their alma mater? By utilizing Graduate Explorer you can seamlessly search for alumni employed in a certain field or by job title, providing students with the chance to foster relationships with individuals who can aid them in securing their dream job or internship.