Unfiltered Feedback About Your Online Alumni Community

I just received the email below from a loyal alumnus of a New England institution.  Since starting EverTrue after serving as an alumni volunteer for 5 years, I have been overwhelmed by the support we’ve received from fellow alumni who are passionate about their school.  We’ve been equally saddened by alumni frustrations with the solutions available today.  It’s important for alumni associations to deploy tools that meet alumni where they live: in a world that is increasingly mobile and social.

We’ve hidden the school name, but many alumni could insert their institution in this e-mail and not be too far off.

Coincidentally, Andy Shaindlin touched on many of these points in his Huffington Post article titled “Will the Internet Obsolete Alumni Associations?”.  His article was published within hours of the e-mail below hitting our inbox.

Ever True!
Brent

Brent,

 


 

 

I hope business is going well.  I thought I would pass along this information in hopes of it representing a potential EverTrue lead.  I graduated from [ ] University in ’94, and I have always found their online alumni database antiquated. Today their Alumni Relations office sends out an email announcing a “new and improved alumni directory” system.  After clicking through, it appears home-grown and, in my opinion, destined to add little value.  Why [ ] doesn’t understand that it is 2012 and no one wants to replicate their Facebook / LinkedIn is beyond me.

 

 


Copied and pasted below is an excerpt from the email [ ] sent, along with the name of the Director of Alumni Relations.(The benefits listed even include linking “MySpace,” a clear indicator that they are not in touch with reality.) From a sales perspective, I consider this a potential “compelling event’ for EverTrue to educate a potential customer. 🙂

 

 

 

We should schedule time to get together, as I would be interested in learning more about EverTrue. Thanks.

 

 


……………………….

You will have access to many useful services, including the ability to search for classmates and contact them, join or create your own affinity groups, share photos and photo albums, post your resume, participate in online discussions and much more!

New benefits to using http://[ ].[ ].edu/ include:

 

  • Share your news and information with Alumni Posts
  • Add Photo Albums and slideshows to your profile page to show others what you’ve been up to, and view friends’ photos
  • Add YouTube videos to your profile page to share with other alumni
  • Create and manage Groups to connect with other alumni who share your interests
  • Use the Career Center to find mentors in your career field
  • Share your resume with other alumni and potential employers
  • Post job openings at your company or find your next career opportunity
  • List items in the Classifieds area to sell or trade with alumni
  • Find classmates and add them to your personal Friends Center
  • Choose RSS Feeds to give you the news you want, when you want, on your profile page
  • Link your Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn member pages to your [ ] Alumni profile page
  • Easily update your contact information to keep in touch with other alumni and the University
  • Enjoy improved navigation and increased page-loading speed throughout site
  • Protect your profile information with enhanced password-protected security

There is a “Tutorial” link near your name in your profile to learn more about the new features.

[ ] is committed to providing our alumni with an online community so that you can benefit from our worldwide network.  We hope you find this tool useful, and as always, we appreciate your feedback.

 

 

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