In this bi-weekly series of blog posts, I will highlight creative ideas that clients have leveraged to roll out EverTrue. Whether aimed at the launch of an app, or as part of a greater alumni communications strategy—we hope this advice will help you build awareness about your alumni app!
Isidore Newman School in New Orleans, LA launched their EverTrue app over a month ago at their annual reunion crawfish boil. The app was a hit at the event but what has been most impressive about Newman is their ongoing efforts to draw alums back to the app and infiltrate it into their alumni relations program.
In their monthly e-newsletter and Facebook page at the beginning of April, Newman School announced a contest where the first 15 alums to post a class note using the app would receive a free Newman t-shirt. This is an instant touch point with alums and a fun class note generator! Newman was rewarded with many pictures of new babies, couples on vacation and even a picture of an alum training for the Boston Marathon.
Also, in their most recent e-newsletter, there was another call out for class note submissions and a reminder to alums that they could also use the app as a channel for those submissions. With EverTrue’s Class Note Feature, every time a note is posted, the alumni office is emailed the photo as an attachment for their use as part of the magazine or social media channels.
What other motivators do you have to get your alums to submit class notes, either via an alumni app, or through other means? Tell us what has worked well at your school!