You are in the People Business - Promote Staff!

While I'm sure you already recognize the importance of your staff, have you thought about putting some effort toward promoting them within your alumni online community?  Cedarville University does a terrific job of promoting their staff by devoting an entire section completely to them.  Their Meet Us section is a creative blend of photographs and information for alumni to consume.  Cedarville University begins with large group pictures of their staff, and then gives a link to individual pictures with baseball card style data for each person. 

What's so great about this is a lot of information is delivered in a simple, eye-catching way.  Visitors learn all about the alumni staff with a simple click.  And - they learn far more than just the basics of their individual job responsibilities, though those are included too.  The staff shares information about their hometowns, education majors, favorite bible verses and colors, hobbies, unusual facts, favorite college memories, and why they enjoy working with alumni.  I'm really impressed with Cedarville University's recognition and promotion of their staff to their alumni - and I am positive it's making a difference.

What type of a difference?  Alumni who are proud of their alumni association and believe it is run by a competent team of people are going to be willing to contribute and participate more often.  That's a pretty big bonus!  In addition, promoting your staff to your alumni in a method similar to Cedarville University's will help personalize the staff to your alumni.  This helps to forge bonds between the alumni association and the alumni.  It's a win-win situation!

When you build up your staff and give your alumni the opportunity to get to know them, you'll find they will reconnect on a more frequent basis.  Give it a try and let me know how it goes!