3 Steps to Engaging Alumni on ACACIAconnect

3 Steps (and 3 tips!) to Engaging Alumni on ACACIAConnect
In working with over 1,200 chapters, ChapterSpot has seen a lot of active chapters successfully re-energize their alumni base. By following these 3 steps, we (the team at ChapterSpot) guarantee that your alumni base will be the strongest it’s been in years.

Step 1: Register your alumni
Email your alumni roster to support@chapterspot.com .
We’ll register them and send them activation links.
*Tip: Just like Constant Contact, your alumni need to opt-in by clicking on the activation link. Don’t worry if this doesn’t happen right away because you can send them up to 2 more reminders! Simply click "# Unactivated Members" under the "Members" tab to re-send activation reminders.

Step 2: Get your website ready for alumni visitors
- Create an Alumni page if you don’t have one (explain that you are making a new initiative to communicate with all alumni)

- Place an Events widget showing upcoming Alumni events

- Place an Alumni registration form on your Alumni page/Homepage

Step 3: Post Alumni Updates!! (this is the fun/important part)
The trick is posting often and posting consistently.

1. Pick an alumni you know well, call them, and ask them to answer a simple survey
What’s your occupation:
Where do you live?
Describe your average Friday night:
Any other alumni/actives living close to you?
Are you Married/Girlfriend/Boyfriend/Single?
What’s your favorite undergraduate memory?
What Alumni should I interview next?
What do you think of our new website?
Have you posted a link to our new website on your Facebook?

2. Post the survey as a News post on your Website (make sure you have a News widget on your homepage and on the Alumni Page)

3. Send a Message to all your Alumni
"Alumni – We just posted our interview with Brother John Doe. To see what John says he does on his Friday nights, click here to visit our Alumni page on our new website: [YOUR ALUMNI PAGE LINK HERE].  We’ll also tell you who John asked us to interview next week! New interviews are posted every Friday!"
4. Post the same message on Facebook/Twitter in case some Alumni aren’t in your email system (*that’s why you need the alumni registration form)
5. Reach out to the next Alumni and continue the trend!

Tips:
- Keep to your routine! Make sure to have a post every Friday no matter what. Once you miss posts, you lose reliability.
- Collect surveys whenever you can! Ran into an alumni at a BBQ? Survey them, save the responses in your phone and when mid-terms come up, you’ll have a interviews saved up.
- Things moving along quickly? Great – start thinking about featuring Alumni businesses!
- Check your database before calling to make sure you have their latest contact details

Questions! (Leave comments below) 
Brothers: What survey questions do you think would be good to ask?
Alumni: How should Actives grab your interest?

ACACIAconnect Service Hours Feature

ACACIAconnect has a new Service Hours feature that our chapters can use to track service hours for all members of the chapter.  Simply login to your ACACIAconnect dashboard, select Tools, then select Service Hours to log your activity.

Hours can be logged as they are completed, or they can be logged at a later date - so if your chapter is already using another format to track these hours, that is ok.  However, it would be ideal if all members log their service hours by the end of each semester.

Any questions?  Email Patrick McGovern at pmcgovern@acacia.org .

Here's a short video to demonstrate the functionality:

Top 5 Ways to Optimize your Website’s Homepage for Recruitment Success

Top 5 Ways to Optimize your Website’s Homepage for Recruitment Success

#1 Recruitment Sign-up Form

• Encourage prospective recruits to leave their contact information with you!
• After your visitors submit the form, your recruitment officers will be emailed their names, phone numbers and other details (it’s also saved in your Recruitment Database).
• Some chapters make the mistake of putting the sign-up form on its own Recruitment page but Webmasters should always keep a short and simple recruitment sign-up form on their homepage.

#2 Revolving Twitter Feed Widget

• The simple motion of a scrolling Twitter feed conveys that your chapter is active and makes your website look trendy compared to other groups/clubs on campus.
• Don’t have your own Twitter? No worries, it’s perfectly fine to HQ’s Twitter feed (@AcaciaHQ) –it will still make your chapter look active.

#3 Image Gallery Widget

• It’s a great idea to place a small Gallery on the homepage showcasing recent activities and great moments. Galleries are excellent opportunities to impress prospective recruits.
• But… avoid using multiple/duplicate images of one event on your homepage. Try to find 1 or 2 images that highlight a recent event and aim to show as many different events as possible. If you have 10+ images from one event, pick just 1 and save the other 9 for an album on one of your inner pages.
• Lastly, make sure pictures are up-to-date! Using pictures on your homepage that are older than 3 months old will make your website look neglected.

#4 Recruitment Calendar

• Place an Event Listing widget on the homepage to showing your next 3 to 5 recruitment events and put it right next to the recruitment sign-up form.
• Remember that your goal is to get prospects to see WHY THEY SHOULD JOIN your organization. Consider showing a list of your upcoming socials, academic, and athletic events that are members-only as well.

#5 Recruitment Officer Contact Information

• Make sure your chapter’s Recruitment Officer can be identified (and it’s even better if there’s a picture or link to their Facebook Profile).
• Prospects that are invited to your events will want to introduce themselves. This makes it more comfortable for the prospect knowing he has a point-of-contact with the chapter.
• This is also important so that your Recruitment Officer can have the opportunity to meet the prospects and introduce them to your other members.