Having observed over a hundred schools successfully bring attention to their alumni reunions via social media, we have sufficient evidence that it is one of the most powerful mediums to promote your alumni reunion successfully.

Here are 7 tested approaches that we’ve witnessed schools employ and get outstanding results with:

1. Showcase alumni experiences at past year reunions

Sharing photos and videos of previous year reunions on your social media page is one of the best ways to attract attention to your alumni reunion event. While alumni may love hearing about wonderful stories about your previous reunions from you, these stories become all the more engaging when they hear it from their friends or peers. Encouraging alumni to share their own experiences from previous years reunions, has proven to be highly rewarding for reunion success.

2. Ask your faculty to share their experiences

If a large amount of your alumni base is still in touch with your faculty or staff, asking faculty members to share updates about upcoming reunions or their experiences at past year reunions is a best practice you should follow.

3. Encourage alumni to take action

Another way to encourage alumni engagement and participation is by creating opportunities for alumni to take some action on your post. Here’s an example: create a simple graphic post with the tagline - “Just three days to go!! Tag 3 people you are looking forward to meeting at the reunion.”

Here’s how William Peace University drew the attention of its alumni and got them talking about their upcoming reunion.

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4. Create something similar to the ‘10-Year Challenge’ on Facebook

Create a campaign similar to the widely popular 10-Year Challenge on Facebook to your advantage by requesting alumni to simply post two photos, side-by-side, taken at least ten years apart. Alternatively, you can use photos from yearbooks and current profiles of alumni to create ‘10-year challenge’ posts. However, in the case of this approach, consent needs to be established before using an alum’s personal photos.

5. Evoke nostalgia with yearbook, graduation photos and countdown posts

Instead of promoting your event the traditional way, capture the attention of your alumni by constantly staying in their social media feed and reminding them of the wonderful memories they’ve had over their time spent at their school.

Here’s how McCarthy Alumni Association gets this right.

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6. Share positive feedback from alumni on your page

Create a campaign asking alumni to respond to “What's something you loved about your Class of 10 Yr Reunion?”. Share the positive feedback you receive from the campaign and from past year reunions on your social media pages, tagging those alumni who’ve provided feedback, thus ensuring a wider reach for your campaign.

7. Keep your alumni hooked with ‘Guess who is coming?’ posters

Pick images of 3-5 alumni, combine them to create a collage with question marks on top of each image, and then post it as a challenge for alumni to guess the names of the people mentioned in the post. To make it more interesting, provide hints. For example, if one of the names to be guessed is "Sarah", you can drop the letters ‘S’, ‘R’, and ‘H’ as a clue. Such campaigns not only get you visibility but also encourage your alumni to take action by responding to the challenge you’ve thrown at them.

When it comes to promoting your alumni reunions, there’s no limit to all that you can do. Here’s a list of techniques for increasing alumni participation to your reunions that have brought success to over a hundred institutions.