alumni featured in 3 years
alumni engaged
Founded in 1948, Nicholls State University is a comprehensive regional university, located in Thibodaux, Louisiana. With a total alumni strength of over 49,000, Nicholls State University is a part of the University of Louisiana System of universities.
Among its distinctions, Nicholls State University offers the only four-year degree program in culinary arts and geomatics in the state of Louisiana and supplies approximately 80% of the Bayou Region’s teachers and nurses.
With a two-person team handling alumni affairs, Nicholls State University found it exceedingly hard to reach out to such a huge alumni population and keep them engaged throughout the year.
Like most institutions, Nicholls State University had either limited or scattered information with respect to its large alumni population. While the institution was capturing alumni information at events, it was inadequate for maintaining an updated alumni database.
From creating pages to handling multiple channels of communication, all tasks required some level of dependency on the IT team which would further amount to huge delays and unnecessary complications, thus affecting the overall efficiency of the alumni engagement process.
Another problem that the Alumni Affairs team faced was limited visibility of the content that they posted. In order to showcase alumni achievements, the team would interview the alumni they wanted to feature, create content, then add these details to their college website and share it across their social media platforms. That’s it. The problem with this process was that a lot of times, fellow alumni and students would miss these updates and since there wasn’t a designated ‘Alumni Showcase’ page, most alumni and students wouldn’t even know where to look for these updates.
One thing that resonated well for Nicholls State University’s alumni is the Alumni Spotlights section on the ‘News and Updates’ page. A dedicated page on the Nicholls State University’s alumni network, the ‘Alumni Spotlights’ page emphasizes on alumni experiences at the institution, acting as an inspiration for fellow alumni and students.
The Alumni Affairs team collects entries for spotlight via email and social media.
While the institute has been publishing notable alumni achievements for over 3 years now, the approach has changed quite a bit.
Prior to March 2019, Nicholls State University was using a basic article-format to share outstanding achievements of alumni with fellow alumni and students.
This changed in March 2019 when Almabase helped Nicholls State University adopt a newer, visually striking infographic template for Alumni Spotlights.
The institution extensively promotes Alumni Spotlights via its monthly newsletter and social media. The institution maintains a dedicated Facebook page for its alumni, Nicholls State University Alumni Federation where each feature is shared.
With a refined Alumni Spotlights format, Nicholls State University has witnessed greater engagement on its alumni network and social media.
126 Alumni Featured
With consistent weekly features over the last three years, Nicholls State University has been able to successfully build an unmatched reputation for itself. Alumni Spotlights has also helped the institution identify alumni brand ambassadors who are a reflection of Colonel Pride.
With alumni data automatically getting captured from social media platforms during registration, Nicholls University no longer has to worry about manually updating its alumni database. The institution also ensures that its alumni can easily update their profiles, interact with fellow alumni, post career opportunities, and follow updates according to their interests. Out of 49,000 alumni that the institute has, 46,286 are now contactable. Within a year, the institute saw a 159% increase in the number of registered alumni on the digital directory.
94% contactable records
159% increase in the number of registered alumni within a year
With the digital platform streamlining all functions right from creation of pages to multiple channels of communication, the Alumni Affairs team no longer has to rely on the technical team, thus eliminating unnecessary delays and increasing overall efficiency.
Alumni Spotlights not only help alumni get recognition; they also act as a source of inspiration for students looking for guidance in the form of mentors or career opportunities.
Nicholls State University continues to grow alumni engagement & increase brand value via Alumni Spotlights on Almabase. You can see Nicholls State University’s digital alumni network here.
