Northwest

Alumni
Association
by Talk To Me Media
Planning

Page 1
700 University Dr, Maryville, MO , 64468 T 515.729.0316
Table of Contents

2 The Brand
History
Products/Services
3 Social Media Footprint
4 Key Influencers
5 Target Audience
Message
6 Content Strategy
7 Content Strategy (cont.)
8 Engagement Strategy
9 Measurement Strategy
 The Brand
History
Mission Statement - The Northwest Missouri State University Alumni Association fosters lifelong
relationships through initiatives and opportunities that advance the University and its alumni,
future alumni, and friends.

The Alumni Association was founded on Oct. 27, 2000, with the intent of establishing and
maintaining connections within the Northwest Missouri State University family. Its purpose is to
provide alumni and friends with educational, developmental, and social opportunities to support
Northwest Missouri State University. The Alumni Association is recognized as a 501(c)(3) Non-
Profit organization with chapters in areas such as Arizona, Iowa, Illinois, Colorado, Texas,
Nebraska, Japan, and other parts of Missouri.

Products/Services
The Alumni Association membership is complementary to first-year graduates. After the first
year, a minimum donation of $50 per person to Northwest entitles you to an annual
membership. A minimum donation of $85 per couple to Northwest entitles you and your spouse
to a joint membership. Incentives and benefits include:
Alumni Magazine: The magazine is published twice a year and is mailed to every
graduate of the University. It can also be viewed online as well.
Auto Decal
Bearcat License Plate Program: Northwest Alumni Association membership allows a
member to purchase a specialized Bearcat license plate. The plates are only available to
Missouri residents. A member simply makes a donation of at least $25 or more to the
Northwest Annual Fund.
Discounts at participating businesses:
o Bearcat Bookstore (15% discount)
o The Student Body (15% discount)
o Kentucky Fried Chicken in Maryville (10% discount)
o Owens Library
Access to Career Services
Benefits Banking with Commerce Bank
Golf Tee Times: Play it Forward Golf allows a member to save up to 70% when playing
at over 2,300 courses across the U.S. and over 80 in Missouri alone. Every time a
member plays, the alumni association earns funds for new activities.
Hotel Discounts: Special discount rates at Kansas City Airport Marriott and Comfort Inn
in Maryville.
Alumni Insurance Program
Tourin Bearcats: offers a good selection of trips at several price levels that appeal to a
variety of age groups.
US Bank Credit Cards

2
 Social Media Footprint
Current Best Practices
The Alumni Association has an online presence in many different social media such as
Facebook, Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, as well as its website. The current best practices are
Facebook and LinkedIn because they both have over 2,000 members or fans. It is a great idea
to have the Virtual Tour section of Facebook, which includes a walking tour, videos, and
photos of campus facilities. Other best practices on Facebook are the polls and Northwest news.

Alumni Association Social Media

There are many different accounts, groups, and pages for Northwest Missouri State University
Alumni on each of the social media websites listed below. This is not necessarily a good thing.
These could be distracting people who are trying to locate the Alumni Association or leading
them to the wrong account. The accounts marked below are the accounts run directly by the
Alumni Association out of Northwest Missouri State University.

Facebook Twitter
Northwest Missouri State University Alumni @NWMSUalumni
Association: NWMSU Alumni
Likes: 2,670 Tweets: 227
Talking about this: 9 Followers: 45
Events: 30 Following: 363
Notes: 13
Polls: 3 LinkedIn
"What do you miss about Northwest?" votes: 78 NWMSU Alumni Group
"What was your favorite part of Homecoming?" Members: 2,111
votes: 19 Comments last week: 1
"Where was your favorite place to study at Discussion last week: 2
Northwest?" votes: 34 Location: 47% in KC
Function: 10% sales

However, there are alumni pages for different organizations within Northwest (eg. Bearcat
Marching Band). There are also pages and groups run by the regional groups of the Alumni
Association (eg. Mid-Missouri and Central Iowa). All of these can be considered competitors
because they are not run by the Alumni Association directly and they have no control over what
these other accounts post on the Internet. A list of these is on page four.

3
 Key Influencers
The key influencers on the Northwest Missouri State University Alumni Facebook page are
alumni and they will be talking to other alumni on the page, inviting them to events, updating
them on news about other alumni, and thanking Northwest for memories and relationships they
made while they were attending school at Northwest. For example, in September, Justin J
wrote a post encouraging other alumni to vote for a photograph in a contest that a Northwest
student entered. He advocated his post by urging people to support a fellow Bearcat. There is a
Recommendations section on the Facebook page as well, where alumni can encourage people
who read it to come to Northwest.

Page/Group Members Pos. Neg. Neutral Key Influencers

Facebook
Northwest Missouri State University Alumni 2649 21 3 71 Northwest Missouri State University
Northwest Band Alumni Association 211 5 - 21 Northwest Missouri State University
NWMSU Alumni Association - Kansas City Alumni & Friends Chapter 177 7 - 39 Northwest Missouri State University
NW Advanced Advertising Strategies Alumni 30 3 - 6
Northwest Missouri State University Alumni Association Springfield Chapter 25 1 - 6 Mark DeVore (President)
Mid-Mo Bearcat Alumni Chapter 77 4 - 7 Northwest Missouri State University
AZ Bearcats 76 2 - 38 Northwest Missouri State University
Northwest Mass Comm Alums 395 3 1 8 Will Murphy
NWMSU Central Iowa Alumni Chapter 98 10 2 19 Laura Peterson

Blogs
Blogs.nwmissouri.edu/kcalumni/# - - - 1 Amy Washam (President)
Kansas City Alumni & Friends Chapter
centraliowabearcats.blogspot.com - - - 1 Stephanie Moore (Social Chair)
Dawnette Smith (Student Support
Central Iowa Alumni Chapter Central Iowa Bearcat Connection
Chair)
Travis Lehman (Membership Chair)
Twitter
NWMSUAlumni 379 1 - 1
NWKCAlumni 11 - - -
IowaNWBearcats 27 - - -
MidMOBearcats 11 - - 1

LinkedIn
NWMSU Alumni Group 2111 - - - Sean Reeves (Group Owner)

4
 Message
Target Audience
There are currently around 60,000 Alumni and Friends. Many recent graduates do not give their
contact information to the Alumni Association when they relocate and find a job after
graduation and moving out of Maryville. The target audience for the Alumni Associations social
media is recent graduates under 50 years of age. Our group would like to target the graduating
seniors, as well as alumni who have graduated less than 10 years ago.

Message
The Northwest Missouri State University Alumni Association will speak as one united voice for all
current and future alumni and focus on the Once a Bearcat, Always a Bearcat motto. The
Alumni Association strives to keep former students and friends aware of events taking place on
campus and at each of the regional associations and will make alumni feel welcome on campus
at any time. It also seeks to both rekindle and continue friendships between former students
and serves as a networking tool for former Bearcats. We encourage the Alumni Association to
use the following social media outlets:
Facebook: This will be our primary platform for communicating with members of the
Alumni Association and reaching out to potential members. This platform will assist with
events for the Alumni Association and the regional branches. It will allow members to
see who is attending group events, which is a motivator for member interaction. It
should be used as a central location to find any and all information about the Alumni
Association, much like the web page. Videos and pictures should be uploaded and
posted of events that have happened and news about fellow Bearcats. You can also
spark comments, conversations and attention in general from videos and pictures. It
would also be beneficial to use the check-in feature that Facebook has to encourage
engagement at events.
Twitter: Secondary platform to engage actively with members and potential members
who have questions and concerns that need to be addressed quickly. It should be used
to update Alumni on more current things, as they are happening, or help to remind
Alumni of events as the dates are approaching. Twitter should be used as a way to
update followers as things are happening or quickly approaching. This can also be used
as a way to post pictures and videos as the Alumni events are happening.
LinkedIn: The Northwest Alumni group has more than 2,000 members, so continuing to
encourage engagement would be beneficial and would reach many Bearcats for
networking opportunities.

With the help of a calendar of events, the Alumni Association should have a schedule of when
to start promoting those events via suggested social media outlets. The Alumni Association
should schedule when to utilize the social media and plan what to say. Social Media can
become a way to remind and inform followers, fans, friends, etc. about various events, and
updates on Northwest. Having a set calendar of when and what to post, tweet, and share will
help to keep the Alumni Association organized with its social media and assure it is getting its
message out successfully.

5
 Content Strategy

If someone is going to take the time to write a comment, repost, or retweet anything that you
say, make sure you acknowledge them for doing so, whether the sentiment is good or bad.
When users see this human interaction from your brand, you are seen as reliable and
trustworthy. Make sure that you are honest, authentic and open, and you will gain trust in your
social community.

Facebook
The Alumni Association is improving its presence on Facebook. However, the improvement is
mainly in consistency of its posts. It also needs to post content that engages its followers, as
well as encourages new followers. Here are some suggestions:
Use the cover photo to draw attention to the various social media outlets. It could be
designed by a student, instead of using a photo. It is smart to use the same profile
picture and cover photos across all social media because it will create a unifying image
of the Alumni Association.
Create contests that involve your fans and their friends.
Listen to your community! Use Facebook insights and click data to listen both
qualitatively and quantitatively. Youll be able to see how your community reacts to
various posts, from post type to time of day and more and be able to build off of that
knowledge in the future to better results.
Spell check, grammar check, fact check, and proofread every post to reduce mistakes
and ensure credibility.

Scheduling
Facebook posts receive a higher level of engagement during non-business hours (8 p.m.
to 7 a.m.), so dont forget about evenings.
Links have the highest average click through rates from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. during the
week, with Wednesday at 3 p.m. being the best time.
Develop a monthly content calendar for your posts. While you will need to adjust quickly
to last-minute events, this can provide a road map for the month. This also ensures you
do not simply forget to post an event or important information.

Examples

Post your favorite photos of Northwest on our wall by Thursday and we will pick our favorite to
use as the Northwest Missouri State University Alumni cover photo for the month of November!

Dont forget to come out to the Kansas City Center on Dec. 10 to the Kansas City Alumni and
Friends Chapter Holiday Party. (Paste the URL of the event into the content section, and the
event picture and information will appear)

6
 Content Strategy (cont.)
Twitter
Twitter is a vastly underused resource for the Alumni Association. It would be very beneficial for
the Alumni Association because many recent and future graduates are using Twitter to promote
themselves.

Connecting
For your full message to be retweetable, keep your character limit at 140 minus the amount of
characters used by RT @NWMSUalumni, and stay up-to-date on generic and Twitter-specific
acronyms to make the most of the character limit.

Engage
Dont be afraid to reply your followers, even if it is to something negative. Overall,
followers appreciate organizations addressing their concerns via social media.
Use relevant links in your posts so people and other organizations with many followers
are more likely to retweet.
Use hashtags with keywords in your posts to encourage people to engage in the
conversation.
Tag people or organizations in your tweets because they will often reply or retweet your
tweet. This will send your message and your name to their followers, increasing your
followers and engagement.

Scheduling
For links to get the most traction, post earlier in the week between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
EST and tweet on the weekends. Twitter engagement rates for brands are 17 percent
higher on Saturday and Sunday.
Use applications like HootSuite to schedule tweets, so social media is working even
when youre not. However, it is important to monitor these websites at all times and
reply to questions during more than just business hours.
Use www.sleepingtime.org to see when users tweet the most (and least).

Examples

Homecoming is coming up! What was your favorite memory from Homecoming?
#nwhomecoming

Northwest Alumni are doing great things! Check out this article to find out more: (link to article
on website)

@presidentjazz will be joining us at the Holiday Party on Dec. 10. Here are directions to the
Kansas City Center: (link)

7
 Engagement Strategy
Facebook
The Alumni Association should utilize the following:
Events: Create Facebook events to keep track of the guest list, to promote and remind
members of the events, and to reach perspective members
Photos: Photo albums are an excellent way to gain engagement from users.
Linking: Linking to other information on a website of some sort increases traffic to the
website and gives members important information.
Polls: People enjoy giving their opinions on things that they are passionate about, so it
would be beneficial to ask questions about their alma mater and their experiences at
Northwest.
Many division-1 universities use their Facebook page to share pictures and stories with alumni
that is happening at their school. They also only update every 2-3 days so that way their alumni
are not overloaded with news but also it is not so staggered that people forget that the alumni
page is there.
Twitter
The last tweet from the Alumni Association Twitter was in 2011, so tweeting more often and
about relevant content can only improve engagement on Twitter. Retweeting is an excellent
form of engagement, but should not be depended on. Asking questions is a helpful way to get
followers involved in the conversation. Encouraging hashtags at events could increase
engagement at events.

Recommendations
The Alumni Association should, instead of solely sharing what Northwest Missouri State
University posts or tweets, put unique content that alumni can only find on the Alumni
Association Facebook or Twitter. In order to find that information, members and perspective
members would have to follow or like the Alumni Associations account.
Another way the alumni can reach out to the audience would be to converge it with the Alumni
Magazine using integrated marketing communications. They can put unseen photos or coverage
that will not fit into the magazine onto the Facebook page so it can be viewed and can also
drive alumni to the Magazine as well as the Facebook page. The Alumni Association could also
tweet breaking news and sneak peeks from the Alumni Magazine.
The Alumni Magazine could also ask for stories from different alumni to put on the Facebook
page or photos using Instagram and things like that to help the alumni be more involved and
want to be a part of the Association.

8
 Measurement Strategy
The best way to measure the effectiveness of social media is to examine its impact on all areas
of the Alumni Association. The first step in this is to set a baseline, or, where you currently are
at in social media, web analytics, and donations. Facebook Insights and web analytics software
can be used to gather this information.

A timeline should be established for the following key performance indicators:

when posts occur
new likes/followers each week or month
total weekly reach
website visitors, possibly even segmented by social media referrals
number of online donationspossibly segmented by social media referrals
number of donations

Once a baseline has been set and social media marketing is implemented, these KPIs should be
revisited and monitored regularly. Then these timelines should be overlaid and analyzed for
upward trends between social media usage and key business metrics.

Utilizing the plan set forth in this document, the Northwest Missouri Alumni Association can
anticipate in 6 months time:
15% increase in social media followers
10% increase in donations
10% increase in event participation