false
en,es
Catalog
CASE All Districts Online 2023
Strategies for Engaging with International Alumni ...
Strategies for Engaging with International Alumni Effectively and Efficiently
Back to course
[Please upgrade your browser to play this video content]
Video Transcription
<b>Hello all and welcome to the Session</b> <b>Strategies for engaging with</b> <b>International alumni effectively and</b> <b>Efficiently. We'll be getting started</b> <b>shortly, however, I have a few</b> <b>housekeeping notes for you. On the right</b> <b>hand side of the screen you'll see a</b> <b>window with the chat, Q&A, Feedback</b> <b>and Notes tab. You could use the chat box</b> <b>to chat with other attendees, but please</b> <b>use the key and AQ and a box to send</b> <b>questions and for our presenters. You can</b> <b>also upvote questions in the Q&A panel if</b> <b>you would like to see those questions</b> <b>answered at the end of the session. Time</b> <b>permits we will answer as many questions</b> <b>as we can. The Notes tab is there for you</b> <b>to keep your own notes during the session</b> <b>if you would like to, and we also ask</b> <b>that you can complete a brief evaluation</b> <b>that's found in the Feedback tab at the</b> <b>end of the session. We use those session</b> <b>feedback to continue improving what we</b> <b>offer, and so we truly</b> <b>appreciate you taking the time. Without</b> <b>further ado, please join me in welcoming</b> <b>our presenter, Fiona Mazurenko.</b> <b>Thank you, Lauren. I'm delighted to be</b> <b>here with everybody today. I wish that I</b> <b>could see all of you and that we were</b> <b>together in person, but coming together</b> <b>in this virtual way is something I</b> <b>think we're all used to now and is really</b> <b>talking about being effective and</b> <b>efficient. It's on theme for today.</b> <b>So I'm Finna Mazurenko. I'm the Director</b> <b>of Global Initiatives and Alumni</b> <b>Relations at UT Austin.</b> <b>This is kind of a weird photo to have on</b> <b>an introduction slide, but I include</b> <b>it because it kind of gives you a</b> <b>little insight into why I'm the one</b> <b>talking about this topic today and why</b> <b>I'm so passionate about it. So I am the</b> <b>one on the end there on the left. This is</b> <b>a photo of me from first grade</b> <b>when I was living in Jakarta, Indonesia,</b> <b>where I spent nine years.</b> <b>If you can spot some of the the languages</b> <b>that I have on the slide, pop those in</b> <b>the chat and we'll see if people can</b> <b>guess or understand where those</b> <b>languages are from. But I as I</b> <b>said, I lived in Indonesia, my mom</b> <b>was South African, my dad was English,</b> <b>and I'm a dual citizen. I studied abroad</b> <b>in England and France, and I was a Peace</b> <b>Corps volunteer in Ukraine. So</b> <b>global citizenship,</b> <b>international affairs, connecting people</b> <b>is something that's really in my blood</b> <b>and in my passion. So I am</b> <b>really honored to be leading these</b> <b>efforts at UT Austin and and we'll get into</b> <b>that in a little while and what that</b> <b>looks like at UT. But</b> <b>without further ado, here's kind of what</b> <b>I'm going to talk to you about today.</b> <b>Umm, who, what and</b> <b>why? Why do international</b> <b>alumni matter? How should they be part of</b> <b>your strategy looking at U</b> <b>T as a case study? What is it that we</b> <b>have done? Where are we coming from?</b> <b>Where are we trying to get to?Looking at</b> <b>what our goals are and using those as</b> <b>a pathway of</b> <b>formula to determine what the strategies</b> <b>are that we're implementing to achieve</b> <b>those goals. And hopefully we'll be able</b> <b>to talk through some of your ideas or</b> <b>questions at the end and how you can</b> <b>integrate some of these ideas into what</b> <b>you're doing at your institutions.</b> <b>So who, what and why?</b> <b>My computer is getting a little ahead of</b> <b>me there. This is the Case 2021</b> <b>definition of alumni relations,</b> <b>and I want to start there because I</b> <b>feel that at least at UT Austin,</b> <b>international alumni were not as</b> <b>integrated into this mission of alumni</b> <b>relations as they could have been. And</b> <b>that's something that we're actively</b> <b>working to remedy. But these are</b> <b>the benefits and the missions and goals</b> <b>of alumni relations building</b> <b>mutually. Beneficial relationships.</b> <b>Inspiring alumni to become involved</b> <b>and offer whatever it is that they</b> <b>are able to. You all know the Staffs</b> <b>of engaged alumni in terms</b> <b>of their participation and their.</b> <b>The propensity to give a financial</b> <b>contribution depending on their</b> <b>engagement and then</b> <b>strengthening the institutions</b> <b>reputation. This is especially important</b> <b>for UT. We don't do a lot of</b> <b>marketing especially internationally.</b> <b>And so our alumni around the</b> <b>world are really our ambassadors</b> <b>and so we want to make sure that we're</b> <b>connecting with them in order to amplify</b> <b>and enhance the the university's</b> <b>reputation around the world. And so</b> <b>that's another thing I would just keep in</b> <b>mind as we continue our conversation.</b> <b>But how do international alumni fit into</b> <b>this? They can't come to</b> <b>football tailgates. They're not coming to</b> <b>campus very often.</b> <b>And how can we engage with</b> <b>them in ways that are meaningful to them</b> <b>and that take into consideration these</b> <b>sort of differences that aren't</b> <b>your standard model for alumni relations,</b> <b>at least at US institutions?</b> <b>They have a different approach and</b> <b>understanding to philanthropy. It's</b> <b>not something that's ingrained in many</b> <b>cultures and giving back is.</b> <b>And giving back to an institution that's</b> <b>not in their home country, something that</b> <b>comes up as a challenge, a lot of</b> <b>their identity identifying as an</b> <b>alum or having a particular</b> <b>mascot or something is often foreign</b> <b>depending on again where people are from.</b> <b>And and that's another point that's</b> <b>important to keep in mind is that there</b> <b>is no one-size-fits-all for your</b> <b>international strategy and it's going to</b> <b>depend largely on these</b> <b>nuances in the specific regions</b> <b>or countries. That you're focusing on</b> <b>their experience at your institution too,</b> <b>is different. How undergraduates</b> <b>identify and have that</b> <b>affinity to your school is different than</b> <b>graduate students would. So you T, for</b> <b>example, has</b> <b>the most international students or</b> <b>graduate students, and their experience</b> <b>is very different from that of an</b> <b>undergrad. They're spending a lot of time</b> <b>researching in labs. They're not</b> <b>necessarily going to the big football</b> <b>games or basketball games and.</b> <b>Participating in all of the spirit</b> <b>activities. So</b> <b>those are just some things to think to</b> <b>think about in terms of what makes</b> <b>international alumni engagement different</b> <b>than perhaps what your association</b> <b>or your team is doing in the US.</b> <b>So I've alluded to some things</b> <b>that make international alumni engagement</b> <b>at UT.</b> <b>Challenge or things that we're trying to</b> <b>change. So I'll start from the beginning</b> <b>and just kind of offer us as a</b> <b>case study in looking at some of these</b> <b>particulars of international alumni</b> <b>engagement. Some of you probably</b> <b>recognize this. What starts here changes</b> <b>the world. This is our</b> <b>university motto, it's our tagline,</b> <b>and it's been our guiding principle</b> <b>for years. But. When we have this</b> <b>very aspirational goal in this mission,</b> <b>we weren't really engaging with the world</b> <b>so much. So I'm going back a little bit</b> <b>in history to give you some.</b> <b>I guess airing some institutional</b> <b>laundry, which was?That there wasn't an</b> <b>intentional outreach strategy for</b> <b>international alumni. The</b> <b>international office was really the</b> <b>driving engine in recent years</b> <b>in communications with international</b> <b>alumni.</b> <b>Thinking through what was</b> <b>going on in 2014 when the university</b> <b>really started to think about how we</b> <b>could outreach and engage more with</b> <b>international alumni, It started</b> <b>with the development office</b> <b>and. We had</b> <b>some folks going out into the field,</b> <b>traveling around the world, and they were</b> <b>getting this.</b> <b>Responsive. I haven't heard from you for</b> <b>30 years. I see you've got development</b> <b>in your title. Now all of a sudden you're</b> <b>showing up at my doorstep and you</b> <b>are obviously going to ask me for a gift</b> <b>and and that is not where we wanted to</b> <b>be. So in</b> <b>2014 and the New Years preceding the</b> <b>international office, Texas Development,</b> <b>which was our development office and the</b> <b>Texas Exes, which is our association</b> <b>started to work really closely in how can</b> <b>we focus on friendraising and</b> <b>creating real meaningful engagement</b> <b>opportunities that will then</b> <b>contribute in the long run into financial</b> <b>support for the institution. So</b> <b>we looked at our data.</b> <b>We are more than half a million alumni</b> <b>strong around the world. We've got alumni</b> <b>and 176 countries</b> <b>with top concentrations. I think this</b> <b>will track for all of you in China,</b> <b>India, South Korea, Mexico, United</b> <b>Kingdom. And we'll talk again about</b> <b>data in a minute as a strategy.</b> <b>But I think it's important to frame too</b> <b>that my position is</b> <b>not in the development office, it's not</b> <b>in the alumni association.</b> <b>I am in the portfolio</b> <b>of the Provost office, and</b> <b>so this kind of triad of the development</b> <b>office, the Provost office and the</b> <b>Texas Exes as the</b> <b>association really</b> <b>presents a strong triad at the</b> <b>university that's driven by</b> <b>a commitment to the academic mission.</b> <b>And I know that this is quite unique</b> <b>among institutions. I'm sure a lot of you</b> <b>are not sitting in the Provost office or</b> <b>in the international office. But as a</b> <b>large institution, we have these three</b> <b>engines in different parts of the</b> <b>university, president's office, Provost</b> <b>office. And then in addition, there's</b> <b>eighteen colleges and schools who have</b> <b>their own approach to alumni</b> <b>relations. And So what we have endeavored</b> <b>to do is to create</b> <b>partnerships. And create sort of a</b> <b>centralized coordination or support</b> <b>for international alumni outreach.</b> <b>And so that cross institutional</b> <b>collaboration, central coordination is</b> <b>really important. It keeps everybody on</b> <b>the same page. It</b> <b>allows for</b> <b>consistency and messaging and offering of</b> <b>expertise in regional</b> <b>outreach. And it's also</b> <b>essential to our strategic plan that was</b> <b>outlined last year in this pillar of</b> <b>engaging Longhorns for life</b> <b>and as I mentioned.</b> <b>Having our outreach strategy</b> <b>embedded in our academic mission of the</b> <b>university really allows for some</b> <b>unique events and program</b> <b>and engagement opportunities.</b> <b>So that's kind of a brief</b> <b>history of</b> <b>of where we came from and how we</b> <b>have created this relationship</b> <b>between the alumni association, the</b> <b>international portfolio of the university</b> <b>and an international advancement team in</b> <b>the central development office</b> <b>to. Offered central</b> <b>coordination for intentional outreach</b> <b>to international alumni.</b> <b>What we have done just to give you some</b> <b>idea of.</b> <b>Since 2014, where have we</b> <b>made progress?</b> <b>We have instituted some special</b> <b>communications, some special programs,</b> <b>some special events. We've done virtual</b> <b>programming in person programming</b> <b>and I'm going to talk more specifically</b> <b>about that as we look forward.</b> <b>So as the three entities of ours</b> <b>sort of led by Texas Global where my</b> <b>position sits,</b> <b>we sort of established what are these,</b> <b>where are we trying to get to, what are</b> <b>our looking at the future. Where do we</b> <b>want to be and then how can we get there?</b> <b>So our goals, largely of</b> <b>our international engagement, is to</b> <b>create a really vibrant community of</b> <b>alumni around the world in different</b> <b>places that are involved in a in a</b> <b>multitude of different ways.</b> <b>We wanted to create a</b> <b>a framework of different opportunities</b> <b>in which alumni can become engaged.</b> <b>Obviously people are not. Going to do</b> <b>everything all the time and so we want to</b> <b>have a vast menu of them to</b> <b>participate in depending on what their</b> <b>individual interests are and their time</b> <b>and their availability.</b> <b>Another pillar of our plan</b> <b>is to create a pipeline of engaged</b> <b>international alumni who can really be</b> <b>set up to be strategic and committed</b> <b>partners. So that in 30 years</b> <b>we've been talking to them every year and</b> <b>not just coming at them after no</b> <b>communication, now that they're</b> <b>successful, CEO and some global</b> <b>corporation. And so that we</b> <b>have that established relationship as</b> <b>soon as they're stepping off campus</b> <b>and we don't lose. Touch with them and</b> <b>then this cross institutional commitment</b> <b>to international alumni is something that</b> <b>we have really been working on as well,</b> <b>helping colleges and schools understand</b> <b>why it's important</b> <b>to engage with international alumni</b> <b>and how they can become engaged,</b> <b>how this can work</b> <b>into a college or schools</b> <b>strategy overall for their development</b> <b>goals. And so</b> <b>when we look at these goals, we</b> <b>identified a few strategies that I'll</b> <b>walk you through now and hopefully share</b> <b>some tips and ideas that you all</b> <b>can implement. The most</b> <b>important thing for us is data,</b> <b>data, data, data. I know it's something</b> <b>on the top of everybody's minds and</b> <b>usually a</b> <b>significant source of frustration or</b> <b>challenge and we'll talk about that.</b> <b>We wanted to make sure that we had a</b> <b>really coordinated and robust and</b> <b>effective communications plan, which</b> <b>included storytelling</b> <b>profiles of alumni, sharing of</b> <b>updates. We looked at our</b> <b>data and we wanted to create a</b> <b>targeted outreach plan so that we're not</b> <b>misallocating our resources or doing a</b> <b>lot of things that don't have a large</b> <b>return on investment. So I'll talk about</b> <b>that a little bit more. I</b> <b>talked to about our intra institutional</b> <b>partnerships as part of our</b> <b>strategic activities, the creation</b> <b>of impactful and meaningful events and</b> <b>then of course measuring success and</b> <b>looking where we can make</b> <b>improvements and how we are measuring</b> <b>up against the goals that we've set for</b> <b>ourselves. So</b> <b>data. You know, I</b> <b>showed you our our motto, What starts</b> <b>here changes the world. When I</b> <b>came into this position in 2021 and</b> <b>started looking at our database,</b> <b>that mission was not reflected in our</b> <b>data. Just to give you an example,</b> <b>we have over 40,000 records</b> <b>of international alumni that we</b> <b>have addresses in Austin for about</b> <b>20,000 of them. So we know</b> <b>that they're not still living in Austin.</b> <b>We've still got addresses for when people</b> <b>are on. Campus, but they've been globally</b> <b>mobile for many years. And so</b> <b>that is something that we have really</b> <b>been looking at not only</b> <b>to make sure that we have good</b> <b>communication and contact information for</b> <b>them to reach them, but also to inform</b> <b>our strategy. So</b> <b>the stats that I shared earlier</b> <b>about where our top ten concentrations</b> <b>are and how many countries we have</b> <b>international alumni. Is is kind of an</b> <b>approximation, but tracks with our</b> <b>international student enrollment.</b> <b>And we have looked at that obviously to</b> <b>inform where is it that we've</b> <b>got a concentration of alumni where it</b> <b>would make sense to focus our</b> <b>events, focus our topics, think about</b> <b>what's important in those places</b> <b>and inform the strategy</b> <b>using those statistics and where the</b> <b>relationships already exist. And</b> <b>then making sure that we're updating</b> <b>records as much as possible.</b> <b>And maintaining them and</b> <b>finding our alumni. So a few.</b> <b>Tools that we have started</b> <b>using or look and looking into our</b> <b>Rocket Reach and LinkedIn Sales</b> <b>Navigator. When I gave this</b> <b>presentation at the Case District 4</b> <b>conference in April, I was surprised to</b> <b>hear that nobody was using Rocket Reach.</b> <b>This is a system, a platform that you</b> <b>can use for free at a certain level of</b> <b>finding e-mail addresses for people. So</b> <b>if you're trying to reach somebody and</b> <b>you have outdated e-mail addresses for</b> <b>them, you can search for them in Rocket</b> <b>Reach. To get a current e-mail address.</b> <b>And then LinkedIn Sales Navigator is</b> <b>something that our international</b> <b>advancement team has really.</b> <b>Had great success using. It</b> <b>helps with sort of that cold calling</b> <b>message on LinkedIn when you're trying to</b> <b>do outreach and working around the</b> <b>various barriers there that are set up.</b> <b>But it also is a tool to show you the</b> <b>mobility of your</b> <b>international alumni in terms</b> <b>of their professional and career growth</b> <b>so that your social team can congratulate</b> <b>somebody on a promotion or</b> <b>something like that. So data, of course,</b> <b>is really key in creating a</b> <b>strategy for effective and efficient</b> <b>outreach to international alumni.</b> <b>We did a survey in 2021</b> <b>of our alumni based on the addresses</b> <b>that we had and this tracks with the data</b> <b>that I showed you before, but these were</b> <b>the geographic concentrations and</b> <b>this. Really. Kind</b> <b>of. Set the</b> <b>pathway for where we were going to</b> <b>concentrate our efforts and so we have a</b> <b>lot of activities and</b> <b>and programs.</b> <b>Focused on Asia and different countries</b> <b>within Asia broken down on</b> <b>a on a better level and Europe and</b> <b>Latin America. So that is where we sort</b> <b>of have started our concentrated and</b> <b>coordinated outreach efforts.</b> <b>And this is just an example to of</b> <b>another one of the questions that we</b> <b>asked there, who were they? What was</b> <b>their experience so that we can further</b> <b>drill down our data. And then</b> <b>we also wanted to get a feel for</b> <b>how did they want to be engaged, how</b> <b>interested were they in in attending in</b> <b>person events, virtual events, speaking,</b> <b>coordinating events or</b> <b>hosting events. And so we have</b> <b>used this survey and I would encourage</b> <b>you to do that. If you're starting</b> <b>outreach to international alumni.</b> <b>To do a survey to ask what topics they're</b> <b>interested in, how they want to be</b> <b>engaged, and use that data by country to</b> <b>inform how you continue in</b> <b>your engagement offerings.</b> <b>Umm. We have a really fantastic</b> <b>website and a lot of great</b> <b>stories, and we wanted to make</b> <b>sure that our communications and</b> <b>storytelling were aligned with what we</b> <b>were hearing from alumni in terms of what</b> <b>they were interested in, what they wanted</b> <b>to hear from the university, what</b> <b>was going on in their communities that we</b> <b>could have faculty speak to and</b> <b>and. We wanted to make sure that those</b> <b>were the stories that our communications</b> <b>team was telling</b> <b>our our website is</b> <b>not the main UT website, but is linked</b> <b>closely to it. And so we also make sure</b> <b>that we're feeding our stories to the</b> <b>Central communication team so that they</b> <b>can highlight our international donors</b> <b>and our international alumni on their</b> <b>various channels.</b> <b>One important thing to keep in mind is</b> <b>at least what we have found is. We really</b> <b>found it important to meet alumni where</b> <b>they are to be on the platforms where</b> <b>they're already engaging.</b> <b>If you you can look at your analytics and</b> <b>see sort of what your international</b> <b>following is on Facebook</b> <b>or what are the dominant</b> <b>places that and platforms that you're</b> <b>important alumni concentrations are</b> <b>using. So I've got WhatsApp,</b> <b>that's the majority of where a lot of our</b> <b>alumni are connecting. Women's groups for</b> <b>Panama and for South Korea</b> <b>and for Singapore, it can be a</b> <b>little bit overwhelming, so just be</b> <b>careful on how you manage your channels.</b> <b>But you know, we have this</b> <b>sort of exclusive</b> <b>community for alumni to</b> <b>come to and we're having a hard time</b> <b>executing that as a as a.</b> <b>Effective strategy because it's just</b> <b>another place where people have to come</b> <b>to in addition to all of the other</b> <b>platforms like LinkedIn where they</b> <b>already are. And we have really the most</b> <b>success on the social media platforms</b> <b>that are dominant in the places that</b> <b>we're trying to engage more.</b> <b>So how we are leveraging those groups</b> <b>too is to sort of Dr.</b> <b>inbound marketing. So you've got these</b> <b>wonderful stories that are going to</b> <b>inspire people to become engaged or</b> <b>events to attend to and</b> <b>we post those in those groups and lead</b> <b>them to our website so that we get more</b> <b>information sharing there and and</b> <b>drive traffic to the website that then</b> <b>can inspire them to engage in other ways</b> <b>as well and again looking at your. Data</b> <b>to inform where you're</b> <b>spending resources on telling stories</b> <b>on your communications. Related</b> <b>to that, you know we look at our at</b> <b>our data or our concentrations are</b> <b>looking at important university dates and</b> <b>then sort of drilling down to</b> <b>holidays of cultural importance or</b> <b>national significance to audiences that</b> <b>are important to us. So these are a few</b> <b>examples of. Social media campaigns</b> <b>or emails that we have created to</b> <b>go out to certain alumni</b> <b>populations to recognize</b> <b>that we know there are cultural</b> <b>holidays or things of significance that</b> <b>are going on in their lives and</b> <b>celebrating those with them.</b> <b>I would, you know, lean on student</b> <b>designers or graphic designers</b> <b>or things free tools like Canva to</b> <b>create graphics. If you don't have</b> <b>an amazing graphics team like I have</b> <b>access to, thankfully</b> <b>translation can be really tricky, so</b> <b>I'll just put that as a note in your</b> <b>mind. If you're going to translate</b> <b>certain messages to have a</b> <b>strategy for vetting those translations</b> <b>really carefully to make sure that you're</b> <b>not saying anything.</b> <b>That's different from the message that</b> <b>you're wanting to deliver and then also</b> <b>leveraging, you know, the students that</b> <b>you have staff on your.</b> <b>Organization or faculty to sort of vet</b> <b>those messages, the colors that are used,</b> <b>imagery that are used in in those</b> <b>targeted outreach and then your alumni</b> <b>leaders too and getting their</b> <b>their input on whether something would be</b> <b>appreciated or.</b> <b>It's culturally appropriate. So just some</b> <b>examples of of communications that we</b> <b>have sent out and have had a really great</b> <b>response to open rates and engagement</b> <b>rates with Lunar New Year, with Mexican</b> <b>Independence Day, with Bastille Day</b> <b>that's coming up and and then</b> <b>our Canadian Thanksgiving, this is</b> <b>one that we started last year and had a</b> <b>really great response with people saying,</b> <b>wow, I didn't even know UT knew there was</b> <b>a different Thanksgiving date in Canada.</b> <b>Thanks so much for reaching out. Um.</b> <b>I mentioned how important it is</b> <b>for cross campus collaboration.</b> <b>These are the different offices that UT</b> <b>that are really important in having a</b> <b>partnership with and I would imagine that</b> <b>this is similar at your institution as</b> <b>well. If you're a</b> <b>small office, a one person team,</b> <b>whatever it is, you can lean on other</b> <b>resources that your university for</b> <b>information. If you're not in the</b> <b>international office, you know you can</b> <b>reach out to them to understand what your</b> <b>international enrollment looks like. What</b> <b>are the international students facing?</b> <b>What opportunities are there for donors</b> <b>that want to engage and support</b> <b>international students or activities at</b> <b>the university with the development</b> <b>office?I I'm not a</b> <b>frontline gift officer. I love being</b> <b>the assist.</b> <b>I'm not big on sports analogies, but I</b> <b>think about it as like lining up in the</b> <b>World Cup of soccer,</b> <b>making sure that the person who's going</b> <b>to score the goal has all of the</b> <b>information at their fingertips. And</b> <b>that's where the partnerships become</b> <b>really important. We</b> <b>have also worked with our centers and</b> <b>Career Services office across campus</b> <b>on the centers, with the regional focuses</b> <b>for events and with career</b> <b>services for programming.</b> <b>Targeted at graduating students, and I'll</b> <b>talk a little bit about that more now.</b> <b>One thing that we do is an alumni</b> <b>orientation for graduating</b> <b>international students. But they have</b> <b>unique concerns, unique things</b> <b>going on in their lives that are</b> <b>different than US students who don't have</b> <b>to worry about immigration documents</b> <b>or keeping their status or moving back</b> <b>home or moving to another international</b> <b>country. So we</b> <b>have. An orientation that</b> <b>kind of explains to international</b> <b>students what resources are available to</b> <b>them after they leave campus, how we can</b> <b>continue to support them. We're</b> <b>working on a mentorship program where</b> <b>we're connecting international students</b> <b>as they're graduating with international</b> <b>alumni to share advice and tips as</b> <b>they're entering the workforce. And then</b> <b>we work with our international chapters</b> <b>of the Texas Exes to do send offs and</b> <b>welcomes for.</b> <b>Send offs for new international students</b> <b>coming to UT and welcomes for recent</b> <b>graduates coming back to their</b> <b>communities. For</b> <b>our alumni, we have</b> <b>done a number of in person and virtual</b> <b>events. We've done</b> <b>in person events now in Korea,</b> <b>Singapore, Taiwan which is where this</b> <b>photo is from from March of this year</b> <b>across Mexico in</b> <b>addition to several virtual events and</b> <b>these are really sort of topic led</b> <b>we feature faculty or leadership</b> <b>speaking to our. Strategic plan or</b> <b>topics of interest like journalism in</b> <b>Latin America or climate change and</b> <b>conservation, where we bring in a faculty</b> <b>expert and an alumni speaker if we</b> <b>can, to have a dialogue.</b> <b>And we've had really great feedback about</b> <b>those we</b> <b>partner with where we</b> <b>combine, I would say our in person events</b> <b>and outreach with outbound delegations.</b> <b>So if you have faculty that are</b> <b>traveling or your international offices</b> <b>traveling, working with them</b> <b>to host events while</b> <b>they're in country, talking to academic</b> <b>partners, engaging with the alumni</b> <b>community where they're going.</b> <b>We leverage faculty that are</b> <b>traveling. We connect with</b> <b>our global risk and safety team to find</b> <b>out who is registered their international</b> <b>travel. So we know which faculty are</b> <b>going abroad and can ask them to meet</b> <b>with somebody. So for example, we have.</b> <b>Faculty that was going to Singapore, we</b> <b>had a.</b> <b>An alum there who was really wanting to</b> <b>to engage. And so we set up the faculty</b> <b>that was traveling to Singapore that we</b> <b>knew about with with that</b> <b>alum. And then</b> <b>measuring success to make sure that</b> <b>you're staying on track. We're looking at</b> <b>our database. How many more records do we</b> <b>have? How many of those 20,000</b> <b>alumni that we have often addresses for?</b> <b>Are we updating? Looking at your</b> <b>analytics on your social media, are you</b> <b>reaching audiences outside of the</b> <b>US in line with where you're trying to</b> <b>get to? What is your website traffic look</b> <b>like? And then of course, attendance at</b> <b>events, the Net Promoter score And then</b> <b>what sort of. Financial contributions,</b> <b>Are you getting out of here?</b> <b>Out of your international alumni</b> <b>engagement. OK.</b> <b>And just couple tool tips for how</b> <b>to achieve that is</b> <b>surveys and trackable URL.</b> <b>Which your web team hopefully can create</b> <b>for you, and if not, you can create them</b> <b>on your own. And just as I wrap</b> <b>up, these are two</b> <b>must reads that I encourage you to look</b> <b>at if you haven't yet. The</b> <b>1st is Engaging International Alumni</b> <b>Strategic Partners. This was a</b> <b>a publication by NASA which is the</b> <b>International Education Association by</b> <b>some names that are probably familiar to</b> <b>you and then the Alumni Way by</b> <b>Maria Gayle. So this is</b> <b>my contact information. I'm always</b> <b>happy to speak with</b> <b>you and then I</b> <b>would encourage you also, if you're</b> <b>interested to see what we're doing on</b> <b>social, to follow us on those handles.</b> <b>And Larson and excited to hear if there's</b> <b>any questions. There is. Thank you</b> <b>so much for your presentation. We have</b> <b>a Luthra of questions to get</b> <b>through. So I'm going to jump right in</b> <b>with our first question And it is, are</b> <b>there any specific programming that you</b> <b>all do that is virtual in order to engage</b> <b>with international alumni? And can you</b> <b>give examples? Yeah. So we have a series</b> <b>called the Texas Global Dialogues. Those</b> <b>were the virtual events. That I was</b> <b>talking about where we sort of look at</b> <b>where do we have really engaging</b> <b>faculty that we come across who can</b> <b>deliver an</b> <b>meaningful and engaging online</b> <b>conversation. So our Senior Vice Provost</b> <b>for global engagement moderates that we</b> <b>invite the faculty, we invite an</b> <b>expert. I'll give you one</b> <b>example. We did a a Texas Global</b> <b>Dialogue on Global Health.</b> <b>During COVID, of course, that was on top</b> <b>of everybody's mind. So we had</b> <b>a professor at our medical school talking</b> <b>to an alum who was the</b> <b>European Regional director for the</b> <b>World Health Organization. And so we came</b> <b>up with a script of questions and</b> <b>and then collected questions kind of like</b> <b>we have now in the Q&A. And so</b> <b>we do that and we found that an hour is</b> <b>too short. An hour and a half seems to be</b> <b>optimal for our conversation. And</b> <b>questions. And we vary the</b> <b>time too, depending on</b> <b>who we're trying to engage at that time.</b> <b>Thinking through time zones, we found</b> <b>that like seven o'clock, 8:00 o'clock in</b> <b>the morning works well for</b> <b>almost hitting all of our time zones.</b> <b>Sometimes we do them in the evening too.</b> <b>Hit Um Asia better</b> <b>Um. I think I'm leaving out some</b> <b>important tidbits on what what those</b> <b>approach made those virtual events good,</b> <b>but. We always have about, I</b> <b>think 60 to 90 people show up to those</b> <b>and try to keep them short and</b> <b>sweet. I remembered what my other tip</b> <b>was. If you're doing a virtual event, try</b> <b>not to have more than three or four</b> <b>speakers on it, as it gets kind of</b> <b>unruly when you're trying to do a virtual</b> <b>event. Thank you. Our</b> <b>second question is in your work, our</b> <b>international alumni defined by those</b> <b>that live outside the US or those who</b> <b>came in as international students,</b> <b>whether they stayed in the States or</b> <b>moved back abroad.</b> <b>Yes, we we look at both of</b> <b>those. So for our populations that we're</b> <b>working with in terms of alumni,</b> <b>it's anybody living outside of the US we</b> <b>want to make sure that they're engaged</b> <b>and that we're tracking where they're</b> <b>moving. So in our survey, we kind of ask</b> <b>is this your permanent location or are</b> <b>you going to be moving in a few</b> <b>years for students</b> <b>and for programming for specific for</b> <b>international students then we're looking</b> <b>at. Um, our soon to be</b> <b>alumni who were international students</b> <b>specifically at UT. And so our our</b> <b>definition is broad and includes</b> <b>globally minded alumni too. So alumni in</b> <b>the United States who may be interested</b> <b>in what the university is doing globally</b> <b>and want to know how</b> <b>we're preparing students to be global</b> <b>leaders and what to support study abroad</b> <b>for example. So it kind of</b> <b>depends on our program and outreach of</b> <b>how we define that. But, but pretty</b> <b>broadly. Awesome.</b> <b>How do you handle general data protection</b> <b>regulations? Do you use an opt in method</b> <b>or is it implied consent?Great</b> <b>question. Especially with the GDP sort</b> <b>of curveball that we were all thrown a</b> <b>few years ago, It's opt in for the most</b> <b>part. Fun</b> <b>story. Our alumni</b> <b>association and our university</b> <b>database are separate and don't talk to</b> <b>each other. And when G DRP wanted to</b> <b>place, the alumni association had to wipe</b> <b>their entire database and really just</b> <b>have everybody opt back in,</b> <b>which presented another obstacle and</b> <b>challenge.</b> <b>It is something that you have to be</b> <b>quite, quite careful with, as you know</b> <b>and and we do have folks who can weigh in</b> <b>on.</b> <b>The legality of it on the country level</b> <b>and often your alumni are the best</b> <b>resource for that and to advise you how</b> <b>to best handle the data question.</b> <b>Does your team have UM?Do you</b> <b>have a team collecting and Oregon syncing</b> <b>updates of Lost alumni</b> <b>through Rocket Reach or LinkedIn? Or</b> <b>how do you manage that?</b> <b>It's a little bit ad hoc, so I can only</b> <b>speak to me in my team. The development</b> <b>team is a little bit different and much</b> <b>more robust than larger, and they have a</b> <b>whole research team that is looking at</b> <b>high level prospects and doing a lot of</b> <b>research and updating their information.</b> <b>Whenever my team, my small</b> <b>Sprite team, finds new information, we do</b> <b>go into the university database and make</b> <b>sure that it's updated there so that</b> <b>that's not living on a spreadsheet on our</b> <b>computers and will be lost once one of us</b> <b>moves on to a new position. Umm.</b> <b>So we kind of do it on</b> <b>the ad hoc individual</b> <b>basis. I think the development office has</b> <b>a much better strategy for that, I'm</b> <b>sure. I'm sure they do for LinkedIn</b> <b>Sales Navigator, we have</b> <b>had individual development officers or</b> <b>staff members using that and now we're</b> <b>looking at it more of an enterprise</b> <b>account because we have so many people</b> <b>that are using it.</b> <b>I wish I was more of an expert in IT, but</b> <b>we haven't instituted our Enterprise</b> <b>membership yet.</b> <b>But it allows you to create sort of</b> <b>streams and themes and countries and</b> <b>boards that you can look at. And it's</b> <b>attached to your personal LinkedIn. So</b> <b>that's just one thing to keep in mind is</b> <b>if you have users on your license,</b> <b>it will still be attached to them if they</b> <b>leave your team. So you have to have</b> <b>something in place to make sure that that</b> <b>license is freed up to go to the next</b> <b>staff member. Awesome. Thank you,</b> <b>you. So we're going to be beginning to</b> <b>wrap up, but I just wanted to mention</b> <b>some of the people that are watching and</b> <b>where they're from. So shout outs to</b> <b>London ON. We have many</b> <b>people from British Columbia, Victoria</b> <b>and plenty of other places within the US</b> <b>We have California, Cincinnati,</b> <b>represented, Kentucky represented. So a</b> <b>lot of different faces and places that</b> <b>we're listening and found this</b> <b>information valuable. So thank you,</b> <b>Fiona. And all of our</b> <b>attendees, before</b> <b>transitioning onto the next session, I</b> <b>want to remind you to complete that</b> <b>feedback survey that's on the right of</b> <b>your screen, just so that we could obtain</b> <b>more information and further better</b> <b>our services to you. And</b> <b>so thank you again and please return to</b> <b>the agenda screen to be your next</b> <b>session, which will be the closing</b> <b>plenary. Thank you and have a great rest</b> <b>of your day.</b>
Video Summary
The video content is a presentation on strategies for engaging with international alumni effectively and efficiently. The presenter, Fiona Mazurenko, discusses various aspects of international alumni engagement, including the importance of international alumni, strategies for engaging with them, and specific programs and events for international alumni. She emphasizes the need for data-driven approaches and partnerships within the institution to successfully engage with international alumni. Mazurenko also shares examples of virtual events, targeted communications, and alumni orientation programs that have been implemented at UT Austin. The presenter highlights the importance of understanding the specific needs and interests of international alumni and meeting them where they are, both geographically and on various social media platforms. The presentation concludes with a discussion on measuring success and recommended reading materials on engaging international alumni. No credits are mentioned.
Asset Caption
CASE Career Levels: 3
CASE Competencies: Strategic Thinking, Relationship Building
Keywords
international alumni
engagement strategies
data-driven approaches
partnerships
virtual events
targeted communications
alumni orientation programs
×