You might think the most important audience to a university is prospective students, and indeed this is where most universities tend to invest most of their energy and resources. But for established institutions, it can actually be more beneficial to focus initially on alumni.

A highly active alumni community can contribute to the health of the university in many ways, including financially, in the way of monetary donations, and otherwise, and via things like positive word-of-mouth and mentorships.

Of course, alumni aren’t going to feel particularly generous with their money or time if the university only calls when they want something. It is up to universities to regularly engage alumni in university life and earn their loyalty and support. So how do universities do this using WeChat?

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Keep alumni informed about alumni events

Alumni events are a key means of keeping alumni actively involved in the university, and WeChat is a great way of letting alumni know about these events via messages, moments ads or official account pages.

Create WeChat content based on alumni success stories

Successful alumni are the university’s best advertisements. Consider approaching some key alumni about becoming ambassadors for the university and telling their success stories for WeChat posts and videos (as well as for other assets like the university’s website and alumni magazine). Not only is this very flattering for the alumni in question, but these real-life stories are very powerful ways of connecting with prospective students and showing them what might be possible if they choose to enrol in your institution.

Create WeChat groups where alumni can advise prospective students

The other benefit of alumni is they’ve gone through exactly what prospective and current students are going through now, and are therefore excellent sources of information and advice. You could use WeChat to set up groups where prospective students could ask questions to alumni directly about the application process or the university experience, or where current students could seek advice about employment or postgraduate education.

Create WeChat groups around topics of interest

Tap into alumni’s passion for certain subjects by creating forums for alumni and students to discuss shared areas of interest, whether that’s science, history, commerce, and so on. Alumni get the opportunity to share their knowledge, while prospective students get a taste of what it might be like to be in a stimulating educational environment.

Message alumni directly

Universities can also use WeChat to talk directly with alumni to seek advice and stay in touch. You could, for example, survey alumni about what type of events they wish they had seen when they were prospective or current students, or about the types of events alumni themselves would enjoy, or you could ask alumni to provide positive reviews for the university that you can then use in marketing collateral.

As you can see, there are myriad ways alumni can help generate and spread positive messaging about your university to prospective students in particular – which is why they should be a vital part of your content marketing strategy.

Still confused about how to go about developing an effective content marketing strategy for alumni on WeChat? We’re here to help – just get in touch.