The full conference takes place over three days this year, from 7 to 9 August, at the Nanyang Executive Centre in Singapore. Full details are here:

http://www.case.org/Conferences_and_Training/APIAR12.html

Last year's was the first-ever alumni relations institute in Asia, and it received great reviews from participants. This year, we've updated the schedule and content to reflect attendees' needs. The Institute is more compact, so you'll spend less time away from the office. Among other topics, we'll explore

• using digital tools for generating alumni engagement
• the relationship between alumni relations and fundraising, and 
• working with students and alumni volunteers. 

We'll also explore metrics and benchmarking, connecting with international alumni, branding for alumni associations, ethics, and how to keep in touch with recent alumni.

CASE is also providing a discount for 2 or more delegates from the same institution who register together.

Here's the full schedule:

APIAR 2012 Full Schedule

As a bonus, the event ends just as Singapore gears up for its National Day celebrations (9 August), so if you're coming to Singapore, stay for the holiday weekend, and enjoy parades, concerts, and fireworks. A lot of fireworks. 

Here's a short (< 2 minutes) video welcome from Institute chair Marie Earl (note that after the video was recorded, the end date for the conference was changed to 9 August):

CASE APIAR 2012 – Come Join Us in Singapore!

Photo: Fireworks on Singapore's National Day, by Lip Jin Lee via Creative Commons.

My contribution is a section on Challenges in Global Alumni Relations.

The book consists of a hard copy (loose-leaf) physical edition, supplemented three times a year with digital updates that reflect new developments, best-practice examples from across Europe, and hands-on advice. The target audience is European education professionals navigating an increasingly international landscape.

Subscribers to the volume get online access to digital versions of all the Handbook's articles – useful for those who are constantly traveling because of the international role they play.

A description, full table of contents, and pricing information are available from the Handbook website:

Internationalisation of European Higher Education

The book is edited by the European Association for International Education.

I don't make any money from people purchasing the volume; but I'll gain great satisfaction if it helps a few Alumni Futures readers with their everyday professional challenges.

Below is a network map of a very interesting new book – Too Big to Know [2B2K] by internet scholar David Weinberger. David's book is shown by the magenta node in the center of the network. Directly connected to his book are the books that Amazon mentions that customers also bought [green nodes], in addition to 2B2K. These books are probably more similar than different to 2B2K. The blue nodes are books that are 2 steps away from 2B2K, they are probably more different than 2B2K, but retain similarities also. The arrows show the direction of the majority of also-bought activity. 

His conclusion? Amazon is building an "Interests & Passions network...under the radar."

"Social Graph" of the book Too Big to Know on Amazon.com, via The Network Thinkers - Click to enlarge

It occurs to me that if a thing (like a book) can have a social graph, so can some of the "things" we use to engage alumni and donors. For example:

Events can have a social graph.

Is someone who attends a particular event more or less likely to attend certain other events? The answer could improve our target marketing for events.

Volunteerism can have a social graph.

Is someone who volunteers for a specific role more or less likely to fulfill another, specific role? The answer could improve volunteer recruitment.

[If a book can have a social graph, why can't an event?]

And directionality matters here too. For example, arrows would show which volunteer roles lead to future activities.

This is hardly a new idea. Overlay behavior onto a social graph and you're creating an interest graph. That's how several popular online services work, in a general way: Zappos, Netflix, and of course Amazon. But these sites mostly aggregate past users' behaviors to influence the next user's behavior, without those users being connected otherwise. A true "interest graph"–based system would interpret your behavior to help organizations understand why you attended that additional event, or how you felt about your volunteer experience.

Intrigued by this idea? Then see this article by Derrick Harris: The personalized web is just an interest graph away.

Do events, volunteer roles, and other engagement tools have social graphs?

If they do, should we be capturing and analyzing them?

Why – or why not? 

"We're considering launching a mobile app for alumni, and I'm curious whether your school has one, and if so, are you happy with it?"

Most of the replies come from people who say they are "very satisfied" with their app. Others say that a particular app is "great."

But I almost never hear anyone say why their app satisfies them, or what makes it great.

In other words, I'm wondering: which metrics indicate a successful app? And how do those metrics fit into the context of a particular institution?

[Which metrics indicate a successful app?]

What would be useful to know? Anything that explains what your goal was in creating an app, and how you know those goals have (or haven't) been met.

I made up these hypothetical examples that might illustrate useful information (these examples are not necessarily going to be relevant for you):

You decide that it would be useful to learn how many alumni click through to your alumni website from within the app. You further decide that a 1:10 "click through-to-download" ratio is your arbitrary goal for the first 6 months. You get 1,000 app-driven web visits from your 10,000 downloads. Success.

Or....

You decide to correlate new Facebook "Likes" with use of the app. You check the last 3 months as a baseline (using Facebook Insights), and discover 10% of monthly Likes are from mobile devices. Then you launch your app. Six months after launching the app you see a doubling of mobile-based Likes. You have a useful proxy for the effect of the app on a specific kind of interaction with your page.

[Which metrics characterize your app's success?]

Even numbers like these aren't that useful, because the goals must be somewhat arbitrary, and you can't yet attribute many outcomes to the use of your mobile app. For example, did it generate increased giving? Greater brand awareness for your institution? More applicants for admission? Higher event attendance or volunteerism? It's hard to know.

But one thing we do know is that counting downloads doesn't tell us much. Sharing interaction metrics will provide context for satisfaction with the app. And others can then assess your results for relevance to their own institution.

What metrics are you using to characterize your alumni app's success?

Excerpt:

Many alumni associations stubbornly cling to the idea that alumni relationships should be hosted on a .edu website. But we've grudgingly populated Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

And many of us haven't yet acknowledged that online social platforms aren't broadcast outlets. People join Facebook to share their interests, ideas and activities with friends and family, to tell stories about what matters to them. They don't join to download a PDF of the press release announcing this year's teaching awards.

[Associations cling to the idea that alumni relationships
should be hosted on a .edu website]

Communities like ours must learn to maintain slightly more modest expectations about how alumni will interact with us online.

And yet, things are changing at last. Several signs point to a more effective accommodation between alumni associations and the online ventures that have usurped their roles...

§§§

To read the full article, click through to:

Will the Internet Obsolete Alumni Associations?

[Updated May 30, 2012: A video of my talk is now online for free viewing:

Balancing Creativity with Leadership: The Challenge of Social Media]

Next month in San Francisco I'm speaking at the EdSocialMedia Summit. The event is for "professionals involved in any way with social media in their organization." The focus is on schools, universities, and non-profits.

The sessions, along with great networking opportunities, take place during a single day:

Wednesday, April 4, 2012 

NOTE: Alumni Futures readers earn a 20% discount on registration.
The link at the bottom of this posting takes you to the registration page.

Seven presenters (including me) will examine current trends and roles for social platforms from a pretty diverse range of perspectives.

The other speakers are:

Brian Carter (author of The Like Economy: How Businesses Make Money with Facebook)

Georgy Cohen (co-founder of Meet Content)

John Hill (higher ed evangelist at LinkedIn)

Erin Swanson (marketing programs manager at Water.org)

Ian Symmonds (president & founder of Ian Symmonds & Associates)

and

Rand Fishkin (CEO and co-founder of SEOmoz)

[Alumni Futures readers get 20% off the registration fee]

Topics
Everything from viral video to inbound marketing, from integrated social fundraising campaigns to Facebook marketing, and from brand story-telling to alumni networking online.

Great Venue
Beautiful historic Fort Mason Center overlooking the Marina and San Francisco Bay.

My Talk
I'll review some recent research in experimental psychology to show why "strong leadership" doesn't usually seem compatible with innovative efforts such as social media. And I'll suggest what decision-makers can do about it to succeed. 

I hope I'll see a few Alumni Futures readers at this event next month.

Register

Register for the EdSocialMedia Summit – April 4, 2012 – San Francisco

Note: 20% discount ($40 off the regular cost of $199) is built in to this link, but you can always click "Promotional Code" on the registration page and type in: AlumniFutures

And...EdSocialMedia will donate 25% of profits to local charitable education organizations.

See you there!

Photo: Port of San Francisco sign by Andy Shaindlin