How to Engage Early Adopters

Kickstarting Your Community Space with Early Adopters 

Early Adopters are the folks we suggest you ‘soft launch’ with 2-3 weeks before launching to the entire alumni population. Reach out to these leaders to help kickstart the platform. These are your past student body presidents, popular teachers, coaches, team captains, advocates of your organization, and anyone who will willingly spread the word about your great new community. 

Who can you reach out to?

Tailor a customized invite to your All-Stars. Thank them for their dedication and service and let them know their support of the community is needed. Ask them to create an account and complete one assigned task within the community, specific to why you selected them as an All-Star.

For example, ask the student body president to start an alumni group for her class year. Ask  the current tennis coach to create an event for the next game. Invite local donors to make the  first donations of your new campaigns.

TIP: The more personal and specific your outreach, the more likely you are to see results.

TIP: Create and use shared accounts for departments. All department members can log in with those credentials and edit necessary groups, events, jobs, and campaigns.

Ideally, your internal supporters would continue to engage through the platform. If possible, set up a system such as weekly emails to collect event information, job postings, news stories, and other information supplemented with monthly meetings to discuss opportunities and direction for the platform and the community.

Remember to also call on volunteers from the community as well at this early stage, especially those providing leadership, for thoughts on strategy and community set-up to form groups and provide postings. Corporate entities can also be partners, especially for job postings and career events. Calling on volunteers and external partners will be discussed later in greater detail. 

Then, invite the rest of your members. 

After your launch team and “All Stars” have had a chance to dive into the community, it’s time to invite all alumni. Remember to highlight 2-3 key benefits of joining the platform in every communication.

TIP: Invite non-alumni members such as professors, staff, parents, donors, investors & business partners. These “connected” individuals may contribute greatly to the community and provide valuable connections alumni seek. Administrators can always control access at any time

TIP:  Find fun and think of creative ways to reward active members! Offer prizes, special gifts or publicly acknowledge early adopters. Another idea is to create a series of “teaser” emails starting 2 weeks before the launch as a way to create interest and excitement.

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