Level of difficulty: Advanced
Cost to attend: Free
Award Winner: 2019

Project:  This growing closed Facebook group (the Yale Alumni Facebook group) connects a large number of alumni. It helps them network, learn, share ideas about class, club, city, SIG, G&PS events, as well as engage and build community.

Lead time: 1 day to set this up.
Date of event:  Created on Facebook (on the Internet) on September 16, 2017
Ongoing: every day

Resources:
6 Admin and monitors/moderators. The effort is constant and continuing. It is entirely volunteer run.

Permissions required: As a project of the Board of Directors, permission to use the Yale name was implied. Other groups trying to create an online Yale group may need formal permission of YAA or Yale to use the Yale name.

Funds required: None

Results:
19217 Yale alumni members as of 12/17/19. This is already over 10% of the 170,000 alumni of Yale University.
Typical engagement: During the 28 days prior to 9/7/19, there were 161 posts, 15,000 active members, with the top post generating 405 comments, 697 likes, and 10,400 views.

Why a success? Broad and deep (daily, international, across schools, class years) alumni engagement – over 11% of all Yale alumni have joined.

Details: The Facebook Group was created by members of the YAA Board of Governors (specifically, members of the Volunteer Leadership Committee), who have continued moderating the group since. While much of moderation is reactive, still every attempted post must be reviewed in a timely manner. As a closed Facebook group, every person attempting to join must be vetted to make sure they are in fact a Yale alum. Ongoing work includes stirring up interest through questions, polls, Facebook videos, etc., plus promoting the group through sharing/re-posting to other Facebook sites.

Additionally, background work includes going to numerous Yale events and being open to capture the stories – writing them down, capturing quotes, taking photos, videos, and the rest…then editing for effective posts. Admins try to post once every day, and share with other FB sites.

Because it is a face of Yale, the leadership group for this project has stayed closely in communication with YAA leadership such as Executive Director Weili Cheng, Deputy Director Jenny Chavira, as well as BOG executive committee.

Code of Conduct: To preserve privacy and a safe forum while ensuring civility, this is a moderated closed group with a written code of conduct. Each member request is carefully validated according to Yale Alumni Directory and approved by the group’s volunteer administrators and moderators. A written code of conduct was created at the very beginning, with significant disclosure:

• By joining this group, you agree to abide by its policies below and understand that group Admins and moderators will enforce those policies at their discretion. This page is heavily monitored.
• Posts that do not contribute to alumni community-building or are determined to be antagonistic, racist, sexist, homophobic or otherwise rude or insulting, will be deleted and the user may be muted, blocked and/or banned from the group immediately without notice.
• No blatant sales, personal solicitations, job requests, political campaigning, petitions, nor fundraising, charity or contributions request posts, except in certain rare occasions.
• Authors may promote their books, release, or signings by making a comment in the post starting with ‘Authors…’ which you can search for, but not individual posts.
• Obituaries should be sent to the Class secretary or Yale Alumni Magazine. Exceptions are made for Yale public figures such as a professor, coach, administrator, etc.
• Links to external sites are not an expressed or implied endorsement of information, products nor services. When linking to articles, it’s recommended to include introductory text, question or statement that encourages dialogue and discussion and indicates Yale relevance, rather than just a link to the article.
• While this is a closed group for Yale Alumni, we cannot guarantee that all posts remain 100% private. Anyone found to be sharing content, quotes or screenshots outside of this group may be muted, blocked or banned without notice.
• Alumni have completed at least one semester in a degree program at Yale and are not currently matriculated as a student. This group is not for current Yale students, nor parents, children, spouses, or other relatives of Yale Alumni.
• Be nice and respectful. Like at Yale.
• Follow @YaleAlumni on Twitter and Instagram. Use hashtag #YaleAlumni and your Yale event related social media posts may be reposted.

Strategies for growth: To promote community and grow the group, the following strategies were used.

• Every joining member was asked to add 10+ Yale friends by clicking the “add members” button.
• The creators and leaders have provided daily alumni engagement, through posts, links, photos, videos and comments, has inspired new ideas, affiliations, and friendships, fostered professional development, and promoted the idea of service of Yale alumni around the world.
• Numerous webinars and Facebook live events were developed, promoted and broadcasted in this group as well as its spin-off Yale alumni affinity groups and networks.
• Big group pictures of alum were featured in posts and cover photos.
• Changes to the cover photo promoted upcoming world-wide events like Feb Club and then featured photos taken during and after the events to encourage participation.
• Stories of notable alumni accomplishments were shared.
• Diverse Yale alumni organizations were encouraged to share their events with others to increase awareness beyond their region or niche and attract more alumni and engagement.

Possible improvements: Create “spin off” groups. From the Yale Alumni Facebook group, spin-off online communities were created as focused new Yale alumni closed Facebook groups. Some of these connected existing real-life groups, such as Yale Alumni Leaders, Yale Alumni Board of Governors, 1stGenYale, YaleWomen, SA@Y Yale, Yale Alumni International Alliance, YaleAlumni Service Corp, YaleHealth Network, Yale FIN, Yale Veterans, Yale Fitness, other classes, regional clubs and SIGs. Others created new online communities such as Yale Alumni Educators, Yale Authors, YaleAbilities – Yale, Yale Alumni Health Network, Yale Fitness, and Yale Food + Drink.