1. Social Networking: What is it and where does it fit in the Alumni world?
Welcome and thanks for your interest in Social Networking in Higher Education. No doubt you have all read an article or 50 about the increasing popularity of social networks amongst students and young alumni. The purpose of this presentation is two fold. First, we’ll discuss the origins of social networking, and the recent trends which have significantly increased constituent demand for social networking technology. Second, we’ll discuss how alumni associations can satisfy this constituent need with a branded solution that helps achieve their mission and maintain their institutional values. We will then walk through how these concepts have been applied at the University of Florida. I am Abe Geiger from Affinity Engines, Inc., providers of the inCircle social networking platform, and I’ll be presenting along with Katie Seay, Director of Membership and Marketing at the University of Florida Alumni Association.
HigherEdBlogCon
April 2006

2. 2006 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Champions
Go Gators!
2006 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Champions

3. Agenda What is Social Networking? What are the benefits to the alum?
What are the benefits to Alumni Organizations?
Where does the Social Network fit?
Case Study: University of Florida

4. Definition Social Network:
A structure made of nodes (individuals) which are connected to one another through various social relationships
Small World Experiment, Stanley Milgram
Strength of Weak Ties, Mark Granovetter
6 Degrees of Separation (or Kevin Bacon)
What is a social Network? (read slide)
Most of you are probably familiar with the concept of 6 degrees of separation. The basis for this theory is Stanley Milgram’s 1967 Small World Experiment, where he found that any two randomly selected US citizens were connected by an average of 6 acquaintances. The popular movie trivia game, 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, is a take-off on this theory. The object is to connect any movie actor, to Kevin Bacon based on movie roles, in as few steps as possible. While you probably aren’t a movie star, the graphic is meant to represent your potential connection with Kevin Bacon. You may have played this game yourself with any number of famous people or chance acquaintances that you are able to find common friends or experiences with.
Online social networking applications help people map their networks, providing access to the shortest path connecting themselves with other members. This is very helpful for finding others with similar interests and stimulating communication between those nodes of the network. Members derive value from this ability on numerous levels. Mark Granovetter’s 1973 research on the “strength of weak ties”, finds that connections outside of your immediate personal network, in other words your friends-of-friends, are more likely to help you find a job than someone in your intimate network such as close friends and family. Therefore being able to easily discover these connections with your extended network is extremely valuable.

5. Functionality Primary Functions Concept: “Who I am and who I know”
Search
Beyond static
Communicate
Alum to alum
Concept: “Who I am and who I know”
The basic goals of all online communities is to help members connect with other members. Social networks have the same purpose. The ability to search for others that share interests, expertise, school affiliations, etc. The significant component of a social network is the ability to see personal ties within the community which provides trust and eases the potential awkwardness of contacting other members.

6. Types Open/Public: Closed and Branded: Privacy Settings:
Anyone can join
Facebook (.edu address doesn’t authenticate a name and class year)
Linkedin
MySpace
Friendster
Closed and Branded:
Restricted access and branded for a specific organization
Based on trusted University brand
Integration with University database
inCircle
Privacy Settings:
Strict opt-in settings keep information private until user opts to share with friends, friends of friends, etc.
In the last 3 years, literally hundreds of social networking applications have sprung from the woodwork, the majority in the past year. The general aim of all of these communities is to help users find others of interest and communicate in various ways. Most successful sites have focused on a niche audience to give interaction a general context. MySpace started as a place for music lovers to congregate, Linkedin is a business networking community, and Facebook is structured around the High School, College, or University you attend. Most of these communities are open to the public, anyone can create a profile and start interacting with other members. Some, such as the Facebook, limit registration to .edu addresses. While this does limit accessibility to a degree, it does not prevent fraudulent identity claims. I just read an article about someone’s dog having a facebook profile. Since all identity information is self reported so there is no way to be sure who is who, how old they are, when they graduate, etc.
Closed and Branded communities allow institutions a number of benefits. First, they offer the opportunity to verify the identity of each member. Alumni Associations are in the unique position to leverage the data they have to authenticate each user based on unique characteristics. A “.edu” address may narrow a person down to one of tens of thousands, you are able to narrow individuals down to one of one. Second, branded networks integrate with legacy databases on the back end so all user information shared in the community is captured by the hosting institution.

7. Private Networks Combine
Social Networking in
Higher Education
* Dynamic * Branded * Authenticated
* Secure * Integrated * Scalable
Authenticated, Trusted Social Network with your Brand at the center
No Authentication
Lack Privacy
Lack Security
Lack Affinity
Advertising
Public Social Networks
There are many good things about public social networking communities such as the ones listed above. Young people and business savvy professionals in particular have taken to them in massive numbers. MySpace boasts 60 million accounts, Facebook around 10 million and Linkedin at around 5. In addition, both MySpace and Facebook rank amongst the top internet sites in the world when it comes to recent monthly page views. The popularity of this social networking phenomenon is undeniable.
However, there are some serious issues associated with these sites ranging from institutional content control, which I’m sure you are all well aware of, to serious concerns about stalking and identity theft. What should be done when photos revealing illegal activity are freely shared on one of these sites? Can you punish for something you see on their page?
On the other side of the diagram above are some characteristics of more traditional alumni solutions. These are authenticated, secure, trusted and integrated with your database, but lack the dynamic community functionality that users demand. The bottom line, especially with younger generations of students and alumni, is that they demand a high level of technical sophistication. If they don’t have the ability to create, edit, and share their own content, in your community, they are going to go elsewhere. If that happens, you will find a serious lack of user information on which to base your marketing and fundraising efforts.
Traditional Alumni Solutions
Print Focus
Static Directories
Slow Development
Not Scalable
Not User Friendly

8. Understanding Millennials
Technology Attitude
Place a high value on science and technology
Take technological advances of the 90’s for granted
Think not enough technology in the world today
They are the “now” generation; have not learned to be patient
Generational Shift
In greater world and higher ed
Impact on Communication Styles
Want electronic, online communications
Definitions of “Community” are changing
Community
Connectivity
Availability
The attitude that this generation has about technology is very different than past generations. They take technology advances for granted because they haven’t known life without them. When it comes to technology that helps them communicate and access media they have a “more the merrier” approach. Further they want immediate access to people and content whenever and wherever. They don’t have the patience to wait for the evening news let alone the next mornings newspaper.
This is definitely a generational shift. The next slide shows some of the characteristics of generational technology. This shift applies heavily to higher education (which is why we’re all here). Given the level of access to technology in educational settings, the adoption, understanding, and expectation of innovative solutions is even greater from students and alumni. The fact that alumni are increasingly requesting rather than paper mailings is evidence of this shift.
With the integration of technology into everyday life, the definition of “Community” has changed as well years ago a community consisted of people living and working together, interacting on a regular basis. In order to learn, socialize, and exchange goods and services, people needed to be in close proximity to one another. Now with the advancements of technology, people can be a part of many communities that they interact with in very different ways. There is still local community, but information technology now makes it easy to learn, socialize, and exchange goods and services with people from all over the world in real time.

9. Generational Landscape
WW1
Silent
Boomers
X-ers
Millennials
Books
Newspapers
Radio TV
Pinball wizards
Audiotapes
VCRs
Videogames
Cell phones
Personalized
multimedia
Instant
communication
Internet
You can see here how times have changed. Younger generations aren’t necessarily dropping old technology, they are just using it differently, multitasking more, and adding new technology to their daily fray. For example, youth still watch TV, but now they rely on Tivo and On Demand to let them watch things whenever they want. At the same time they surf the internet, IM with their friends, and text message on their phones.
Source: Narissa Bentley, University of Melbourne

10. Technology Trends Ubiquitous Technology AOL Survey, November 2005
Technology is being embraced by your constituents - now take advantage of it!
AOL Survey, November 2005
Two-thirds of year olds use IM more than
Forrester Research, December 2005
83% of year olds use IM compared to 32% of adults
Technology is all around us. It is becoming an integral part of everyday life and no demographic has embraced it more as a whole than Generation Y or so-called Millennials. This generation has grown up digital, with easy access to cell phones, internet, , and instant messaging. To this generation technology is necessary, not a luxury, and they are demanding about how they use it. They are not very tolerant with technology that doesn’t do what they want and expect a high level of performance. If they don’t get it from you they will move on to use something else. If they get it from numerous places, they will use them all. Multitasking is engrained in their DNA as is their comfort with sharing information on the internet.

11. Recent Graduate Trends
US population of college graduates continues to rise
Between 1990 and 2004 the proportion of adults with a bachelor’s degree increased from 21% to 28%
Institute of Education Sciences U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics: Digest of Education Statistics, 2004
28% of US population = approximately 84 million alumni
Single biggest concern of recent college graduates is finding a job/career
83% ranked a career center as “somewhat” or “very” important for web sites targeting recent college graduates
2005 eGrad Graduate Survey, Y2M: Youth Media and Marketing Networks, January 2006
The number of total alumni in the United States continues to grow as more and more youth graduate from Colleges and Universities. This trend also means that each year the proportion of alumni considered “young alumni” continues to grow. Unless your enrollment is declining, your young alumni will make up a larger percentage of your constituent base every year.

12. Santa Clara University
Alumni Distribution
Alumni Life Cycle
Santa Clara University
Applicant
Student
Recent
(0-15yrs)
Mature
(Professional/Family)
Senior
(Retired)
This is a sample breakdown from Santa Clara University. You can see that almost half of their total alumni population is made up of graduates from the last 15 years. 5%
50%
45%
- Santa Clara University, 2005

13. Where does a Social Network fit?
Alumni Communications:
Organization to Alumni
Alumni to Alumni
Static Applications will no longer attract your alumni
The Centerpiece of your offering must be dynamic and individualized
So where does this fit in your suite of services? The easiest way to conceptualize this is to consider Alumni Communications in two categories: Organization to Alumni, and Alumni to Alumni. The first consists of your website, magazine, mailings, newsletters, podcasts, s, and phone calls. Basically any message originating from your organization. The second category, alumni to alumni, is any interaction amongst your constituents. What a social network does, is to help you provide an environment conducive for alumni communicating with one another. Other examples of this second type of communication include reunions, tailgates, and regional events, anything you sponsor with the purpose of bringing alumni together to network, reminisce, and promote affinity to their school. The difference between an online social networking community and in person events, is that it is available any time, it lets your constituents create their own networks and sub-affinity groups, and let’s them interact on their own terms.
Your constituents are increasingly demanding of a high degree of technical functionality from the services they use. Therefore, in order to engage them and keep them engaged, the center of your offering needs to be dynamic and interactive. You also need to find ways to offer new features on a regular basis in order to keep their attention. Partnering with a company specializing in scalable technology solutions that regularly integrates new features and services, is the best way to stay ahead of the curve and offer your alumni innovative technology in a trusted secure environment. Implementing one-off solutions that are quickly obsolete and time/resource intensive can be a large drain on your organization and prevent you from focusing on other things.

14. Thank You abe@affinityengines.com
Hopefully I’ve helped shed light on some of the trends and concepts that have influenced social networking in higher education. If you have any further questions I’d be more than happy to speak with you. Now I’ll turn things over to Katie to walk you through a specific example of how Florida is utilizing their social networking community, the Gator Nation Network.

15. Case Study
University of Florida Alumni Association “Gator Nation Network”
Katie Seay
Director of Membership and Marketing, UF Alumni Association
Thanks for the opportunity to share our results. We’re very excited about what we’ve seen from our inCircle community called “Gator Nation Network” and are looking forward to great new features and services in the future. The feedback we’ve gotten from our community has been resounding and the data we’ve gathered has been incredible.

16. UFAA Case Study Background Motivations Social Networking Value
Implementation
Measuring Success
Agenda: pretty self explanatory.

17. Who is the UFAA? Established in 1906 Over 300,000 Alumni 50 States
100 Countries
Successful Programs
Gator Clubs
Student Alumni Association
Back to College
Affinity credit card, travel, merchandise
The University of Florida Alumni Association (UFAA) was organized and chartered in 1906 by the first group of graduates from the Gainesville campus. Today, the University of Florida has alumni in every state and in more than 100 foreign countries, with alumni on record totaling over 300,000. Many alumni participate in Gator Clubs comprised of alumni and friends who represent the University of Florida in their communities. Gator Clubs sponsor and conduct a wide variety of programs and events in support of the University of Florida. The UFAA also features special interest groups, including the Student Alumni Association, the Association of Black Alumni and the Association of Hispanic Alumni. In recognition of its success serving its constituents, the UFAA continually ranks in the top 15 alumni associations in the country.

18. Our Mission
Foster and enhance the relationship between the University of Florida and its alumni and friends
Support the University's mission of teaching, research, and service
The mission of the UFAA is to foster and enhance the relationship between the University of Florida, its alumni and friends, and to support the University's mission of teaching, research and service.

19. Overall goals for Alumni Services
Build & Sustain relationships among alumni
Increase interaction between alumni and current students
Gather updated information
Satisfy alumni needs
Services offered need to be functional
Services must be consistent with our overall mission
One of the UFAA’s primary goals is to build, grow and sustain relationships among alumni by providing dynamic content and communications tools. The President of the University of Florida, Dr. Bernard Machen, has taken a special interest in this project. His vision is to connect current UF students with UF alumni to help them find internship and job opportunities, and also to keep alumni connected with the University.
Additionally, keeping alumni records up to date is a constant priority. The efficacy of our marketing and communications efforts depend on having current information about our alumni. Finding new ways to capture and maintain these records is very important.

20. Previous Offerings UFAA web site Online Directory UF Today Magazine
Gator Clubs
Gator News newsletter
Outreach Speakers Program
Existing resources, such as the UFAA web site, the online directory, e-newsletter and UF Today magazine, were useful tools but did not create a vibrant community where alums could connect and build personal and professional relationships. We wanted a solution that embraced current technology to connect alumni and enhance the value of the UFAA.

21. Changing Trends Successful Outreach requires new methods
Increasing demand for electronic and online communication
Need to have compelling features/services that are actually useful
Services need to be real-time to match user expectations
There is no doubt that our students and young alumni are becoming increasingly tech savvy. Growing numbers are requesting digital communications, via , e-newsletter, and even blogs and podcasts. We recognize that if we want to maintain successful outreach we need to be dynamic with the way we communicate. This means providing services and technology that they find real value in such as finding a job or a new apartment. We also recognize that these services need to be available in real time, running smoothly and looking sharp. Our constituents are more internet savvy and more demanding every year, and we need to find ways to keep up with that demand.

22. GNN Value For the User For the UFAA
Exclusive social networking environment
Find and communicate with fellow alumni
Simple, fun, always available
Share photos, blogs, thoughts
Find jobs, housing, advice, etc.
Stay in touch/re-connect with fellow alumni
Offer valuable service to our students and alumni
Integration with our legacy database for data collection
Promotes our Brand
Scalable technology allows for rapid feature enhancements, no work for UFAA staff
Easy to launch, very minimal setup time/effort, maintained by AEI
Content created by users, no work for UFAA staff
The value of the GNN can be explored in two ways. First the value to the end user, and second the value to us as an association. You can see here a general overview of both of these. I’m going to talk about the value to the alumni user by showing you some use case examples, then I’ll dig in to the value we derive as an institution. Very generally, hosting a community that appeals to our constituents allows us to promote our mission, our brand, and our need for alumni data.

23. Value to Alum User-centric Private & Trusted Relevant & Individualized
Dynamic Content
Valuable Information and Opportunities
Private & Trusted
All Users are Authenticated
Relationship Based
As Abe discussed in his half of the presentation, users have become increasingly internet savvy. They have come to value the ability to put themselves at the center of their online experience and expect information that is relevant to their interests. The GNN does just this by letting people create their own experience. Users can fill out their profile, share their business information and social interests, join groups, and build their networks with people they know and trust. This lets us put each user at the center of their experience, creating their own world within the broader GNN community. They then gain access to the information and events of fellow Gators within their networks that is most relevant to them.
Another thing that we love about the GNN is that it is private and exclusive. This not only adds to the value and exclusivity of our UFAA services, but it gives people the context of a shared experience with other community members. Alumni realize that only Gator alumni have access to the community and everyone is authenticated before they can get in. Therefore they trust that profiles are accurate and users they may be communicating with are indeed who they claim to be. We also like that connections actually reflect real life relationships, rather than merely online relationships. The Gator Nation Network already exists, the online embodiment of the network is really just a catalyst for helping people realize where they have connections that might help them.

24. Alum Use Cases Reconnect Relocate Find Services Share Media Classmates
Organization
Relocate
Regional Chapters
Roommates
Advice
Find Services
Jobs
Experts
Share Media
Photos
Blogs
Journals
Messages
These are some of the most common use cases for the Gator Nation Network. The added element of trust, data security, and common school affinity, enhance the value of these examples. Users know that each member of the community has been authenticated and that only fellow Gators can participate. This helps us solidify the exclusivity of our “Gator Nation” brand.
Not only does GNN help users communicate with each other, they also take the burden off of your staff. Instead of facilitating connections between alumni manually, we provide an environment where alumni can make connections themselves based on each individual’s privacy settings. Users can decide for themselves how open or closed they want to be to ensure that they are only getting communications they want to receive. They can even control how they get them.

25. User Profile
This is what a user profile looks like. I get to decide who sees what. If I want to share my cell phone with my friends, but share my with friends of friends and my address with anyone in the community I can do that. This allows users to really tailor their experience to their own preferences. You can also see if users have posted photo albums, what groups they are a part of, and who their friends are. Showing group participation in user profiles has really helped increase participation. This has been a great way for our Gator Clubs to publicize events and attract new members.

26. Industry Groups
In addition to local Gator Clubs, there are other types of groups as well. Each group was started by an alumni user and is administered by alumni users. A user becomes the administrators of the group they want to start. There are over 500 groups in total, many with hundreds of members. Groups can be restricted, in which case the administrator needs to grant access, or they may be open for anyone to join. Additional moderators can be assigned for another layer of content posting privileges. Most groups are open but some, such as the “Attorneys” shown here and many of the Greek organizations are restricted. This has really helped us pass on the responsibility to the local chapter leaders and given them the tools they need to maintain their own groups. Not only that but it has helped us identify affinity groups that we didn’t even know existed.
This has been a great way for us to allow our alumni to show us where their interests lie. We are able to provide them with the tools to help them easily build what they find useful, rather than our staff having to build it for them. With our small staff, we would not be able to start and support over 500 individual groups and give them a place to exchange information. This way, not only do we support that, but we do so in a context that aggregates all of those sub-affinity groups under the Gator Nation Network umbrella.

27. Mapping your network
This is an engaging and interactive feature that helps our alumni see where their friends and friends-or-friends are located. They can zoom in and out, scroll around on the map, filter based on region, industry, job function, or connection level, and click on the flags to show more user information. All of this adheres to the individual’s privacy settings so no one shows up on a map if they haven’t shared their address and location. This is one of the recent feature enhancements that was just released. We didn’t have to do anything on our end to implement the change.
Having the ability to plot your network on a Yahoo Map is the type of technology that our alumni are starting to demand. Keeping their attention with this type of engaging feature is very important to their continued use of the services we provide.

28. Jobs
Jobs gives us a way to bring quality job postings into the community. It’s great for our alumni because they are able to see job posts from employers who really want to hire Gators. Even more, they can see other Gators already working at the hiring company. This is the perfect way to discover a connection or make one with the right person who can help you get the job. You can see at this particular company, there are at least 4 Gator alumni and each of them are 3 degrees away (the icon tells you this). If you click on their profile you can see who from your personal network connects you.
Companies love this feature because it lets them target highly qualified job seekers in our exclusive community. They don’t get access to any data, just the ability to post their job within the community. Interested alumni job seekers can send their resume and inquire in 2 clicks. This is another new feature that we’ve just started marketing to our alumni. We’re very excited about getting more and more students and alumni involved in the community by offering them a truly dynamic job search tool that connects their trusted personal connections with potential employment opportunities. This adds a lot of value to the user experience.

29. Value to Institution Mission Data Brand Leverage Scale
Connecting alumni with each other and university
Data
Contact updates collected
Integration with backend database
Integration with institutional communication tools
Brand
All value derived by users goes to us
Leverage
Alums helping alums
Scale
Technology moves fast
We want to stay on the forefront
Again, we derive value from the Gator Nation Network on many levels. It let’s us provide our constituents with a means to leverage their individual Gator Networks, with a technology solution that they find engaging. In so doing, we are able to get to know our alumni better and keep in touch with them via the contact information they share with us in their profiles. In order to continue to do these things, we need to continuously provide new and innovative features and services to our users. Therefore, it is a huge value to us that we are able to provide constantly upgraded features and services without having to develop these enhancements ourselves.

30. Value to Association GNN
Better Services = More User Data = Enhanced Marketing Efficacy
GNN
This is a graphical representation of the value of offering engaging services. The better the service we provide, the more alumni participation we see. The more alumni participating, the more data we are able to collect. Finally, the more data we collect, the better we are able to communicate, and the more effective we are at identifying how we can best serve alumni needs.

31. Social Networking & UFAA
June 1, 2005: UFAA online offerings
Web site
Broadcast communications
Online Directory
Gator Clubs
Why social networking?
Grassroots alumni connections
Targeted “pre-qualified” networking
Updated contact information
Connect Undergrads and Alumni for professional opportunities
Why Affinity Engines?
Market leader for private label social networks
Established product and customer list
Closed and exclusive to Alumni & Friends from Florida
All users are authenticated
The UFAA receives all resulting data updates
Strengthens Gator Nation Brand
Where did we start and why did we go this route? The UFAA chose to launch an online social network to increase the value it offered to alumni and friends and capitalize on the branding message of the UFAA as the Gator Nation. Affinity Engines’ inCircle network was selected because of its industry shaping social networking technology and proven ability to rapidly deploy product enhancements that add value for alumni members. When evaluating a vendor we looked for someone that could supply us with technology that works, can be updated quickly, and that takes minimal internal resources to launch and maintain. Affinity Engines’ established product and customer list were very impressive and continue to impress.

32. Affinity Engines Implementation
Evaluation process
Technology that works
Staying current, incorporating new technology
Vendor relationship
Technology Partnership
Product enhancements
Client Services
Implementation timeline
Signed: June 2005
Site delivered: August 2005
Launched: November 2005
Additional In-office Resources
10 hours of customer service a week (registration and other issues)
After signing with Affinity Engines in June 2005, the branded Gator Nation Network was delivered in August 2005 and launched in November Before launching to all alumni, parents and friends, the UFAA first seeded the Gator Nation Network with authenticated Gator Club members. Next, the UFAA sent invitations to join the network to its entire database. The goal of the initial marketing effort was to capture the alumni base but the network will soon be opened to undergraduates as well to promote professional connections between our students and alumni.

33. Measuring Success More Alumni involvement Helping Alumni find jobs
On & Off-line
Helping Alumni find jobs
Data Updates
User Registrations
Site Traffic
How do we measure the success of this program? Does it promote more alumni involvement, both on and off-line? The answer is yes. Not only do we have over 13,000 alumni registered for the site within 4 months of launch but the in-person events it is promoting within our Gator clubs has helped recruit new Gator Club members and increase participation at local events. Does it help our alumni find jobs? With over 55 jobs posted within the community in the past month, this has been a great way for alumni to share job opportunities with one another. Not only does it help Gators find jobs, but it’s helping Gator employers find quality new hires coming to them with personal references. We have received a ton of data. You’ll see on the next slide how successful we’ve been at updating our database with alumni data. User registrations have been great as you’ll see on the next slide and the traffic has been fantastic as well. At the end of the day we want our alumni to be interacting with one another in ways that they find valuable and we find consistent with the University Mission. Measuring these metrics shows us that not only are our alumni deriving value from GNN, but as a result they are updating their information and providing us more and better data which is crucial for our sustained marketing efforts.

34. GNN Stats Over 13,500 Registered Users Over 800,000 Profile views
Over 220,500 Personal information updates (phone, , interest, etc.)
Over 150,000 friend invites sent with 85% acceptance rate
Over 500 Groups created
385,000 page views in March
Since its launch, the Gator Nation Network has been used by younger and older alumni alike. Younger alums mainly network with friends, share blogs and search for housing and jobs. Older alums connect with friends and search for information on local events that allow them to find other Gators in their community. Groups are also a popular feature, with over 500 already formed on the Gator Nation Network. Alumni groups fall into numerous categories: industry, such as real estate and law, organizations, like fraternities and ROTC, interests, including flying and skiing/snowboarding, or clubs, like the New York Gators and the Florida soccer club.
The usage numbers and contact updates have continued to grow. An 85% acceptance rate on friend invites is far greater penetration than we could ever hope to get on an alumni mailing. This shows us that connecting alumni with one another is something they find very valuable. Through GNN, we have been able to leverage our alumni to engage their peers. In contrast to traditional efforts where we have to do this ourselves, this is both more effective and obviously easier for us.
This information is current as of 4/1/2006.

35. Customer Feedback Jason, Class of ’91 Mark, Class of ‘90
“The Gator Nation Network is the most effective way to communicate and network with fellow Gators. It has been an excellent tool for me to make connections.”
Mark, Class of ‘90
“I wanted to let you know that GNN is a great way for alums to stay connected with old friends and to UF. I live in South Florida and really enjoy the social and professional networking opportunities afforded through this tool. Thanks for creating this fabulous network.”
Stefanie, Class of '98
“Being out of the country, GNN is the best way to stay connected to the Gator Nation. It has also been helpful in finding Gators in other parts of the world. I love it!”
Sarah, Class of 2006
“Being in school when facebook was popular, GNN is a great way for younger alumni to stay connected to UF. It is also the best professional and social community out there.”
The above feedback comes from actual community users.

36. Thank You!
Thank you for the opportunity to share our experience with you. I’d be more than happy to answer any specific questions you have. My contact information is on the next slide. Go Gators!
Go Gators!

37. Affinity Engines, Inc. UFAA Abe Geiger (650) 810-1512
UFAA
Katie Seay
Director of Membership and Marketing
(352)
Any questions specifically relating to the Gator Nation Network and the UFAA’s implementation of their branded social network please contact Katie Seay. If you have questions about Social Networking in general or if you would like to learn more about inCircle please contact Abe Geiger.
We hope you found this presentation useful and informative. Enjoy the rest of the conference!