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Wondering About Actuive Classmate %s

Forums: General Discussion
Created on: 01/03/09 04:35 PM Views: 5007 Replies: 20
Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 4:35 PM

We're at 39% for our class of 1979. 31% with photos.

Obviously, I'm sure the older, the worse the percents, and vice versa, but I was wondering if other admins would weigh in here with their results, with year.

Just curious how we're doing. Thanks.

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Edited 01/03/09 4:39 PM
Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 4:49 PM - Response #1

Hi David (and fellow Buckeye),

I'd say you're in good shape with your profile update percentage based on your site join date. I have three classes on my site (just under 1500 classmates) and we're at 22%. But the Class of 1984 is at 31% and climbing.

I see an advantage in mass emailing the class 2-3 times a month. When I do, the profile updates spike in a 24 hour period. Short and sweet messages that don't give away too much information in hopes of those who have yet to update their profiles will...because I have enabled the password option on all the fun detailed pages of the site.

Good luck with your reunion and Happy New Year!
Dawn

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Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 5:04 PM - Response #2

Fellow Buckeye and fellow Ranger!

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Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 5:06 PM - Response #3

Too funny...I just caught the star in your logo!

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Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 5:52 PM - Response #4

Class of 1969, Cleveland Heights High School.

We created the site in August. 34% of our class of 1004 have signed on. When adding to that the 51 who are deceased, we are at 39%.

Our next step is to send an e-mail to the 341 who have signed on, with the list of those who have yet to sign on, asking for their help in locating the missing.

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Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 8:43 PM - Response #5

Our class only has 10% active and 31% of them have photos....I am hopeful since this is pretty new and we are still getting the word out!Very Happy
1024 home page vistors! Wink
13 deceased- but 594 are still inactive! I hope this helps give you an idea!

Have a Happy New Year!!

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Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 9:08 PM - Response #6

What are the best ideas anyone has used to get more people to the site?

We're trying to keep our site interesting, a trivia link, changing the poll weekly, saving the previous poll on a link, but mostly by posting old classmate's photos in "trivia pics" almost every other day.

Keeping those "active" active, but trying to get more "missing" classmates onboard.

Ideas?

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Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 9:16 PM - Response #7

Hi Jill,

I've found that you have to be diligent in finding people. I've lost count of the number of email requests (mass and individual) I've sent seeking profile updates, or at the very least if an email address is still valid.

I've been successful in reaching classmates via other social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and so on. I have our class url posted everywhere I have an account...even our high school web site has an alumni section for reunion announcements. We've run newspaper ads with the site address and that we're seeking lost classmates. Some local cable stations run community announcements as well.

I'm fortunate to be able to pool resources with the three classes we have, as there are siblings and spouses that cross all of these years.

Bottom line...it's a multiple resource and team effort to pull of a high percentage return. And as you so appropriately noted on your site, a labor of love.

Dawn

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Edited 01/03/09 9:17 PM
Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 9:24 PM - Response #8

Thanks Dawn.

We've done the same, except we haven't run a newspaper ad yet. Did you get any response from that?

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Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 9:30 PM - Response #9

David,

You may be getting more visitors than you think to your site. But the fact that you have the majority of your site public doesn't really force the issue of having to update a profile to get the latest scoop. People read it and then move on.

I've enabled the password option for a good portion of my site, so that when I send an email informing the classes of any photo gallery additions or reunion news, they need to be registered to see it. Same for the message forum. I think there needs to be some element of curiosity to get people 'in'.

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Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 9:35 PM - Response #10

David,

I live in New Hampshire, so I had a classmate list our announcement in Scene Magazine, Sun News, and the Plain Dealer (I hope), and the Lake County News Herald. I ran a poll last month asking how they reached the site. Not one was from a newspaper announcement. The majority came from classmate referrals and outside referring links in. I believe that the social networking sites and our high school site helped most.

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Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 9:46 PM - Response #11

Oh, and one more thing...I've found that my classmates love the photo and yearbook galleries the best. I broke ours up into four sections, and have a music Playlist playing at the bottom of each page. (same Playlist code for all)

While this is the most time consuming part of building site content, it is, by far, the most anticipated and appreciated of features.

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Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 10:25 PM - Response #12

I started the site in September. We're at 42% active.

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Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 9:43 AM - Response #13

Our site's been around for a year... we have 44% active, 42% with photos and we're the class of 1998

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Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 10:37 AM - Response #14

I started our site in September and we have 61% active. I try to come up with new ideas to draw them in (like the Photo Contest) and e-mail updates weekly. Most of my site is password protected so they have to log in if they are curious.

I have also found that people our age (young early sixties) like to play games so I get a lot of hits on my "Recess" page and try to put new games out there weekly.

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Edited 01/04/09 10:38 AM
Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 10:43 AM - Response #15

Thanks for the password access info. No more free rides on our site.

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Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 6:42 PM - Response #16

I started the site in July '08 and it's a class of 1998 and out of 175, 73 have logged on which puts us at 42% active.

Of those active, we have 56% who have put on pictures.

I find that some of my classmates know about the site but for whatever reason they haven't created profiles and I found a whole load of them on Facebook. But to keep things interesting I send out mass emails about the new features on the website. And I plan to password protect most pages so that if they're curious they have to log on.

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Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 9:13 PM - Response #17

I started our site at the end of August 2008. We are at 41%. 147 out 361. 75 photos or 51%. More and more classmates are starting to participate in finding Missing Classmates. I gave them a tool (a page devoted to searching for missing people) called "Help Find Alumni". It seems to help and I don't have to explain to anyone how to do it since it is all laid out for them. When they have spare time they pick a name on the "Missing Classmates" page and go through the step by step process. Cut and paste it if you want to use it. Brad already used it in the FAQS and gave me credit for it but I have updated it a little since he posted it. Hope this helps someone.

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Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at 2:12 PM - Response #18

I started our website a couple of months ago for our 25th reunion and we are only at 29%.
Question: The password protected pages, I have mine set where new subscribing classmates can see all pages. The only other option I see is that they can't see anything until they are verified. how do I password protect each indiviual page?

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Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at 12:27 AM - Response #19

Hi Glenda,

Go to Edit Site Pages and assign a password at the bottom of the page - then choose the pages above that you wish to password protect.

Note: If you don't want new subscribing classmates to access your password protected pages until they have been verified you would also need to turn on the Anti-Hijacking (new classmate access rights) feature under your Preferences link.


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Monday, January 19, 2009 at 2:25 PM - Response #20

David
We are a 1969 class of 604 and we have 104 (101 with emails and 3 without); 35 have passed away. So tha is 23% which is good for us in that we are getting ones who have never been involved after graduation. We could not have done that without ClassCreator.

I have found that keeping the site fresh brings at least few new registrations and a lot more hits by registered classmates. We are using a 3-prong approach in this order Email-Phone-Snail Mail postcards. We will send out the actual announcement of the August reunion and request for payment in about May 15.

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Edited 01/19/09 2:25 PM
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