University of Tartu moves its alumni communication to social media

The University of Tartu’s alumni network UTalumni, opened in 2016, will be closed soon. According to an analysis conducted at the university, the network failed to meet the users’ expectations, and our alumni prefer to stay in touch with the university via social media channels. The university has already started to develop social media to strengthen the alumni community, bring them closer to the university and develop professional cooperation with them.

The analysis showed that although the number of the alumni network members had grown with the help of campaigns to nearly 9,000, the number of active users remains small. The platform is costly to manage in terms of both time and money. “When the UTalumni platform was launched, its importance lay in its uniqueness. Now, five years later, we value openness more than uniqueness. If we want to be close to our alumni, we have to consider using their usual online environments,” said Kadri-Ann Mägi, Alumni Relations Coordinator at the University of Tartu.

After the alumni network UTalumni is closed on 24 August, our graduates can keep in touch with the university via social media and mailing lists.

• The alumni newsletter brings you the most important university news.
• The University of Tartu can be found on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. The university has both an Estonian and an English Facebook page, where alumni are welcome to get involved and discuss various topics.
• University of Tartu’s website offers latest news and information, and soon the new website of the university will be launched, where the essential information for alumni is organised even better.
• In the UT blog, people can share their experiences and speak about their activities.
• Job and internship offers can be posted to and searched for in the Futulab portal.

Further information: Kadri-Ann Mägi, University of Tartu Alumni Relations Coordinator, +372 5310 1610, kadri-ann.magi@ut.ee