NETWORKING is not just for recent graduates or job seekers.
Online networking offers an easy way to find and reconnect with classmates, sorority sisters, fraternity brothers, teammates, and other friends from your days as a student. It is also a convenient means of reaching post-college alumni friends you have lost touch with. Our many common experiences have left us with shared interests, and staying connected is just common sense. Especially when it is so easy to do.
The best way to find alumni you already you know—and to be found by them—is to register with the William & Mary Alumni Association (WMAA) database and then search the online directory. As of August 2007, nearly one quarter of the 18,500 undergraduate alumni that graduated between 1985 and 1995 have registered with the online WMAA database.
A very close second is LinkedIn. We rank it below the WMAA service only because it does not have the same reach, but it is much more flexible and useful. And we have recently started a LinkedIn "group" for 8595 LinkedIn, with forums and a searchable membership roster. Click here to join the 8595 group on LinkedIn.
Other social networking sites that allow you to easily search for other W & M alumni include Classmates.com, LinkedIn, Alumni.NET, and Facebook. Some of these services will add you to their mailing lists, so make sure you read the terms and conditions of membership before you proceed.
Again, of all of the popular sites that allow searching by alma mater, LinkedIn is the one most geared toward business networking and useful interaction, and it has a convenient way for you to find and add alumni and get referrals from their contacts. If you are looking to link up with other senior executives, attorneys, consultants, administrators, officials, researchers, and other W & M alumni in the business world, take a look at LinkedIn.