Fairfield University
Launched in May, 2006, Fairfield’s Online Community has achieved its very high registration rate partly due to its use of “front end” as well as “back end” integration. Brand integrity has been maintained throughout, and new university content was developed to give added value to the Online Community. Front End: Starting at the university-hosted alumni page http://www.fairfield.edu/alumni we provided three links to the Online Community: on the left hand side, in the middle as a feature, and via a “poster” on the right. We also utilized design elements in the Harris-hosted Online Community home page http://www.fairfield.edu/alumnicommunity (and all subsequent pages) that were very similar in style to our university-hosted page, including a horizontal black navigation bar (coupled with a gray, changing photo bar) that leads users back to general institutional information. Back End: We chose to greatly expand our online career content by seamlessly extending the Online Community to five new university-hosted career sections (more in development) exemplified by our “Educators Corner” http://www.fairfield.edu/x17056.xml and our “Volunteering Advice & Opportunities” http://www.fairfield.edu/x17275.xml Movement back and forth between these pages and Harris-hosted pages is seamless.