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Social Media Marketing in Higher Education Institutions

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 SEA - Practical Application of Science
Volume VIII, Issue 23 (2 / 2020)

Omar SALEM
Doctoral school of Management and Business, University of Debrecen, Hungary

Review
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IN Article

HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Keywords
Marketing;
Social media;
Higher education institutions;
Universities;

JEL Classification
M31

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to analyze social media marketing in higher education institutions and
determine the tools and strategies that are used by universities to promote their brands and how social
media marketing affects strengthening the competitive advantage of higher education institutions. The
researcher followed a systematic review process that aims to summarize, identify, and evaluate all related
researches about social media marketing in higher education institutions. As the study indicates, Social
media platforms are the most important channels to promote advertising campaigns and communicate
with current and prospective students.

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INTRODUCTION public or semi-public profiles, communicate with a

list of users with whom they share a connection,
The enormous growth of technological instruments and view those connections and those made by
has shifted the concerns of enterprises from others in the system (Boyd & Ellison, 2008).
traditional methods to technological ways, Higher Besides, Safko & Brake (2009) defined social
education institutions are one of the sectors media as practices, activities, and behaviors among
influenced by the technological revolution. societies of people who collect online to participate
The effect of social media networks on daily life in information, opinions, and knowledge using
has become exceptionally crucial. Hence, using conversational media (Çiçek & Erdogmus, 2012).
platforms of social media is significantly vital for Over the previous short period, social media
the business sector as a whole for attracting networks have been used for public and private
customers' purposes (Jayasuriya, Azam, Khatibi, business purposes in two main methods. The first
Atan, & Dharmaratne, 2018). From the client's and most famous way is to engage and
point of view, the more trusted sources for them are communicate with parties in an external
social media networks compared with traditional environment like vendors, students (customers) and
tools such as radio, newspapers, and televisions other parties, to achieve this goal, business
(Bruhn, Schoenmueller, & Schafer, 2012). As a institutions support pages and groups of social
result, according to the report of Digital, social and media on common platforms such as Twitter,
mobiles (2019), the number of 3.484 billion people Facebook, and Youtube. The second method is not
are active social media users worldwide; it common, as the first method, it is internal
indicates that almost 45% of the population around communication and engagement within the
the world use social media platforms profusely (We corporations (Leonardi, Huysman, & Steinfield,
Are Social, 2019). Therefore, Social media 2013).
networks could work as an efficient supporter to During the past years, social media networks have
strengthen the relationships between customers and grasped the attention of universities, and previous
institutions. The most preferable way is to attract studies have described that a large number of
followers by forming pages and groups on social public and private universities and colleges are
media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, using significantly social media platforms (Merrill,
Facebook, etc (De Vries, Gensler, & Leeflang, 2011; Jan, & Ammari, 2016; Hossain, & Sakib,
2012). 2016; Nazeer, 2017).
Social media networks have changed the
interaction path between the customers and the
institutions as every person has a platform to METHODOLOGY
engage with others and give feedback easily
because the access is better to goods and services The researcher followed a systematic review
information and the final decision of purchase process that aims to summarize, identify and
(Wang, Yu, & Wei, 2012). So in the knowledge evaluate all related researches about social media
era, Public and Private higher education institutions marketing in higher education institutions. The
are increasingly dealing with social networks like study gave significant attention to the strategies
Twitter and Facebook in order to affect used by higher education institutions according to
communication with potential clients. In addition, the literature review.
admission offices and marketing departments of
universities are based on social media platforms to
engage with potential students by setting SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IN HIGHER
promotions campaigns (Merrill, 2011). EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
The aim of this research is to analyze the social
media marketing in higher education institutions by As for the higher education institutions sector, it is
applying a systematic literature review of the field. considered one of the most important sectors in
Also, the paper focuses on determining the tools developed countries because of its great
and strategies used by universities to promote their contributions to the development process.
brands and how social media marketing affects The researcher used the systematic review analysis
strengthening the competitive advantage of higher to summarize, identify and assess researches
education institutions. related to this research.
Roblyer, McDaniel, Webb, Herman, and Witty
(2010) studied a comparison between faculty
LITERATURE REVIEW members and students and to what extent each part
uses the Facebook platform, the results indicate that
Social media platforms can be defined as web- students are more likely to use Facebook than
based services that allow individuals to develop members of the faculty. On the other hand, the

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members of the faculty prefer using some found that the famous social media platforms are
traditional instruments, such as email. It can be used by the top higher education institutions in
observed that the faculty members don't use Asia and Africa, such as Twitter, Facebook,
Facebook enough, therefore it leads to less Youtube, and Linked In. Besides, the aim of using
engagement with students on social media networks of social media for colleges and
networks. According to the study of Vrontis universities is to promote their undergraduate and
Nemar, Ouwaida, and Shams (2018), they found postgraduate programs and provide information
that international students still prefer to engage about all scientific events and other. Nevzat, Amca,
with traditional resources in the search stage to find Tanova, and Amca (2016) stated in their research
information, apart from social media platforms and entitled "role of social media community in
other electronic ways. strengthening trust and loyalty for a university" that
to perceive the strength of the community of
Facebook, it must be related to the identification
TYPE OF CONTENT with the brand and the community of higher
education institution which could affect loyalty and
According to Hossain and Sakib (2016), the type of trust of the community. Using social media
the content of social media is relevant to the brand, platforms is a significantly positive impact on
then they have a high positive effect on the developing a brand, loyalty, identity, and trust of
university brand loyalty of students. Moreover, university and students.
popular content seems to be an effective type of Clark, Fine, and Scheuer (2017) argued in their
brand loyalty of university students. Also, the study research about how the engagement of social media
of Demirer (2017) focused on the analysis of the influences the quality of the relationship between
content of Facebook posts, the results showed that the university and one of its key stakeholder
the best universities in Turkey are based on content groups, students. Besides, researchers noticed that
which includes text, pictures, and link content type. the quality of the relationship between university
Furthermore, the content agility, content type, and students is clearly high in the case of students
content context, type of posting, and daily posts that are following the university on platforms of
significantly influence the number of shares, social media. Study of Rutter, Roper, and Lettice
comments, and likes that are brand posts' popularity (2016) and of Zickar, Ron, and Arnold (2018)
indicators. Peruta and Shields (2018) research confirmed the positive role of social media
supports the previous statement by describing the networks on the recruitment performance. A study
formats and topics of 5932 Facebook posts from applied in Poland universities by Buchnowska and
top United States’ higher education institutions. Wozniak (2013) aimed to explore the factors
Pringle and Fritz (2019) revealed that all types of pinpointing the necessity of undertaking by higher
content shared on social media platforms, if the education institutions of attempts to communicate
brand promises were not as expected, would be with the external environment by using networks of
used against the institution. Chauhan and Pillai social media. The study had revealed that Polish
(2013) described that the content agility and universities acknowledge the significance of taking
content type have a significant effect on comments advantage of social media in developing relations
and likes figures which are considered as manifest with internal and external communities. The study
variables for the engagement of customers. On the of Linvill, McGee, and Hicks (2012) concentrates
other hand, the interaction of two-way indicated on Twitter using the content analysis method of
that content context and content type have a 113 Colleges and Universities; it revealed that the
positive influence on likes and comments numbers. higher education institutions consider the Twitter
Social Media Platforms used by Higher education platform as institutional news feed to the public.
institutions Brech, Messer, Schee, Rauschnabel, and Ivens
The study of Merrill (2011) and Calitz and Cullen (2017), in their study, revealed that the reputation
(2012) described the crucial role of social media and size of University are directly the big players in
networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and attracting fans to the Facebook brand page; it
Youtube, especially Facebook as the preferred means more fans on Facebook pages in case the
communication tool (together with Twitter) by two- reputation of University is high.
third of all respondents. In addition, the Youtube The exposure to advertisements in Social media
platform plays an important role in outreaching the platforms affect the attitude and behavior of users,
respondents by just under having them. These a study revealed that men are more affected than
results lead to the facts that the essential networks women (Nazeer, 2017). Constantinides and Stagno
to set promotional campaigns are Facebook and (2012) illustrated that social media is a factor
Twitter, and also Youtube for those who prefer affecting students' choice within several factors
watching videos. Paladan (2018) analyzed the affecting students' choice as well. Rinaldo, Laverie,
common social media networks utilized by the top Tapp, and Humphrey (2013) and Kimmons,
25 universities and college in Africa and Asia, and Veletsianos, and Woodward (2016) emphasized the

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importance of Twitter in the relationship between (2011), Calitz and Cullen (2012), Paladan (2018),
the student and the professor, particularly to gain Nevzat et al. (2016), Clark et al. (2017), Rutter et
benefit. al. (2016), and Buchnowska and Wozniak (2013)
described the importance of social media in
engagement with students, so that they can be
OTHER INFLUENCERS considered as channels.
On the other hand, as for the type of content, social
The websites of the higher education institutions media allows Universities to write varied content,
have a positive effect on the decision making of this content may be in the forms of posts, images,
students, then significantly influence students' twits (Twitter); each content type has its own
choice of a specific university (Jan & Ammari, reachable strategy set by a specific network. The
2016(. studies of Hossain and Sakib (2016), Demirer
In the new digital era, the higher education (2017), Peruta and Shields (2018), and Chauhan
institutions focus more on using social media and Pillai (2013) approved that the content type
platforms for marketing and promotion purposes, affects the student’s convictions about the offers
using their official websites is not as effective as and services of higher education institutions.
social media, the percentage indicates that in Another point is that the Universities’ websites are
Romania twelve Universities have no websites, and considered also as an instrument to show their
three have a website but it is not active (Alexa, content (programs and offers) to prospective and
Alexa, & Stoica, 2012). There are no many studies current students; however, they represent a
illustrating the role of the University's website, and traditional way, whose impact is not the same as
it is possible to consider that the importance of social media platforms' effect. In addition, Alumni
website content is not the same as of social media are an effective factor influencing students' choice.
networks. Galan et al. (2015) indicated that the reviews of
Greenwood (2012) showed the integration between alumni are an important joint point.
the website of a University and its social media
networks, he described that this integration and
cooperation is crucial, particularly regarding CONCLUSIONS
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.
Another discovered factor affecting social media Because of the technological changes that
marketing is the role of Alumni; prospective happened in the previous years, social media has
students tend to look at the reviews of alumni about been becoming one of the best instruments and
the University, these reviews are considered as a strategies for marketing businesses. This paper
factor affecting students' choice (Galan, Lawley, & emphasizes the importance of social media
Clements, 2015). Moreover, social media platforms platforms in terms of engaging with current
are mostly new trends, they seem to like youth students and prospective students; communicating
media, so large proportions of youth males and with students through social media networks
females are spending lots of hours chatting and enhances the relationships between university and
displaying on social media networks, therefore they students. It is possible to say that students feel their
are highly expected to be exposed to the value when university communicates them through
advertisements of higher education institutions social media that reflects the good image to
(Mazurek, Korzyński, & Górska, 2019; Lawson, prospective students. On the other hand, using the
Kleinholz, & Bodle, 2011). websites of the Universities is not as effective as
Discussion social media; they are considered a traditional way,
The accelerated growth of businesses in terms of but they could be linked with social media
the global economy and globalization has led the networks. Moreover, it is important to mention that
world to be more competitive. The Education Alumni play an important role in the process of
sector, particularly higher education institutions, is attracting new students.
one of the sides that got affected by this growth. Limitations of the paper: the paper describes how
This paper illustrated the impact of social media higher education institutions use social media and
networks on higher education institutions regarding which benefits could be gained. However, it did not
how Universities use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, take into consideration the differences of behaviors
Youtube, and their websites. in different regions where the universities are
It is possible to observe that using social media located.
platforms is the most crucial instrument to attract
prospective students as well as communicate with
and keep current students. Facebook, Twitter, and
Youtube are common platforms used by
Universities to communicate with students and to
promote their programs; studies such as Merrill

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