Social media interaction, the university brand and recruitment performance

Rutter, Richard, Roper, Stuart and Lettice, Fiona ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1304-4435 (2016) Social media interaction, the university brand and recruitment performance. Journal of Business Research, 69 (8). pp. 3096-3104. ISSN 0148-2963

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Abstract

Commentators and academics now refer to Higher Education (HE) as a market and the language of the market frames and describes the sector. Considerable competition for students exists and the marketplace is global as institutions compete for students not just from their own country, but from the lucrative international market. Universities are aware of the importance of their reputations, but to what extent are they utilizing branding activity to deal with such competitive threats? Can institutions with lower reputational capital compete for students by increasing their brand presence? This study provides evidence from research into social media related branding activity from 56 UK universities and considers the impact of this activity, in particular social media interaction and social media validation, on performance in terms of student recruitment. The results demonstrate a positive effect for the use of social media on brand performance, especially when an institution attracts a large number of Likes on Facebook and a high number of Followers on Twitter. A particularly strong and positive effect results when universities use social media interactively.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	branding,performance,social media,university
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Innovation, Technology and Operations Management
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	22 Mar 2016 09:18
Last Modified:	04 May 2023 22:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/57703
DOI:	10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.01.025

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