Implementation of Communication in Social Media by Promoting Studies at Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

New technologies penetrate into all spheres of our lives and shifts personal communication as well as traditional communication between customers and organizations; provide all the participants of communication with more possibilities. Economic crisis promotes internet-based communication and stimulates organizations to look for cheaper possibilities, i. e. to integrate social media into relations building, public relations and other activities.

Recent theoretical and practical scientific studies emphasize the importance of the development of social media ideas and its integration into organizations’ communication activities, which used in appropriate way, can help to reach the appointed results: to present and to sell services or goods, to build brand value or to maintain two-way relations with target audiences, etc. Social media is changing the traditional marketing paradigm and stimulates new attitudes toward relations between organizations and consumers, where information flows bilateral, direct and effectively, may be diffused in social networks by consumers’ wishes and can help to strengthen organization positions in the market. Therefore scientists recommend organizations to appraise the value of every member of virtual communities and to communicate in correct way: adding value, helping to solve problems, educating and etc.

The article concentrates on the attitude which organizations have to have for successful social media, implementation and achievement of organizational goals. Different departments of organization should be involved in more effective use of social media. Business organizations have to consider both positive and negative social media application aspects in order to avoid certain risks. The negative aspect of social media that is mostly appointed by scientists is the lack of control mechanism: message content, timing and frequency. In order to avoid the risks related with communication in social media organizations have to plan social media implementation process.

The main objective of this research is to build up the structural model of communication in social media and to test the application perspectives of the model for study promotion in public higher education institutions.

The result of theoretical analysis is an original model of communication in social media. The steps of the model implementation are: environment and competitors’ analysis preparation of communication strategy, selection of appropriate channels, communication process, monitoring, assessment and comparison of results. The theoretical model of communication in social media includes not only the process of communication between the organization and consumers, but also the stages of preparation and assessment that are also important in the evaluation of implementation of the overall communication strategy.

A case study of Lithuanian state higher education institutions was used to reveal the possible application of the suggested model of communication in social media in the promotion of higher education studies in social media.

The communication of higher education institutions in social media is important since active involvement of prospective students in communication in social media can help prospective students to choose the university where he or she would like to study. Social media presents a university as „live“, communicating and caring about current and prospective students.

The study on communication in social media by promoting studies at Lithuanian higher education institutions showed that the suggested model of communication in social media of business organizations can be successfully applied to the communication of universities in social media. The popularization of higher education institutions and involvement of prospective students should originate from environment analysis and planning as well as benefit assessment that may be gained by social media.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.23.2.1550