Social media interaction, the university brand and recruitment performance

Commentators and academics now refer to Higher Education as a market and the language of the market frames and describes the sector. Considerable competition for students exists in the marketplace as institutions compete for students. 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 and considers the impact of this activity, in particular social media interaction and social media validation, on student recruitment. The results demonstrate a positive effect for the use of social media on performance, especially when an institution attracts a large number of Likes on Facebook and Followers on Twitter. A particularly strong and positive effect results when universities use social media interactively