Utilising Social Media Technology to Raise Brand

Awareness in Higher Education

Baomin Qi

and Lindsey Mackie

Bolton Business School, University of Bolton, Deane Road, Bolton, U.K.

Career and Employability, University of Salford, University House, Salford, U.K.

Keywords: Social Media Technology, Brand Awareness, UK Higher Education.

Abstract: Marketing and more specifically raising brand awareness is vital for any successful organisation and its

importance is demonstrated across all industry sectors. The widely adopted social media (SM) technology is

believed to bring opportunities for brand awareness; and many universities worldwide have already

broached the concept of using SM to communicate with potential students. However, the social media arena

is deemed by many HEIs as frivolous, and the significance of SM is yet widely realised. This research will

look at the power behind social media technology; the main focus is to explore whether the utilisation of

SM technology could increase the brand awareness. In order to achieve this research aim exhaustive

literature search was conducted and the available literature is systematically reviewed. The research found

that although SM platforms have been exploited by most of institutions, there is little evidence to suggest

that higher education is currently using social media effectively to engage with students, increase brand

awareness and enhance image.

1 INTRODUCTION

The term social media is often associated with the

term Web 2.0 which includes social networking sites

(SNS) such as Facebook, Blogging sites e.g.

Blogger.com and micro-blogging sites e.g. Twitter.

Within this umbrella also includes Video (e.g.

YouTube), Audio (e.g. iTunes and Podcast.net) and

live-casting (e.g. BlogTalkRadio and Live 365) and

the virtual worlds (e.g. Second Life). This clearly

outlines the complexity surrounding the term social

media, however the one commonality between all of

the above areas is that they all focus on building

online communities within which people are

interacting and influencing each other.

Universities worldwide have adopted social

media to an extent and whilst some have

successfully recruited students to their programmes

using social media marketing (Reuben, 2008) the

majority use it mostly to stay in touch with graduates

and current students. Although there are numerous

articles written regarding the power of social media

marketing, very little is available in relation to the

public sector and in particular the Higher Education

sector. Also it has been identified that marketers in

the public and private sectors have extremely

differing viewpoints on the relevancy and

importance of social media.

The primary purpose of this research is to

examine the effect of social media presence on

brand awareness in higher education. With this in

mind, a literature search was conducted using

Emerald Insight and ProQuest journals in the areas

of social media marketing and higher education.

Three key themes emerged from the literature

search, which were: use of social media for

marketing; use of social media to raise brand

awareness (and image and reputation) and use of

social media for learning. Key research in these

areas of interest will be discussed in more detail in

the following sections.

2 OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL

MEDIA ADOPTION IN HE

Studies of US universities have shown that many are

now using SNS to conduct marketing targeted to the

individual student’s needs (Wandel, 2008; Mattson

and Barnes, 2009). The study by Mattson and

Barnes (2009) was concerned with how admissions

400

Qi B. and Mackie L..

Utilising Social Media Technology to Raise Brand Awareness in Higher Education.

DOI: 10.5220/0004965804000405

In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies (WEBIST-2014), pages 400-405

ISBN: 978-989-758-023-9

 2014 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

departments are using social media to connect with

students in order to attract them to their

programmes. They also used social media to

research prospective students. Whilst this report

demonstrated some success in engaging with

students this was with the purpose of recruitment

and it was impossible to say whether brand

awareness was raised though its use. However they

also discovered that only half of the universities

researched were using social media to monitor any

conversations about them online.

Reuben’s (2008) research also showed that

universities across America are using social media in

their marketing and recruitment efforts as well as to

communicate with current students and maintain

contact with alumni. These studies agreed that

institutions need to better understand what their

students use SNS for by learning the “rules of

engagement”. This is confirmed by the findings of

Boon and Sinclair (2009); Hemmi et al. (2009) and

Madge et al. (2009) who all raised concerns about

appropriate channels of communication between

university and student and said that social media

should be used with caution in education. However,

these studies were concerned with the interaction

amongst students and academics when used as a

platform to support learning and engagement, rather

than the use of social media to raise brand

awareness. Concerns were also raised about the loss

of control as institutions felt that having a presence

on social media could leave them open to abuse and

negative comments. Other studies have shown that

being able to respond to online negativity enables

brands to start a conversation with their communities

and change perceptions of their organisation (Sharp,

2011).

Minocha (2009) looked at how SNS were being

used to support student learning at 18 Higher

Education Institutions in the UK. This highlighted a

number of benefits such as improved team building

and peer group support. It is generally considered

acceptable by students to communicate with their

classmates in this way to enhance their learning

experience but it was found that most students did

not welcome the idea of communicating with their

lecturers on their personal social spaces. The study

also raised concerns that the institutions would have

little control over the public social media sites The

Open University has a Facebook application called

‘My OU story’ which allows prospective students to

interact with current students (Redecker, 2009).

This offers the benefit that students can find out

more about their prospective university and intended

course to support their decision about where to

study. Current students are giving positive messages

about their experience at the OU and this enhances

the online reputation of the university and also their

brand image. The University of Westminster has a

similar social networking forum aimed at staff and

students (Oriadni and Saunders, 2008) which

enables students to interact with their lecturers

giving a positive learning experience. Smith et al

(2007) agree that SNS can be used by universities to

generate word of mouth (WOM) publicity to

promote their institution and its achievements. If

this is true, then it is reasonable to assume that

promoting the successes of an institution should

increase brand awareness and image.

Whilst not concerned specifically with social

media, the findings of Mazzarol and Soutar (2012)

highlight how institutions of higher education are

tacking the issue of branding. It was found that

branding was not approached in a strategic manner

by most universities and was a combination of

online and offline resources, including brochures,

prospectuses, location and rankings. They also found

that universities often have several brands within the

institution, for example a sub-brand for each

separate school, faculty, research department, etc.

Whilst this might not seem to be an issue, the

information about how students use social media

would suggest they might struggle to identify which

brand they should be engaging with when presented

with a choice of many which can effectively weaken

the overall brand.

3 SM USAGE FOR LEARNING

The majority of social networking sites users are of

university age and it therefore makes sense that

universities would want to capitalise on this

additional communication channel. However, some

studies (Boon and Sinclair, 2009; and Madge et al,

2009) reported that students have reacted

unfavourably to the blurring of boundaries between

formal relations with tutors in class and informal

discussions on SNS. Many students consider their

interactions on social media platforms as private

(between their friends and family) and see this as a

social medium rather than one to engage with

official bodies. Whilst most people will like a

number of business pages on Facebook, their

engagement with these pages is limited and Kalpana

and Anandan (2013) found that any content posted

needs to be designed to suit the target audience.

Their study examined ten higher education

institutions in India and they concluded that

UtilisingSocialMediaTechnologytoRaiseBrandAwarenessinHigherEducation

401

organisations need to aim to connect with their

community by finding out about their lives and

becoming part of that, rather than simply posting

marketing messages. Their findings suggested that

the type of content was also important with

messages containing pictures and links far more

likely to attract attention than those that were text

only. According to Facebook (2013) status updates

containing pictures get 120% more attention than

those without. In addition, shorter messages (less

than 250 characters) are felt to gain more interaction.

Similar conclusions have been reached from

commercial organisations with regard to the use of

Facebook for engaging with customers.

Isacsson and Gretzel (2011) developed a

collaborative project between a university in Texas,

USA and another in Finland. They set up a

Facebook group where students from both

universities could collaborate whilst learning about

sustainable tourism. Whilst the lecturers involved

put a lot of time into setting up the social media

platform and some students did find it useful to

collaborate in an informal environment, other

students were uncomfortable about communicating

with people that they did not really know. Although

the project was considered a success it highlighted

that participants in different countries have different

views on how to engage using social media. The

authors concluded that they had to coerce students to

participate in discussions and encourage them to

post on the message boards, which confirmed a

belief that when students connect with their

institution in this manner they see it as a means of

accessing information, rather than a medium for two

way communications.

Shaw (2013) found that whilst the majority of

students use social media more than once a day, they

are either unaware of their university’s presence or

do not consider the information trustworthy or

relevant to their needs. It was felt that universities

need to be more responsive to their students’

requirements. Lilley et al (2012) found that 94% of

the students they surveyed consider Facebook

important for keeping in touch with friends and

family and socialising, whilst over half said they did

not consider it important for receiving advertising

messages and many of those questioned said that

they often ignored such messages anyway.

In the main, young people appear to be using

social media to connect with friends and to socialise,

rather than be marketed to. In terms of university

students, they do use social media to help settle in to

life on campus, make new friends and interact with

their classmates (Wandel, 2008). Whilst they might

use it in this way, most seemed less inclined to

engage with academic staff and might not interact

with the official university presence on social media.

4 USE OF SM FOR DIRECT

MARKETING

Organisations develop strategic marketing plans to

promote and sell their services and more recently

this has included social media marketing. This is a

relatively new concept, meaning to gain attention or

website traffic through the use of social media

(Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi, 2012). It

has developed since the arrival of social networking

sites (SNS), particularly Facebook in 2004 and

Twitter in 2006 (Boyd and Ellison, 2007; Newson,

2009). With the advent of social networking

organisations have also come to realise that whilst

reputations can be built using social media, they can

quickly be devastated by negative feedback.

Whilst some researchers are critical of the use of

SNS for direct marketing (Dury, 2008; Odden,

2009), it has been proven to be important in raising

brand awareness and image. Dury (2008) argues

that whilst some believe marketing has no place in

social media because it is a business activity rather

than a social one, the face of marketing has now

changed and whilst social media marketing is felt by

many to be unacceptable, marketers must rise to the

challenge. Odden (2009) argues that people join

SNS to interact with others who have shared

interests, not to be bombarded with advertisements.

However, the commercial sector has successfully

used SNS to sell products to a wide audience and

Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi (2012)

described how several retailers have used social

media to listen to their fan base in order to design

offers or products which match their clients’ needs.

Gap, for example, invited customers to debate their

new logo online and after reviewing feedback

decided to revert to their original logo at their fans’

request. Other sectors are following suit with social

media at a slower pace with varying degrees of

success.

By its very nature social media marketing

centres its target audience during the design of

marketing campaigns (Smith and Zook, 2011). This

begins with analysing data on the intended audience;

this information informs the design and delivery of

the marketing campaign to ensure it is highly

relevant to the target audience. In a study of young

female students, Logan et al (2012) discovered that

WEBIST2014-InternationalConferenceonWebInformationSystemsandTechnologies

402

advertising via SNS is more effective when it is

entertaining rather than informative and Wang

(2012) found that brands targeting younger

audiences had higher engagement on SNS.

Blanchard (2011) believes that campaigns which

encourage engagement and raise awareness are

better received on SNS than those which are simply

trying to sell products. Overall, this demonstrates

that whilst direct marketing may not be appreciated

by the younger generation, across the typical age

range for university students, social media does hold

potential for engagement and interaction which can

increase brand awareness and image.

Social media can also act as a communications

tool which provides instant feedback (Blanchard,

2011). Evans (2011) stresses the importance of not

only listening to customers but also taking the

opportunity to respond to any negative comments to

resolve issues and Clapperton (2009) gives examples

of organisations that turned around relationships

with disgruntled customers who became brand

advocates.

5 USE OF SM TO RAISE BRAND

AWARENESS

Commercial organisations quickly adopted SNS to

reach their customer base and many have used social

media to raise brand awareness and increase

engagement with their customers. Li and Bernoff

(2008) believe the key to using social media

successfully lies in building a strong relationship and

raising brand awareness amongst customers. Booth

and Matic (2011) discovered that socialising a brand

meant organisations were able to engage one on one

with their customers in order to build communities

and brand advocates. Consumers are using social

media to make themselves heard by the

organisations they want to do business with and

Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi (2012) agree

that social media marketing has been shown to be

particularly successful in raising awareness.

Mangold and Faulds (2009) said that as social media

enables companies to communicate with their

customers and for customers to talk to one another

this enables communities to be built up around a

brand. Whilst this can help raise brand awareness

and reputation if the discussions are spreading

positive messages, social media can damage an

organisation’s brand if participants are making

negative comments or giving poor feedback. Aula

(2010) gives three examples of organisations who

suffered due to messages which were quickly spread

via social media and ultimately picked up on by

mass media so that the stories were publicised

worldwide on television and in tabloid newspapers.

In the case of United Airlines an unhappy customer

posted a video of himself singing a song entitled

“United Breaks Guitars” this quickly went viral and

the video received millions of views on YouTube.

The negative publicity resulted in loss of income for

the organisation. This demonstrates the potential

threat to both the reputation and business of

companies which can quickly be damaged in the

social media arena.

Sharp (2011) demonstrated how an organisation

can prevent damage to their online reputation by

listening to the conversations that are taking place

and reacting appropriately. Responding to

comments made on social media meant that they

were able to demonstrate their excellent customer

service by resolving issues quickly.

Bruhn et al. (2012) studied three industry sectors

to see how social media compared to traditional

media in terms of raising brand awareness and

whilst traditional media was felt to be more

influential in shaping brand awareness, social media

was more effective in enhancing image. Sharp

(2011) noted how a healthcare clinic in Cleveland

was able to successfully use social media to promote

its services and in doing so to raise awareness by the

positive WOM spread by clients. Some sectors felt

using SNS was less appropriate and banks in

particular shied away from it as they felt customers

did not wish to interact with them in this way,

although they did not rule out its potential for the

future (Mitic and Kapoulas, 2012).

Wang (2012) gives a good example of a

Singapore university adopting social media to

increase engagement with their students using a

competition as the incentive. Students were asked to

like the page and post a comment (thus increasing

likes and engagement). They then had to share this

comment on their own page and encourage friends

to like it, further increasing engagement and

awareness. The student who received the most

“likes” won an iPad.

6 CONCLUSIONS

The initial literature review has shown that SNS

such as Twitter and Facebook are being used by

organisations to raise brand awareness and improve

their image with customers. The area of social media

is somewhat broad and previous studies have not

UtilisingSocialMediaTechnologytoRaiseBrandAwarenessinHigherEducation

403

delved into higher education specifically with regard

to how it is being used to raise brand awareness.

A new study by Schultz and Peltier (2013)

suggests that social media so far has been used to

market to existing customers who are already

engaged with a brand and the findings imply that it

is now time to examine ways in which social media

can be used to build engagement with new

customers rather than using it to increase sales in the

short term. Although its use in the commercial sector

has been fairly well documented and it has been

recognised as a vital tool in marketing strategy, this

concurs with the findings that it is usually in the

short term.

The authors found little evidence to suggest that

higher education is currently using social media

effectively to engage with students, increase brand

awareness and enhance image. Mazzarol and Soutar

(2012) stress the importance of brand management

for universities and believe that in this highly

competitive time those that have an “established

reputation” are most likely to survive. They do,

however, conclude that this is an area which is not

yet managed effectively in UK institutions and the

author feels this is an area that merits further

research. Frydenberg, (2013) believes that social

media “holds promise... for engaging students...”

whilst Kalpana and Anandan (2013) found that

engagement with students can be increased if the

content considers the needs of the target audience.

This suggests that universities need to discover

exactly what students want to see posted on social

media by their institutions.

The next stage of this research project will focus

on the strategic development of using social media

technology to raise university’s brand awareness.

Case study approach will be adopted and a range of

case studies will be carefully chosen.

REFERENCES

Aula, P. (2010). Social media, reputation risk and ambient

publicity management. Strategy & Leadership

[Online] 38 (6), pp.43-49. Available from:

<http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10878571011088069>

[Accessed 23 April 2013]

Boon, S. and Sinclair, C. (2009) A world I don’t inhabit:

disquiet and identity in Second Life and Facebook.

Educational Media International [Online]. 46(2), pp

99-110. Available from: <http://www.informaworld.

com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a911901158>

[Accessed 12 February 2013].

Booth, N. and Matic, J.A. (2011). Mapping and leveraging

influencers in social media to shape corporate brand

perceptions. Corporate Communications [Online]16

(3) pp 184-191. Available from:

<http://search.proquest.com/docview/888255196?acco

untid=9653> (accessed 21 March 2013).

Boyd, D.M. and Ellison, N.B. (2007) Social network sites:

Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of

Computer-Mediated Communication [Online]. 13(1)

article 11. Available from: <http://jcmc.indiana.edu/

vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html> [Accessed 3 March

2013].

Bruhn, M., Schoenmueller, V. and Schäfer, D.B. (2012)

Are social media replacing traditional media in terms

of brand equity creation?. Management Research

Review 35(9) pp.770 – 790. [Online]. Available from:

<http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409171211255948>

[Accessed 22 March 2013]

Cheater, M. (2008) How Higher Ed is Using Facebook

Pages [Online]. Available from: <http://www.

academicagroup.com/node/4598> [Accessed 11

March 2013].

Clapperton, G. (27 Oct 2009) This is Social Media: Tweet,

Blog, Link and Post Your Way to Business Success.

Chichester, West Sussex: Capstone Publishing (Wiley)

Dury, G. (2008) Opinion piece: Social media: Should

marketers engage and how can it be done effectively.

Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing

Practice [Online]. 9 (3) pp. 274-277. Available from:

<http://www.palgrave-journals.com/dddmp/journal/

v9/n3/full/4350096a.html > [Accessed 12 March

2013].

Evans, L. (2010) Social Media Marketing: Strategies for

Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media:

Promoting Your Company... USA: Que Publishing

Facebook (2013) Facebook for Business. Build your Page.

[online]. Available from: <https://www.

facebook.com/business/build> [Accessed 28 April

2013]

Frydenberg, M. (2013) Creating a collaborative learning

community in the CIS Sandbox. Interactive

Technology and Smart Education. [Online] 10(1)

pp.49–62.

Hemmi, A., Bayne, S. and Land, R. (2009) The

appropriation and repurposing of social technologies

in higher education. Journal of Computer Assisted

Learning [Online]. 25(1) pp. 19–30. Available from:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-

2729.2008.00306.x/full

Isacsson, A. and Gretzel, U. (2011) Facebook as an

edutainment medium to engage students in

sustainability and tourism. Journal of Hospitality and

Tourism Technology. 2(1) pp. 81 – 90.

Kalpana, C. and Anandan, P. (2013) Role of content

strategy in social media brand communities: a case of

higher education institutes in India. Journal of

Product & Brand Management. [Online]. 22(1) pp.40

– 51.

Lilley, S., Grodzinsky, F.S. and Gumbus, A. (2012)

Revealing the commercialized and compliant

Facebook user. Journal of Information,

Communication and Ethics in Society. 10( 2) pp.82 –

WEBIST2014-InternationalConferenceonWebInformationSystemsandTechnologies

404

92 [Online]. Available from: <http://dx.doi.org/

10.1108/14779961211226994> [Accessed 30 April

2013]

Logan, K., Bright, L.F. and Gangadharbatla, H. (2012)

Facebook versus television: advertising value

perceptions among females. Journal of Research in

Interactive Marketing [Online] 6(3) pp.164 – 179.

Available from: <http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/

17505931211274651> [Accessed 20 April 2013]

Madge, C., Meek, J., Wellens, J. and Hooley, T. (2009)

Facebook, social integration and informal learning at

university: ‘It is more for socialising and talking to

friends about work than for actually doing work’.

Learning, Media and Technology [Online]. 34(2)

pp.141-155.

Mangold, W.G. and Faulds, D.J. (2009). Social Media:

The new hybrid element of the promotion mix.

Business Horizons [Online]. 52 pp. 357-365. Available

from: <http://japanfashionshanghai.up.seesaa.net/

image/japanfashionshanghai-2010-07-06T12:32:54-

2.pdf> [Accessed 11 February 2013]

Mattson, E., and Barnes, N. G. (2009) Social Media and

College Admissions: The First Longitudinal Study

[Online]. Available from: <http://www.neacac.org/

docs/uploads/files/amc2010/2010%20AMC%20Web

%20Social%20Media%20and%20College%20Admiss

ions%20The%20First%20Longitudinal%20Study.pdf

> [Accessed 12 March 2013].

Mazzarol, T. and Soutar, G.N. (2012) Revisiting the

global market for higher education. Asia Pacific

Journal of Marketing and Logistics [Online] 24(5)

pp.717 – 737. Available from:

<http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13555851211278079>

[Accessed 18 March 2013]

Minocha, S. (2009) A Study of the Effective Use of Social

Software by Further and Higher Education in the UK

to Support Student Learning and teaching [Online]

Available from: <http://kn.open.ac.uk/public/

document.cfm?docid=12120> [Accessed 24 January

2011].

Mitic, M. & Kapoulas, A. (2012) "Understanding the role

of social media in bank marketing", Marketing

Intelligence & Planning, 30(7) pp.668 – 686. .

[Online]. Available from: <http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/

02634501211273797> [Accessed 22 March 2013]

Odden, L. (2009) How Direct is Social Media Marketing,

Online Marketing Blog, 23 June [Online]. Available

from: <http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/06/

howdirect-is-social-media-marketing/> [Accessed 12

January 2011].

Oriadini, F. and Saunders, G. (2008) Social networking:

Connect-ing students and staff. Association for

Learning Technology News [Online]. (62) p.3.

Available from: <http://www.alt.ac.uk/docs/alt-

n_62_final.pdf> [Accessed 18 February 2013].

Redecker, C. (2009) Review of Learning 2.0 Practices:

Study on the Impact of Web 2.0 Innovations on

Education and Training in Europe [Online]. Available

from: <http://ftp.jrc.es/EURdoc/JRC49108.pdf>

[Accessed 17 March 2013].

Reuben, R. (2008) Survey about the use of social media in

higher education [Online]. Available from:

<http://www.docstoc.com/docs/20087333/The-Use-of-

Social-Media-in-Higher-Education---A-Guide>

[Accessed 28 March 2013].

Saravanakumar, M. and SuganthaLakshmi, T. (2012)

Social Media Marketing. Life Science Journal

[Online] 9(4) pp 4444-4451. Available from:

<http://www.lifesciencesite.com/lsj/life0904/670_130

61life0904_4444_4451.pdf> [Accessed 22 March

2013]

Schultz, D. and Peltier, J. (2013) Social Media’s Slippery

Slope: Challenges, Opportunities and Future Research

Directions. Journal of Research in Interactive

Marketing. 7(2) [online]. Available from:

<http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=2

040-7122&volume=7&issue=2&articleid=17087504&

show=abstract> [Accessed 30 April 2013]Sharp, J.

(2011). Brand awareness and engagement: A case

study in healthcare social media. Frontiers of health

services management. [Online] 28(2) pp.29-33

Available from: <http://search.proquest.com/docview/

912463726?accountid=9653> [Accessed March 20,

2013]

Shaw, J. (2013) University recruitment: one fifth of

students say social media doesn't work. The Guardian.

17 April 2013. [Online]. Available from:

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-

network/blog/2013/apr/17/university-student-

recruitment-social-media> [Accessed 30 April 2013]

Smith, T., Coyle, J. Lightfoot, E. and Scott, A. (2007)

Reconsidering Models of Influence: The Relationship

between Consumer Social Networks and Word-of-

Mouth Effectiveness. Journal of Advertising Research

[Online]. 47(4), pp. 387. Available from:

<http://www.communityanalytics.com/Portals/0/Reso

urce_Library/WOM%20in%20Journal%20of%20Adv

ertising.pdf> [Accessed 4 April 2013].

Wandel, T. (2008) Colleges and Universities Want to be

Your Friend: Communicating via Online Social

Networking. Planning for Higher Education [Online].

37 (1) pp.35-48.

Wang, H. (2012) Six P's of youth social media from a

young consumer's perspective. Young Consumers:

Insight and Ideas for Responsible Marketers [Online]

13(3) pp.303 – 317. Available from:

<http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17473611211261674>

[Acessed 12 March 2013]

UtilisingSocialMediaTechnologytoRaiseBrandAwarenessinHigherEducation

405