Giáo án Những kĩ thuật gia tăng giá trị thương hiệu

Giáo án Những kĩ thuật gia tăng giá trị thương hiệu Chương 4The Impacts of Social Media inHigher Education Institutions:How It Evolves Social Media in UniversitiesThe purpose of this chapter is to highlight the importance of social networks in higher education institutions and how today is an essential tool to expose all their activities, achievements, among others, and stay connected with students (and the university community usually). To establish the content and define the strategies, which must be used in the social networks managed by the university; It is essential to know the profile of the users that exist in our social media community. This encompasses multiple audiences ranging from undergraduate students, alumni and future students to parents, teachers, collaborators, researchers and other institutions, the entire community.

Chapter 4

ABSTRACT

Today, social networks have become an important part of an individual’s life Most people use social networks to interact and communicate not only with people, but also with different companies or institu-tions in search of information This includes higher education instituinstitu-tions The role of social networks

in a higher education institution is important; It helps show what the university does, what services it offers, the achievements of its students, what achievements they get, etc Social networks, with the right strategies, can create a great impact on how students see the university and what to do, and also they become an admission tool to generate interest in future students.

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the importance of social networks in higher education institu-tions and how today is an essential tool to expose all their activities, achievements, among others, and stay connected with students (and the university community usually) To establish the content and define the strategies, which must be used in the social networks managed by the university; It is essential to know the profile of the users that exist in our social media community This encompasses multiple audiences ranging from undergraduate students, alumni and future students to parents, teachers, collaborators, researchers and other institutions, the entire community

The Impacts of Social Media in Higher Education Institutions: How It Evolves Social Media in Universities

Verónica Gutiérrez

Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Ecuador

Ariana Daniela Del Pino

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0629-2994

Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Ecuador

This chapter also explores different tips for the correct use of social networks for higher education institutions In addition, it provides advice on certain errors that should be avoided and that may cause

a negative reaction from users These reactions can increase and many users can begin to expose their discontent in an important way, through social networks, the situation can lead to a crisis According

to Maresh-Fuehrer and Smith “Social media has been recognized in crisis communication research as facilitating both the spread and mitigation of crises” (2015, p 621) What is a social media crisis? How can it intensify if a quick response is not given? And how can it be managed? They are also part of the analysis that involves understanding the functioning of social networks

Universities are not only managed under the brand scheme, but a global academic institutional iden-tity scheme, showing all their strengths, advantages and including all the intellectual material created

by academics and students as part of their contribution Universities must disseminate and disseminate everything that is forged as ambassadors of knowledge, therefore, it must have a presence in different events, be they scientific, sports, educational, in newspapers, internet and social networks, where they demonstrate progress, inventions, academic achievements, congresses, conferences and other outreach events Depending on the extension of the university where you show your careers, postgraduate degrees, faculties or school, you can use multiple pages, it can cause traffic in the cyber city for trend brands and move search analytics As indicated by Castillo et al (2013) “The most advantageous universities when

it comes to transmitting their brand in the online environment pay attention to innovation as a variable that gives differential value in the coordinates in which higher education currently operates” (Castillo Diaz, Carillo Durán, & Tato Jiménez, 2013)

Two decades ago it was only planned to handle face-to-face classes, the new advantages of virtual classrooms change the focus on the way of teaching through portals, online games, digital resources such as social networks, videos or audios, adaptation of materials, digital materials hypertext, content

on web pages, ICT skills, etc (Barberá & Badía, 2004) We have edX, which is one of the virtual class-rooms worldwide that has quite a lot of prestige and is endorsed by several of the best universities and institutes, it was founded by Harvard University and MIT in 2012, they seek to increase the level of virtual or face-to-face education in anywhere, it has 90 partners and they offer quality courses from the best universities in the world (edX, 2012)

Social networks and especially in universities, academic social networks are a great tool to expose the information that you have generated with your team Relations between institutions are managed through simultaneous digital communication media, there are more and more users, some of them allow you to share information, documents, among others, they are a good option to work as a team, where they can share comments in real time, topics of interest, experiences and hypotheses, among others Ac-cording to Merlo in their article on science 2.0: application of the social web to research, they comment that “social networks are excellent virtual laboratories, since they offer all the services that a research group demands: communication resources systems, communication systems, document warehouse and discussion forums” (Merlo Vega, 2010)

In addition, you can speak with the Academic Community Manager, who knows how to disseminate and disseminate research results and upcoming scientific publications, the person who will help the teaching researcher to know how to inform through social networks, academic and professional social networks the progress of your research, through the use of online resources that allow remote informa-tion to be shared with different researchers worldwide (Del Pino, 2016)

Lau said “In today’s society, social media have become an almost indispensable part of daily life, par-ticularly among university students, who are generally heavy social media users” (Lau, 2016, p 286) For this reason, it is essential that a higher education institution has a presence on social networks and can connect with different users at any time of the day This is due to the fact that, although publica-tions on social networks are mainly carried out under a publication calendar design by the Community Manager (the person who manages an online community of the institution) of the University; Users can see them the moment they connect

Achieving a strong university community in social networks is essential not only to attract the target audience to the university, but also to maintain them throughout life, with positive loyalty and word of mouth after completing all levels of education Students’ experiences and emotions can be improved through the social networks of higher education institutions, as well as through communication with former students and the development of the brand over time In addition, it is a tool to identify the uni-versity and can help increase student engagement (Nevzat, Amca, & Tanova, 2016, p 551)

Even if a large part of the online university community are students, it is important to create content that may be of interest to other users, which reinforces the institutional image Teachers and doctorates, for example, can attract students with results It is also essential that the content of social networks generate engagement and interaction of the community in social networks, positive responses By engagement, it refers to users who interact in the different social networks in which the university also has a presence

MAIN FOCUS OF THE CHAPTER

The Importance of Social Media in Universities

The dissemination of information in digital media or spaces such as social networks or web pages allows your digital brand to become known, with relevant aspects, products or updates and with the purpose that your company has a place of digital recognition Through the networks you can know everything that is said about the company, who our clients are, which allows us to achieve business intelligence and improve the strategy used, it is important to keep all innovations and everything that may be viral monitored, in the future in favor of the brand The technologies developed for monitoring both social networks and web pages gather national and global statistics Looking for all the mentions, impacts, interactions, popularity and opinions that the brand causes, it can also be of one or more products or services of the company

There are some tools that allow us to keep up to date with Trends and analytics, many of them analyze more or less in depth, others offer services to manage the programmed content, it all depends on the needs of the company, transforming all this into data and relevant conclusions Young people in general, this includes university students, who use social networks more and more frequently as a communication tool This communication includes from issuing opinions on a specific topic, to making inquiries and requesting assistance in solving academic problems

For these reasons, it is important that universities have a presence in social networks It is not only

a direct channel of communication with students, but also an opportunity to expose what the university

ers, alumni, collaborators, strategic partners, among others.) everything achieved Using social media

to highlight what the university offers also helps draw attention to future students, especially during the admission process Trends are known for their creativity, empowerment of social aspects, and their ca-pacity for massive reproduction, through trends, a great movement or change in the behavior of users is created Universities have a large presence in social networks, creating trends, social media trends analyze behaviors or reactions to them, provide statistics and results with keywords, from which strategies can

be created to improve the visibility of the brand, with this we can determine who are the influencers in various areas, people who contribute to our brand in a positive way and who have greater contact with our customers, who recommend the product or service, appearing something called, network of contacts and invisible circles scientists for academics (Crane, 1972)

It is necessary and important to know the search statistics, who make up our interest groups, the keywords and the people who can disseminate information quickly In part, contact networks allow the interaction of groups of people for a specific topic, theme or activity, it helps to spread profiles, knowledge and skills, through networks they can be social, academic or professional, the members who have a greater number of contacts, allow to have a nexus with each other, their main function is to share information, experiences, knowledge and disseminate information (Palavecino, s.f.)

The invisible scientific circles arise within “the academic-scientific intellectual life is exercised primarily by a system of informal social circles called invisible universities” (Schlesinger, 1987) By contacting professors or researchers in the world, we achieve a small invisible thread, with benefits for editing or writing articles or books We know that this system is managed under academic and scientific peers, this generates a network of academic contacts and this is where a professional social network also arises, widely used worldwide such as LinkedIn that allows you to share your professional achievements, skills, knowledge and more of the work or academic point of view Another important point with social networks, the beginning of the influencers who have become the face of many products, including uni-versities, through their students, so now, we can talk about academic influencers, professors, research-ers or professors who share information, articles, books, statistics or classes through their blogs, social networks or academic social networks and who can hold a gathering of people for scientific events such

as conferences or talks, among others Also the so-called academic social networks such as Research-Gate or Academia.edu, where articles or books can be shared Don’t forget Google Scholar, which is a complete platform and automatically updates your information

Developing the University Brand on Social Media

An interview with Ballouli and Hutchinson to Amy Martin entitled ” Digital-Branding and Social-Media Strategies for Professional Athletes, Sports Teams, and Leagues: An Interview with Digital Royalty’s Amy Martin ” she said in a kind of analogy, that success in Social networks depend on the ability of

the seller and the desire to live the brand, delivering value “when, where and how fans want to receive

it” (2010, p 396)

Before starting to develop strategies to be used in social networks, it is essential to know the brand,

in this case the University Regardless of publishing the different activities, events, congresses, among others, which take place weekly in the institution, strategies must be developed that allow users to learn about the life and culture of the campus; to show the online community what differentiates the University from others: with added value

The effective university brand goes far beyond a logo, stamp, emblem, brand or key phrase The brand is the story that tells about its institution, the soul that sells, the distillation of its most prominent values and characteristics and its identity as a place of learning throughout life This is what prospects, students and graduates think when they hear the name of their university or find their content online, news or talking with others (Full Frabric, s.f.)

The variety in the content of the publications is important Making the same type of posts constantly will cause users to stop paying attention It is advisable to focus on different areas that may generate interest in students and also attract the interest of future participants For example:

• News: Activities of the university, its faculties and other academic units.

• Notes or Reports: About the University, its activities and achievements in the media.

• Student Achievements: Featured projects, academic awards, triumphs in competitions,

interna-tional recognitions, etc

• Non-Academic Activities: Student clubs, languages, sports practices, etc.

• Academic Exchange: Experiences of students who have participated in exchange programs with

universities abroad

• Contribution to Society: Linking programs and volunteering.

• Life and culture of the campus

• Campus facilities and nature

• Alumni: Success stories of the graduates of the university.

• Research: Project development, papers published by researchers and professors of the university

Most universities are made up of several faculties; The larger the university, the greater the number

of faculties it will have It is practically impossible for the social networks of the University to publish all the activities carried out by each of them It is for this reason that they must manage their own social networks For everyone to function as a hole, it is recommended that there be guidelines for shared content and that there is a brand unit in each of them, through a social media manual In higher educa-tion institueduca-tions, faculties are often responsible for maintaining the same values, vision and mission as the university or higher institutions to which they belong, but they operate separately when they teach specific content These faculties provide unique educational experiences, so allowing them to provide unique experiences on social networks seems correct, as long as they maintain the parameters set forth

by the institution (DMI Daily Digest, s.f.)

Set Your Content Schedule According to the Social Network

Once the different areas of the university that will be shown on social networks have been defined, it is important to establish in which of them the University will have a presence There are several, but the most popular are: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, YouTube is more for music

There must be unity among all official social media accounts of the University, from the names, us-ers, the description of the institution and, of course, the profile photos with their respective colors that are used according to the brand (This also includes the social networks of the faculties)

Facebook is the most popular social network that brings together millions of users worldwide Through

a fan page on Facebook, a university can reach many people It is important to denote that a fan page

is for companies / brands and that users, that is, different people, connect through a personal profile

As George explains in a digital post “Unlike a personal Facebook profile, fan pages are visible to everybody on the Internet Anyone on Facebook can connect to and receive updates from a page by becoming a fan (i.e ‘Liking’ the page)” (George, 2012)

Among the advantages that Facebook has is that you can make publications with several photographs and you can also create albums You can upload videos directly with different periods of time (although it

is recommended to use short videos, because users do not always watch the video completely, especially when it is extensive and with a lot of information) Ideally, show the activities of the University through countless photographs and videos, something that works very well on Facebook

Another very useful tool is live streaming The event of the University can be transmitted directly from Facebook and also allows users to interact in the moment, give opinions, ask questions, comments, hearts, etc

We can see the handling of the images in figure 1 The Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, has

about de 36 official Facebook accounts associated with its name These are some examples that can be visualized of how this social network is managed

Twitter

Twitter, like Facebook, is a social network, an online news site, through short messages called tweets From these new networks, new words emerge, such as Tweet, which is to publish short messages, that anyone who follows you can see and be interesting to someone in your audience (Gil, 2019)

Twitter features allow users to post different tweets in a row on a specific topic It is especially practi-cal when the activities of the University are shown at the same time they occur, which allows to reach the community in real time In return, account followers can share information through RT (retweets)

or I like it, which makes the content reach more users

The use of hashtags on Twitter is common and helps users find and follow a thread on a specific topic It is recommended that when a university event is tweeted, at the time it takes place, especially the most important ones, such as an anniversary ceremony, graduation, etc., and even a unique hashtag (including the name of the University) By using it in each of the tweets and with the help of RT, likes and responses from other users, the hashtag can become a topic of local, national or global trend, which means that a conversation has been built around the University event “Also called TT or trend, these are the words, hashtags or phrases that are repeated more at a given time In the case of Twitter, 10 stand out and these change according to their popularity” (Socialpubli, 2018)

The same example of image handling in figure 2 and 3 The Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral,

has about 42 twitter accounts associated with its name These are some examples that can be visualized

of how this social network is managed

Instagram is a social network used to share photos and videos, that is, for visual content Unlike Face-book, Instagram only allows up to 10 photos per post and the videos in the feed can only last up to a maximum of one minute; however, a publication may contain photographs and videos For universities,

it is a well-used social network that allows students and future students to visualize the campus; culture, student life and different events

Instagram stories (photos or short videos in a 15-second vertical format that only remain published for 24 hours), allow the University to display its activities at the time they are happening and include many tools that can be added to the content such as filters, texts, emojis, etc

In a paragraph written by Higher Education Marketing said that:

Figure 1 Graduation ESPOL 2019

Source: Espol, 2019

Unlike the more stylized and virgin publications that dominate the rest of the site Stories was designed

as a way for Instagram users to share more spontaneous and less polished content With that in mind, schools that want to use the feature should focus on creating fun and informal publications that capture daily events Special events such as graduations, social activities for students, guest conferences and conferences can be particularly good sources of content (Higher Education Marketing, 2019)

It is important to see Figure 4, an example of how through Instagram, students can be recruited The use of hashtags is also common on Instagram; Through them, users can discover content while searching The use of hashtags related to the University will allow greater interaction with the publica-tions It is also highly recommended to use popular hashtags for specific purposes For example, publish

an old photo of the University campus with the hashtag #tbt (setback on Thursday)

A schedule of content must be administered for each of the University’s social networks; It must be done every month and establish what will be published week by week, day by day This schedule must

be constantly updated and flexible; In the case of universities, there are activities that can be carried out overnight, for example, the visit of some authority of another institution or university

Figure 2 Graduation ESPOL 2019 (first tweet prior the ceremony)

Source: ESPOL, 2019

It is important to keep in mind that social networks are constantly evolving, that is, their platforms are constantly updated, as are certain tools for creating or editing publications It is necessary to have identified blogs and web pages from which this information can be obtained and reviewed frequently

The Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral has, about 12 Instagram accounts associated with its

name These are some examples that can be visualized of how this social network is managed, and in figure 5, we can see an example

Built a Relationship With Your Audience

Having a presence in social networks is a daily commitment It is very similar to maintaining a friend-ship Friendships require constant attention and communication to stay strong Social networks are no different As in real life, if you only talk about yourself, people will soon get bored of that If you ignore your fans or followers when they talk to you or publish on your profile, they will not continue talking

to you, they are looking for an interaction Constant communication in both directions is crucial to the success of social networks (Burkhardt, 2010) Interacting with its users is essential for the success of the university’s social media management More and more people seek information and make inquiries through social networks The comments in the publications, and above all, through private messages that work on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, students, future students, etc., seek to obtain answers on different topics that occur in the University, immediately

Figure 3 Hashtag #GraduadosESPOL2019 was trending topic during the live coverage of the event

Source: Trendsmap, 2019

In terms of social networks, we can now communicate with consumers instead of with them, every-thing becomes more personalized The social term, in itself, speaks of the fact that it really is a place to communicate from person to person, instead of serving as a marketing channel, the brand and dealing with customers becomes more human It is important to understand who is the user asking the question or query The tone or way of responding depends on this Although the majority of users are young people (students or people interested in studying at the University), they can also be parents or representatives of another institution A kind and effective response may be the difference and may influence the decision

to study at the University or not Social networks are a form of brand exposure in which your presence must match relationships and followers To build these relationships, you must be constantly listening to your audience and providing the information they are looking for (Ballouli & Hutchinson, 2010, p 397) Frequently, users expect different situations or problems to be resolved through social networks For example, a student may have trouble registering for a record Although the registration cannot be done through a social network, there must always be a response and the will to help and guide the student

Figure 4 Number of recruit students by instagram

Source: Hobsons, 2017