How universities communicate with public using Facebook page

Abstract

Social media has been identified as an important vehicle in fostering social connections that maintain and expand existing relationships between organizations and their customers and stakeholders. This research was conducted on top public universities from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, with a focus on their communication activities on Facebook. First, quantitative data analysis was conducted using the data mining tool Netvizz. The research is unique as measurement using Netvizz is currently not possible due to technical limitations on the most popular social network. Data obtained from 24 Facebook profiles of selected universities were used. Second, the expert evaluation and content analysis were used to examine how the posts influence audience. The findings provide evidence on the use of Facebook by universities for communication with public and show differences among universities. The findings also support an integrated view of content marketing and highlight the importance of adjusting the content strategy to suit the utilitarian nature of higher education institutions and engage high-involvement target groups. The collected data also show that the most popular posts on SNS are not directly related to research conducted at individual universities. Paradoxically, communication strategies of universities through social networking sites are deprived of the most important element – the university mission, i.e. dissemination of research results.