Use of Social Media in Educational Institutes

Under the guidance of Dr. Bikramjit Rishi

Submitted By Rishab Bucha Kapil Malhotra Chandan Rathor Neeraj Dureja Prajnasmita Rout

Contents
Business Objective......................................................................................................3 Market Background.....................................................................................................3 Target Group.............................................................................................................4 Medium & Approach...................................................................................................5 Application Process..................................................................................................5 Approach for Promotion............................................................................................5 Marketing Plan........................................................................................................5 Target population selection......................................................................................6 Facebook Promotion..............................................................................................8 Youtube...........................................................................................................11 Blog................................................................................................................11 Monitoring & Control..........................................................................................12 Network Partnerships:................................................................................................12 Pricing & Cost involved..............................................................................................13 Internet Marketing Strategy.........................................................................................14 Conclusion..............................................................................................................14 Conclusion

Business Objective
To improve the perception of the Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management (SITM) and to create more awareness of the institute among the students and getting more number of applicants for Institute

Market Background
Social media comprises of activities that involve socializing and networking online through words, pictures and videos. Social media is redefining how we relate to each other as humans and how we as humans relate to the organizations that serve us. It is about dialog two way discussions bringing people together to discover and share information. The following shows the wide array of social media tools available to us.

The 18- to 24-year-old college student demographic is all over the social web, and its younger counterpart (the high school crowd) is equally immersed. Alumni, recent and far-removed, use social networks to engage and stay connected with the world. Community members, parents of students, potential donors, faculty and staff and other constituents are just a tweet or like away. With so many key populations embracing social media, universities almost have no choice but to integrate these platforms into their marketing and communications plans. In fact, a recent study showed that an astounding 100% of universities have a social media presence. From luring in potential new students with admissions blogs and creative use of location-based services like SCVNGR, to keeping alumni engaged via dynamic, content-rich Facebook and Ning communities, to informing students about campus offerings through Twitter feeds and YouTube videos, its clear that universities recognize the importance of social media. The well known 6 best practices followed by Universities world over can be summarised as follows: Develop a Strategy and Set Goals. Pick and Choose the appropriate Platforms out of the existing plethora of platforms. It is not necessary to have presence in all of the social media platforms. Empower and Support Individual Departments. Put Guidelines in Place: Along with giving departments the ability to create their own social media accounts, there should be some overarching, university-wide guidelines in place to ensure consistency and appropriateness of all social media activity. Develop a Consistent Voice across Platforms: A universitys social media presence is an extension of ones own brand. Its important that a consistent voice is implemented across all of the schools major social media platforms a school with an ultra-serious Facebook page and an offbeat and sarcastic Twitter account will just look like its having an identity crisis. Communicate Across Campus: Its no secret that universities are perking up to the power of social media and devoting more resources to this area. As universities expand their social media endeavours, appropriate strategy and cross-campus collaboration will be critical. Open communication will result in sharing of best practices. Social media marketing in education sector is still in a nascent stage in India. Social media ventures are focussed on a very narrow sector and rigid objectives unlike their foreign counterparts. The major players involved are pagalguy.com, tcyonline.com, coolavenues.com, mbauniverse.com and so forth. The majority of such sites cater to higher education sector of our country with focus on MBA aspirants. The services offered are MBA news, analysis portal, forums and threads on varied and relevant topics, B-school rankings and networking with fellow students. The high popularity of websites like pagalguy.com allows it to generate sufficient advertising revenues so that the forum is completely free for all users.

Target Group
The target audience can be strictly defined as those people who wish to avail online aid for pursuing higher studies, especially MBA in India. This strategy basically aims at the present generation youngsters and students who are preparing for competitive examinations and are on a lookout for people with similar preferences. More importantly these youth want to learn from the experiences of their peer group and augment their knowledge through sharing information online on such websites. The website in a way gives the student community a common platform to come together and work for their own betterment.

The various ways of reaching out to our targeted students has been discussed in detail later. We have adopted two ways, one is through Facebook advertisements and another one is through Time education page.

Medium & Approach

Social media was used as a medium to create the awareness and to reach the target population. The popularity of Facebook and Twitter as Social media platform made them the medium of choice. To better understand the approach used, we will first understand the application process of SITM.

Application Process
SITM is under the Symbiosis group of Colleges, offering specialized MBA in Telecom. To apply for any Symbiosis group of College, the Student needs to apply for SNAP or Symbiosis National Aptitude Test. After the student has registered for SNAP he/she needs to apply for the individual colleges under SNAP, e.g. SCHMRD, SITM etc.

Figure 1-SNAP Application process Hence there will be large number of students who will apply for SNAP and then apply for various colleges under SNAP individually.

Approach for Promotion

As shown by the application process of SNAP, it was clear that there were more number of students which will be interested to know about SNAP and hence it was easier to promote. Also SITM was not very popular among the Symbiosis family of institutes and a promotion of SITM on Facebook or any other media would not have attracted large audience or the cost of acquisition would have been higher. Hence the approach taken for the promotion of SITM was to first create a page/medium for SNAP and create a community of the people interested in SNAP, and then use this community to promote SITM College.

Marketing Plan
The marketing activity for the SITM consisted of following: Targeting the Correct audience Facebook promotion SNAP page creation and SNAP community build-up SITM official page Youtube channel Blogs Monitoring and control of the web related activities

Target population selection

Since Facebook would be used as primary medium of promotion, the FB ads would have to be targeted correctly. The ads would be created of the SNAP Facebook page. Facebook ads allow very high level of targeting of the ads.

Figure 2-Facebook Ads screen Facebook allows very precise targeting for which the ads may be displayed:-

Figure 3-Facebook ads target population definition It also shows the estimated population which your target has defined.

It was in targeting that we worked on getting the precise target group to whom the ads of SNAP should be shown and in this way we obtained a target audience which were more likely to click on the ad and join our FB community of SNAP. This was achieved by a feature of precise interest targeting. The approach is shown below. In Facebook we found various pages which were already existing which were related to MBA and CAT exam. One such page was of TIME education. This page has quite a large number of likes and the TG was essentially the same as our requirements.

Figure 4-TIME education FB page So we used the people who are already on TIMEs page as our TG to whom our ads of SNAP would be shown How this was achieved is shown below:-

Figure 5-Defining TG in FB

Suppose our precise population are people who are interested in pursuing MBA and are still in college and will be passing in 2012. So we use the FB page of TIME education as the precise interest, and define the graduation year as 2012, and hence it restricts the number of people to 740 from earlier more than 33 million. Some other target can be people who are reading Economic Times or Hindu and of age of 18-22. Etc In this way the ad spend can be precisely controlled and promotion cost can be reduced significantly.

Facebook Promotion
A page for SNAP exam was created on Facebook to develop a community around the target audience. The page had 11K+ followers on facebook. The various activities conducted on this page are: Prepare students for the SNAP exam using different Quant and Vocabulary based questions. Get a personal touch with the students so that the students become true followers of the page Provide preparation material to the students in the form of previous years SNAP question papers and sample papers. Resolve different queries related with SNAP and admissions. Promote the Telecom sector and SITM among the audience. Current SNAP page is shown below:-

Figure 6-Current SNAP page The page has about 11K members and have very high level of engagement and reach among the members. Also the page serves as the one stop medium for all the information on the SNAP test.

Figure 7-SNAP promotion Above shown is a image of the promotion of SITM on the SNAP community

Figure 8-Sample question on FB page Above shown is a sample question which was posted in the SNAP page, which creates high level of engagement among the students and community members. Apart from SNAP page, another page specific of SITM was created. The official page of SITM was created on Facebook and students and alumni were invited to join this page. This was done to involve the current students voice could reach the digital media. This page acts like a testimonial to the college where students and alumni interact, college achievements are

highlighted and this entire activity is viewable to students who are doing some research on the college. A very positive outlook of SITM is conducted through this page.

Figure 9-SITM Facebook Page

Youtube
The official youtube channel of SITM was designed. A total of 15 videos were added to this channel. Also, the videos were named in the correct manner along with necessary tagging so that they become easily searchable on the google and youtube. With this Youtube channel, the campaign had achieved a total of 100 views on this channel in a very short time, where the Corporate video of SITM is being watched by many viewers.

Figure 10-Youtube Channel of SITM

Blog
www.symbiosissitm.wordpress.com The official blog page of SITM was created on wordpress. The articles posted here talks about the Telecom sector and SITM activities. This page helps aspirants to get a much better f eel about the careers in Telecom Sector and life at SITM.

Figure 11-SITM Blog on Wordpress

Monitoring & Control

The ads & promotion also needed to be monitored and controlled, Following activities were performed in this regards: Regular monitoring of student queries on different portals like pagalguy.com etc and informing the institute regarding the same. Monitoring of digital activities carried out by other Symbiosis Management colleges and informing the institute regarding the same.

Network Partnerships:
The promotion of SITM could also be done with other offline, and network partners. This includes use of various other network partners: Use of other online forums- The forums like Pagalguy.com and MBAworld.com can be used to promote the Institute. Use of Print media- The print media can be used for promoting the institute, this can be in form of infomercial, print ads etc of the institute. Use of TV- TVC can be done for the college to promote the institute.

Pricing & Cost involved

The final deliverable for the institute is have more number of applicants. The promotion by social media was to increase awareness of the institute and have more number of applicants. The trickledown effect of having more awareness of the college will be essential in having increased applications. Since Facebook was the primary medium of promotion of the institute, the main cost involved was in getting more number of people on the FB page of the SNAP and SITM. The promotion ran for about 2 months on FB with different ads and target group. Later , the campaign also benefitted from the viral promotion and getting more people on the medium without any ads. This significantly reduced the cost of acquisition of users on FB medium. A sample cost sheet is shown below for 1 month of promotion of SNAP test is shown below.

Figure 12-Sample FB ads of SNAP

D a t e I m p r e s S iocnias l I m pSr oe cs iaio % s kSso c ia l CClicRS so c ia l C P CC P MS p e nRte a cFhr e q u eS n c y l RCeoa nc n e cUt io iq su e UC n iqk us e C T R so s C lic ln Tk TR o ia h nn lic 1 1 -01 -2 0 1 1 0 0 0 .0 0 % 0 0 0 . 0 0 % 0 . 0 0 %0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0 0 % 1 1 -02 -2 01 4 1 2 03 1 9 8 2 86 . 9 6 %3 3 8 1 40 . 2 4 % 0 . 1 4 0%. 0 4 0 . 1 1 4 . 5 22 3 5 4 1 6 911 297 3 3 2 1.4 1 % 1 1 - 0 3 - 2 0 18 17 6 9 0 9 5 2 61 0 . 8 6 % 3 4 1 1 60 . 1 5 % 0 . 1 7 0%. 0 50 . 0 7 6 . 1 21 7 6 6 6 5 1032 144 1 3 1 0.7 4 % 1 1 - 0 4 - 2 0 1 8 2 4 4 8 1 7 4 6 49 . 5 7 %3 0 7 1 2 20 . 1 7 % 0 . 1 3 0%. 0 70 . 1 12 0 . 2 21 5 3 4 9 7 . 2 1483 257 3 0 0 1.1 8 % 1 1 -05 -2 0 1 1 0 0 0 .0 0 % 0 0 0 . 0 0 % 0 . 0 0 %0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0 0 % 1 1 - 0 6 - 2 0 1 0 1 2 0 5 1 4 6 8 10 4 . 5 1 % 5 7 1 1 2 00 . 1 6 % 0 . 1 4 0%. 0 50 . 0 7 7 . 2 12 0 5 7 7 4 . 9 1932 129 1 5 3 0.7 4 % 1 1 - 0 7 - 2 0 2 7 1 8 9 3 6 2 7 7 29 3 . 0 9 % 9 0 11 4 8 50 . 1 8 % 0 . 1 4 0%. 0 70 . 1 23 2 . 9 31 2 9 2 1 8 . 3 9106 379 4 8 0 1.4 6 % 1 1 - 0 8 - 2 0 2 4 2 0 2 4 5 2 7 7 22 1 . 8 0 % 0 5 11 3 5 00 . 1 3 % 0 . 1 0 0%. 0 60 . 0 81 9 . 1 36 0 3 5 7 8 4013 233 2 9 3 0.9 7 % 1 1 - 0 9 - 2 0 3 7 4 3 0 9 7 7 2 7 25 0 . 6 4 % 0 1 11 7 1 0 06 . 1 9 % 0 . 1 4 0%. 0 70 . 1 3 5 0 4 2 4 7 1 8 . 8 5664 665 6 8 9 1.6 2 % 1 1 - 1 0 - 2 0 4 3 2 9 2 5 1 4 5 3 73 43 . 5 8 % 1 7 11 7 1 5 05 . 1 7 % 0 . 1 1 0%. 0 70 . 1 2 5 0 4 3 4 3 4 1 0 9386 717 7 0 3 1.6 2 % 1 1 - 1 1 - 2 0 4 1 8 4 0 3 1 3 6 2 53 42 . 5 7 % 0 4 1 6 1 2 06 . 1 4 % 0 . 0 9 0%. 0 80 . 1 2 5 0 4 5 7 7 1 9 . 1 1 0 4 4 2 5 8 5 5 9 5 1.3 0 % 1 1 - 1 2 - 2 0 4 9 2 9 2 0 2 6 0 0 45 32 . 7 6 % 4 8 11 6 2 4 05 . 1 3 % 0 . 0 9 0%. 0 8 0 . 1 5 0 9 9 8 7 6 4 . 9 6 2 4 2 2 6 2 6 6 3 6 0.6 4 % 1 1 / 1 3 / 2 0 61 31 3 7 1 4 3 7 3 0 75 08 . 8 7 % 3 1 7 2 7 05 . 1 2 % 0 . 0 7 0%. 0 9 0 . 1 6 4 . 41 20 9 9 4 3 5 . 8 7 4 5 6 2 6 1 7 7 1 8 0.6 5 % 1 1 / 1 4 / 2 0 41 21 8 5 1 2 2 2 1 4 5 01 . 6 8 % 0 7 6 2 3 08 . 1 4 % 0 . 1 1 0%. 0 80 . 1 14 8 . 7 81 3 1 4 6 5 . 2 4 9 9 1 4 5 4 9 5 9 2 0.7 1 % 1 1 / 1 5 / 2 0 41 71 0 7 7 7 3 0 8 5 56 45 . 5 4 % 6 7 5 2 8 00 . 1 2 % 0 . 0 9 0%. 0 80 . 0 94 3 . 41 21 3 8 4 6 4 . 1 8 1 0 2 7 4 9 8 5 6 1 0.4 9 % 1 1 / 1 6 / 2 0 71 81 9 8 1 9 3 0 7 1 03 98 . 8 81%5 0 4 3 6 01 . 1 9 % 0 . 1 2 0%. 0 70 . 1 39 9 . 51 20 5 6 6 8 7 . 5 2 8 5 0 8 1 4 4 0 1 4 9 0 1 . 4 1 % 1 1 / 1 7 / 2 0 71 11 6 0 4 5 3 1 5 0 34 04 . 0 01%0 9 0 3 0 04 . 1 5 % 0 . 1 0 0%. 0 6 0 . 1 6 9 . 7 99 6 6 4 1 7 . 4 2 9 2 0 8 1 2 4 8 1 0 7 8 1 . 1 2 % 1 1 / 1 8 / 2 0 31 41 1 7 3 3 1 4 9 4 4 73 . 7 3 % 6 5 5 1 5 05 . 1 7 % 0 . 1 0 0%. 0 60 . 1 1 3 6 . 46 7 3 6 8 5 . 1 2 1 3 9 3 6 4 1 5 6 0 0.8 3 %

Figure 13-Sample Cost report for 20 days promotion

Above shown is the sample 20 days promotions on FB. The total cost of promotion was about 662 $ and number of likes was 9322. Out of this about 400 people had applied to SITM institute during this period. The conversion ratio of likes to number of applicants was not possible as there was no separate landing page of SITM and no online application provision of SITM to gauge the number of conversion of the Social likes to number of applicants.

Internet Marketing Strategy

Education marketing is starting to change and Higher Education institutes are finally embracing the use of Social Media as way of directly contacting University applicants. Higher Education digital marketing plans now include the use of sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Bebo and Flickr and many other social networking sites. It has been shown that these Social Media sites can be a good communication method for Higher Education Institutes as it enables direct contact with Applicants and so increasing number of applications. The audience for Higher Education, and so Education Marketing, is students between the ages of 16 to 21 and it has been shown that 75% of that target market regularly use Social Media as a way to communicate. For any higher education institute the bottom line for any marketing strategy is applications. Education marketing should always focus on the needs of these applicants and use their digital marketing to communicate to them effectively. When every institute is jumping into the internet bandwagon to maximize their applications, it would ring a death knoll for any competing institute to avoid social media marketing. This platform hascreated new gateways of one-to-one relations and mass population reach. This mutual benefit has boomed internet marketing. The social media stakes are rising too fast for any institute to risk being aloof from the positive effects. Creating and managing an effective strategy for building community and engaging with students takes some time, research, and planningbut it is well worth the effort. You can often repurpose existing content like case studies, white papers, e-newsletter articles, lesson plans, and webinars to deploy via your social channels. You can provide incentives for educators to solicit information and create conversations. Social media is multi-channel marketing in and of itself, and provides variety and flexibility to support a wealth of innovative ideas to help advance your goals and mission. More and more, educators are going online to participate in communities that help them find information and resources, provide professional development, and give them a place to support each other in coping with the changes and challenges in education. You can help create, sponsor, listen, or join the conversation. All these immense opportunities and the ensuing benefits underscore the importance of internet marketing in the field of education.

Conclusion
The power of social media has just scratched the surface. Most believe its use in higher education is controversial, but educationists have started thinking outside the box. Individuals use sites such as Digg.com to rate other Web sites, and product reviews on Amazon.com. There are immense opportunities yet to be tapped. We can open up courses for student reviews on our sites. New students would be able to view reviews on classes when trying to make their selections, especially for general education courses. Courses with great reviews will likely receive higher enrollments, without any additional cost to market these classes. Social media offers advancement professionals a great opportunity for keeping in touch with alumni after they graduate. Facebook is

one of the more popular tools they are now using to keep in touch with recent alumni. Alumni that are more in touch with their alma mater, and individuals there, are more apt to be future donors to the college. Noel-Levitz, a Consulting firm, suggests that social networking can be a great resource for recruitment efforts, and could be very beneficial to university programs. However, they still believe the majority of our focus should be strengthening the experience perspective students have on the official Web site (Noel-Levitz 2007). Social media gives us the opportunity to humanize stories of students and alumni of our institutions, which can create loyalty and earn future business (students) and ultimately their respect (Solis 2008). If you are willing to join the conversation and embrace social media in some form, creating strong and effective policies for their use and assigning staff members with specific monitoring and contribution tasks becomes imperative. Commitment and dedicated efforts are inevitable in integrating marketing and communication strategy with social media because Participation is no longer an option as Social Media isnt a spectator sport anymore.