Social higher education: How effective is it?

Over the past few years organisations in the public and private sectors have turned to social media in the hope of establishing an effective communication channel with their customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. Following the trend, Higher Education Institutions (HEI) have adopted social media channels for a variety of purposes. Accounts about HEIs' use of social media are plentiful in academic literature. Aiming to meet student expectations and include a popular communication channel into their communication strategy, universities have incorporated social networking into the marketing of their courses, learning and teaching strategy, maintaining alumni connections, and other areas. However, universities remain unclear about the effectiveness of their social media channels, and are even less aware about the resources which social media management requires. HEIs are making ad hoc attempts to employ social media without the appropriate tools or metrics for measuring the effectiveness of their social media communication channels. This research aims to close the gap in the literature on social media applications in higher education and their alignment with university strategic objectives. The paper proposes a framework for aligning social media practices with university goals, taking into account characteristics of individual higher education institutions. It is argued that student recruitment, engagement, achievement and employability can be improved through the integration of social media in higher education. The paper concludes with a discussion of the key areas to consider before launching a social strategy in the new field of social higher education.