Social Media for Branding of Higher Education Institutes in India: A Case Study

Abstract

The importance of social media for marketing and branding has been gaining momentum continuously and rapidly. With an increasing number of users in different social media, organizations have started looking towards social media as a platform for their publicity, advertisement and sources of leads of potential customers. Recently, many educational institutes have become active by realizing the importance of social media in creating followers of intellectual, alumni, professional and leaders associated with the educational industry. In the present communication, a comprehensive study has been carried out to identify the engagement of studied IITs on the LinkedIn platform for different activities related to the promotion and strengthening of their brand image. These activities range from the number of followers, posting of activities, alumni engagement, job posting etc. The results indicated that IIT Kanpur has utilized the LinkedIn platform most efficiently while IIT Roorkee has demonstrated good initiative but yet to achieve the desired goal of digital promotion. This has not only helped them to create a brand which ultimately helps the institutions for better perception among the people associated with the educational industry. Moreover, it will help them in getting potential students and staff of the future and also helps in keeping the various stakeholders engaged. It is further expected that observations of the current study will able to convince the educational leader to focus judiciously on leveraging the potentials of the LinkedIn platform from branding purpose.