Abstract:
"
The higher education sector is considered one of the most challenging fields in the
world. This is owing to fact that there are many universities in the nation which
compete with each other to recruit more students; especially private universities. In
the meantime, social media plays a major role in the student recruitment process as
the growth of social media generates new opportunities as well as challenges for
student recruitment. Nowadays people are actively engaged in social media whether
it be Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, and other platforms. All individuals can be
categorized as daily users of one or more of these social media platforms. Due to this
fact, private universities consider this as an opportunity and create new
communication channels for the process of student recruitment and retention. This
study is to determine and analyses the impact of social media marketing in the student
recruitment process of private universities and provide recommendations to improve
the marketing and sales strategies for undergraduate programs. Approximately 107
respondents participated in the quantitative research which was conducted as an
online questionnaire. The gathered data were analyzed through the SPSS statistical
tool in an effective way. Based on the literature review the information awareness and
engagement are the two main factors influencing social media marketing in student
recruitment. The majority of respondents responded that Facebook is the most
appropriate and effective social media platform. This research states that Facebook is
considered an effective platform therefore advertising more on Facebook creates more
awareness for the universities."
