Co-creation of value in higher education: using social network marketing in the recruitment of students

Abstract

A social network recruitment campaign was prepared where applicants for information technology bachelor studies at a Norwegian university college were invited to join a Facebook group related to the subject of interest. Each Facebook group was assigned a contact person who received training to facilitate activities and in answering questions from the applicants. Analysis of the dialogues on the Facebook groups indicates value creation between the applicant and the university college, and between applicants. Furthermore, results from the campaign showed that the conversion rate for applicants who apply for a Facebook group was 88.8 per cent, which is significant higher than for those who did not apply for a Facebook group (43.3 per cent). We will argue that social network marketing in higher education gives a great opportunity to replace the passive view of customers with an active view in which applicants are invited to use their own initiatives rather than simply react to predetermined marketing activities.

Student co-creation behavior in higher education: the role of satisfaction with the university experience

“…The inputs of the customer and company are of special importance for a successful co-creation experience. Consumers may bring their knowledge, skills, and their willingness to explore and learn when they engage in an active dialogue with other consumers or with service providers' personnel (Fagerstrøm & Ghinea, 2013). On the other side, the company can allow customers to access important resources, especially information.…”

“…Consumers are becoming active information seekers and do not rely solely upon information released by the organization. Consumers not only seek alternative sources of information, such as information derived from other consumers or informal and personal forms of information, but also prefer these sources over the formal sources (Fagerstrøm & Ghinea, 2013). In a university setting, students might seek information by asking other students or employees, searching for information on the university's website or other online platforms, or observing other students' behavior while getting the service.…”

Personalizing twitter communication: an evaluation of ‘rotation-curation’ for enhancing social media engagement within higher education

“…As such, there is an emerging literature around how HEIs are using social media to market themselves using a new set of rules for engaging with different stakeholder groups (e.g. Constantinides & Zinck Stagno, 2011;Fagerstrøm & Ghinea, 2013;Rutter, Roper, & Lettice, 2016). This paper contributes an analysis of 'rotation curation' to the emergent literature around the use of social media platforms for university marketing and engagement activities.…”

“…Within an increasingly competitive higher education sector, online content generated by users engaged in scholarly activities on social media platforms can be considered as multi-purposed in meeting both marketing and pedagogical objectives (Fagerstrøm & Ghinea, 2013;Krachenberg, 1972). As boyd (2014) notes, social media creates a 'context collapse' where the audiences engaged, and the purposes of use are more blurred than previously experienced.…”

A Framework for Effectiveness of Institutional Policies on Technology-Enhanced Learning

“…Examples include blended learning [1], mobile learning [2], massive open online courses (MOOCs) [3], open educational resources (OER) [4], social media [5] and other e-learning modes [6] [7]. Examples include blended learning [1], mobile learning [2], massive open online courses (MOOCs) [3], open educational resources (OER) [4], social media [5] and other e-learning modes [6] [7].…”