Social media has been increasing its importance over the past 2 decades in society.

It goes
without saying that it is especially true for brands and businesses who are seeking to market
themselves to a wide outreach, even to corners of the world that they would not have otherwise
been able to access into. University and college students are very social media and technology
savvy, making it a crucial point for universities to take note, and use those social media
platforms too. With so many universities providing technology learning or going towards the
‘anywhere, anytime’ study method online, it is best that private universities learn how to best use
social media. With it, it can effectively promote loads of connection and awareness that drives
greater cooperation in teamwork to realize goals.
1. To elaborate, the 2 importance of using social media to a private university other than
advertisement purposes are:
A. Connecting with current students.
Social media is after all, ‘social’. It allows private universities to promote connection with their
students from anywhere at any time, informing them on updated announcements or new
information, so that they are aware of them and can act upon it accordingly. For example, a
Facebook or Blackboard post announcing of the closure of Inti university premises till further
notice due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. When the students see it, they will then act upon it by
discussing with their lecturers on studying and interaction possibilities online, since face-to-face
meet ups were restricted. It also allows their students to connect virtually without having to
physically meet one another, introducing cross national or culture collaboration. With that,
private universities would be able to attract a wider pool of potential students from different
locations for their courses, as it provides flexibility and the ability to interact with ease. For
example, Inti private university adopted the Blackboard system (Wheeler, 2012), a form of
‘Social Media’, that allows the lecturers to connect with the students, also among the students
themselves. Every week, the lecturers would connect virtually with the students to provides
lessons, guidance and to clarify and questions. Students can also collaborate and work on
completing group assignments together. Besides, the other advantage is that the lecturer may be
based in Malaysia, however; a student from Singapore can still join the classes and connect with
both lecturers and other students.
B. Staying connected with alumni to maintain education quality.
Many times, for private universities, the facilities provided for students require an amount of
donated or fundraised money to carry on offering the best quality and up-to-date education.
Fundraising efforts have traditionally been directed towards alumni from the respective
universities who are currently prominent figures in society. Although this still remains true, how
it’s targeted and focused on for fundraising has changed. Social media platforms allow alumni to
be reminded to donate to specific funding areas when it’s needed most, so that the private
universities can constantly maintain their education quality and enhance or improve their
research abilities. For example, Elon Musk donated an unused submarine and US$50 million to
his alma mater (University of Pennsylvania) for research, that in turn increased application by a
staggering 73% for the Year 2022, who claimed they enrolled and applied because of Elon
Musk.
From sharing a fundraising event on Facebook to celebrating memories or successes through
Instagram, private universities are able to utilize social media to connect with their alumni in a
meaningful and personal way, that is also crucial for part of the university’s future education
success. Social media platforms provide private universities with an avenue to share an alumni’s
life and career achievement on social media to a wide audience, growing the university’s
exposure and increase the SEO value for alumni and the university itself. (Ridley, 2020) For
example, a lecturer from the University of Pennsylvania who still kept Elon Musk’s Physics
notes from the 1990s when he was still studying there. Elon Musk then reposted on his Twitter
and joked about it (Majeed, 2021), which was also a form of promotion for the university as he is
giving credit to his alma mater. There is no denying how impactful social media can be and by
using them to connect with their prominent alumni, it can bring it a lot of benefits to private
universities.
2. Social media analytics (SMA) refers to the method of collecting date from social media sites
or blogs to evaluate them and make business decisions. It isn’t then solely based how many likes,
comments or shares a post receive, but rather how to decipher crucial information from it and
implement actions accordingly. (Feigenbaum, 2021)
How useful social media analytics can be for a private university:
A. Tracking the content and guiding it for the future.
Social media analytics (SMA) help universities to analyze and monitor their interaction with
everyone concerned such as the lecturers, students and potential students, learning and
understanding what people really think of them. The SMA helps private universities to gain
insights on how people feel about their offerings or postings and identify areas of improvement.
Studying SMAs would reveal important details like who the audience are and what they like.
This can be very useful for universities to learn what kind of social networks and content they
prefer, and make decisions based on that. For example, a private university might find that the
engagement and number of followers on Twitter is way lesser compared to Instagram or
Facebook, due to the latter two being more popular among worldwide audience, millennials and
Generation Zs. That may lead to focus on producing contents on IG and FB and understand what
their target market wants and needs from them. Another example, an Instagram post on a
university’s new club, to inform students about it, and students can interact with the post by
liking, sharing or commenting, generating attention. From the ‘engagement’, private universities
can see how well they connect with their students and if or so they resonate with the content.
From the updates and by tracking the posted content, the engagement would be very useful data
for private universities that serves as a guideline for more productive and effective future
performance. Insights like timing and when users are most active on social media platforms are
crucial to determine when is the best time to post. Failure to do so will lead to futile efforts as the
followers or students would less likely see or engage with the contents. Therefore, private
universities have to fully utilize the social media analytics to their advantage for future content
creation.

https://crayonpanda.io/why-social-media-analytics-is-important/

B. Studying the competitors

Although this seems very common and cliché, SMAs are very useful in assisting private
universities in studying their competitors, as a competitive advantage would set them apart one
from the other. Competitors are also constantly on the watch out, creating content and running
social media strategies. This results in their own unique data. Using the tools, it gives an
opportunity to individual private universities the upper hand of knowing what’s going on with
their competitors, looking through what social media contents work for them or what is it that
they are doing right or wrong based on their engagement rate (Social media analytics). It helps
individual private universities to avoid repeating the same mistakes and taking the good as an
idea to implement or adopt as part of their own, focusing on techniques that bring results. (Ray,
2018) For example, University A sees that University B posts actively about the exciting
activities of their clubs on social media platforms, generating a huge and active engagement rate.
University A might then see it as a chance to identify and analyze the SMA of its competitor,
making it useful to implement on their side to see what can also be applicable and work best for
them. Therefore, it makes sure that private universities are up-to-date and carry on producing
better offerings to their establishments.
(Feigenbaum, 2021)

(Ray, 2018)

(Wheeler, 2012)

(Anon., 2018)

(Ridley, 2020)

(Majeed, 2021)

(Anon., 2021)

(Anon., 2019)

References
2018. Digital Marketing Institute. [Online]
Available at: https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/the-importance-of-social-media-in-
higher-education
[Accessed 22 January 2022].
2019. Crayon Panda. [Online]
Available at: https://crayonpanda.io/why-social-media-analytics-is-important/
[Accessed 22 January 2022].
 2021. Alumni Spotlight. [Online]
Available at: https://alumnispotlight.com/2021/01/20/elon-musk-donates-unused-submarine-and-
more-to-alma-mater-upenn/
[Accessed 22 January 2022].
Feigenbaum, C., 2021. Net Base Quid. [Online]
Available at: https://netbasequid.com/blog/what-is-social-media-analytics-why-is-it-important/
[Accessed 22 January 2022].
Majeed, Z., 2021. Republic World. [Online]
Available at: https://www.republicworld.com/entertainment-news/whats-viral/elon-musk-
responds-to-his-university-of-pennsylvania-homework-heres-what-he-said.html
[Accessed 22 January 2022].
Ray, M., 2018. Ian Anderson Gray. [Online]
Available at: https://iag.me/socialmedia/6-important-reasons-why-you-should-use-social-media-
analytics/
[Accessed 22 January 2022].
Ridley, D., 2020. Vital.. [Online]
Available at: https://vtldesign.com/digital-marketing/social-media/how-todays-colleges-and-
universities-are-using-social-media/
[Accessed 22 January 2022].
Wheeler, S., 2012. Steve Wheeler. [Online]
Available at: http://www.steve-wheeler.co.uk/2012/02/five-tools-for-global-educators.html
[Accessed 22 January 2022].