Page 65 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

Tuba Bingöl, Leila Samii, Tej Dhakar: Co-Communication and Brand Reflection in Higher Education:
Perceptions of Enrollment Intention and Recommending

for international students to get into communication with institution and peers. Higher
education institutions focus both current and potential international students who have
possibility to choose their universities or colleges. Social media could be helpful to
bring students from all parts of the world together to share experiences with each
other. International students can get informed easily by university or other students
who are in the program. Messages given on social media and the content can shape
international students’ decisions before they get into any program. International
student expectations might be different than students who study in their home country
based on different country background and culture. Before getting into any program,
international students needed to search campus life and academic programs which can
satisfy their needs. Communities, student clubs and international student profiles can
have influence on international students’ intention to enroll in a university. Therefore,
branding becomes vital for enrollment decision.

Branding is important for higher education institutions and social media channel is a good
way to get attention of the students, who aim to study abroad. University image might be
effective for global perspective through social media posts. How institutions represent their
university and communities could have an impact on shaping ideas of each person from
different countries. International students might be using social media to follow what other
students do abroad and search for their needs if they go outside of their countries to study.
The image which is created by university could be effective on international student
perspective. There are many universities which have high amounts of international students
and studying abroad becomes popular with globalization. Social media channels could be
beneficial for universities to create brand attitude. Higher education institutions can position
globally by reflecting the culture and identity of their brand.

2.LITERATURE REVIEW

It seems social media has become more important with the increase of globalizations. Many
firms and higher education institutions try to be more active on social media to reach people
with their communications. On the other hand, 2017 Social Admissions Report, developed
by Chegg, Target X, and the National Research Center for College and University
Admissions (NRCCUA) claimed that college websites are used by students for college
research (Turner, 2011). There is a decline of visits to official company web sites due to
increase in social media (Hutton & Fosdick, 2011). In their research process, students also
go social media to discover colleges. Social media might help to shape students’ decisions
since students learn about the potential campus and current student profiles. They can learn
about the school environment and get informed academically.
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