Social Media in the marketing activity of Polish higher education institutions – the results of the research

Abstract

Вказано на необхідність ведення ВНЗ маркетингових заходів. Ціль статті – визначення ролі соціальних медіа в маркетингових заходах польських вищих навчальних закладів. Отримані результати вказують, що досліджувані заклади використовують соціальні медіа для контактів з групами потенційних або теперішніх студентів, для загально зрозумілої діяльності з просування та інтеграції, а також для основних досліджень громадської думки. Заслуговує на увагу також позитивна оцінка використання середовища соціальних медіа. Подальші дослідження з використання Інтернету в маркетинговій діяльності вишів здійснюватимуть також в Україні. The article focuses on the effects of the implementation of the Law on Higher Education of Sept. 1990, such as the creation of a free market of educational services in the field of higher education, including the product, the demand and the student as the client. It also hints at the need for higher education institutions to carry out marketing activity, with special emphasis on the activity online due to the common digitalisation of marketing, as well as the specific target group, the so-called generation Z, which stays online all the time. The issue of marketing in education has been widely discussed by a number of authors, the major points of reference being the notion of the educational service, understood in Kotler’s sense as an extended product, as well as the student, perceived as a specific client whose expectations cannot be satisfied in full without prejudice to the quality of the service rendered. It is observed that online marketing, and specifically its WEB 2.0 paradigm including the social media sector, still remains a relatively unexplored area of marketing activity among a number of marketing tools implemented by higher education institutions. Crucially, WEB 2.0 is not considered here primarily in technological terms, but rather as the next stage of the evolution of the Internet characterised by some new, extremely dynamic trends. It’s no longer computers, but humans, who stimulate the development of the web. The era of the monopoly on content creation is over. Nowadays, it is delivered by (Internet) users, who actively create and sort out information available on the Web. The point of this article is to present the results of th research into the role of the Social Media in online marketing activities of the Polish higher education institutions, both public and non-public. The research has been conducted by the author of the article in Poland and concerns the comprehensive use of the specific tools of Internet marketing in the activity of higher education institutions, ranging from the strategy to the use of mobile technologies. The research results concerning the use of Social Media in the marketing activity of higher education institutions bring about a specific dilemma. On the one hand, the use of the social media is evaluated positively, on the other hand, though, questions arise as to whether they are used as effectively as possible, in a way that allows to exploit their potential. This dilemma requires further investigation. The obtained results indicate that the schools subjected to research use Social Media for contacting the environments of present and potential students, in order to carry out broadly understood promotion and integration – oriented actions, as well as basic opinion polls. The area of advertisement, due to its ever new forms of communication and targeting, deserves separate attention. It is to be expected that the activity of higher education institutions in the sector of social media will be systematically increasing, with the area of mobile technologies – the main direction of the development of online marketing, performing the key role. Further research into the use of the Internet in the marketing activity of higher education institutions, encompassing the same areas as the research carried out to date in Poland, will be conducted in the Ukraine, which will not only make it possible to diagnose the state of the Ukrainian market, but also allow a comparative overview of the online marketing activity of higher education schools in the two countries.