Divesting from Facebook and Instagram

Andrew Cassel
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Andrew Cassel: Senior Social Strategist and Content Producer, Middlebury College, USA

Journal of Education Advancement & Marketing, 2023, vol. 8, issue 3, 202-214

Abstract: Scrolling down to the bottom of almost any higher education website reveals logos from a company that is well known for losing data, adversely affecting mental health and adding to political division in countries around the world. Those logos are for Meta products Facebook and Instagram. For years there was no question that including those logos on the page indicated a way for prospective students to learn more about the school. In 2023 those logos are less a display of value-added content and more an endorsement of Meta as a company. In this paper that endorsement is called into question. Audiences are changing, engagement patterns are changing and the value of Meta platforms themselves is changing. This paper examines strategic and moral reasons to step away from Meta, offers suggestions for paths beyond Meta, and calls on higher education marketers to reconsider how and why they use Facebook and Instagram to connect with current and prospective students.

Keywords: social media; social networking; radicalisation; enrolment cliff; Meta; social strategy; content marketing; brand reputation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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