Social media branding strategies of universities and colleges in Canada: a mixed-method approach investigating post characteristics and contents

Anh Mai To, Michael Mindzak, Narongsak Thongpapanl and Justin Mindzak

Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 2024, vol. 34, issue 2, 946-966

Abstract: Higher education institutions (HEIs) invest substantially in their social media presence for marketing, branding, student engagement, and recruitment purposes. To better understand HEIS’ current social media strategies, this study developed a mixed-method approach to analyze Facebook content and posting practices of postsecondary institutions in Ontario, Canada. A total of 13,467 Facebook posts from 42 HEIs were collected using the Napoleon Cat application, and subsequently coded and analyzed. Applying descriptive statistics and regression analysis alongside content analysis, results demonstrate that HEIs generally followed similar practices concerning posting frequency, length, types, and timing. Although HEIs employed all five main branding positions – namely Elite, Nurturing, Campus, Outcome, and Commodity – HEIs were found to concentrate on promoting Nurturing elements and Campus activities. Moreover, results revealed several significant differences in strategies of institutions with different sizes (large, medium, and small) as well as different types (university and college) in both marketing activities and branding positions.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08841241.2022.2139790 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jmkthe:v:34:y:2024:i:2:p:946-966

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/WMHE20

DOI: 10.1080/08841241.2022.2139790

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Marketing for Higher Education is currently edited by Dr Jane Hemsley-Brown, Anthony Lowrie and Dr. Thomas Hayes

More articles in Journal of Marketing for Higher Education from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().