Effectiveness of Social Media in Advertising University Programmes and Recruitment of New Students: A Case Study of St. Paul’s University, Kenya

Abstract

Background to the Problem Social media has become a game changer in how recruitment and advertising is carried out by universities in Kenya. Social media have almost replaced the traditional media of communication in reaching the students. Many organizations today use social media in marketing their products and for public relations and communications with their clients (Evans &McKee 2010). Social media are the collaborative technologies that now define contemporary market places (Evans &McKee 2010). Beginning with the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies-the set of tools that make it easy for people to create and publish content, to share ideas, to vote on them, and to recommend things to others-the wellestablished norms of business marketing have been undergoing a forced change.No longer satisfied with advertising and promotional information as a sole source for learning about new products and services, consumers have taken to the Social Web in an effort to share among themselves their own direct experiences with brands, products, and services to provide a more 'real' view of their research experience. At the same time, consumers are leveraging the experiences of others, before they actually make a purchase themselves.The impact on marketing has been significant, to say the least. Organizations and consumers have turned to social media in a bid to source for information that enables them to make smart choices (Evans &McKee 2010). Social media have become an integral aspect in integrated marketing campaigns programs of organizations. They function alongside traditional media of advertising in the marketing mix. Through social media, there has been open access to information. Information that was previously available to only select or privileged few is now accessed by all. This provides a background to this study that Universities as institutions of higher learning need to embrace and quantify the benefits of using social media in their internal and external communication purposes well as for advertising and marketing purposes. Statement of the ProblemSocial media have become game changers in the field of public relations practice. Many organizations have come to embrace social media as part of their official channels of communicating and reaching out to their publics. However,