The Impacts of Social Media's Adoption in Higher Education Institutions: An Approach for Social Media's Return on Investment and Branding in Universities

Social Media platforms have for a while been embraced by educational institutions as powerful instruments in reaching larger audiences. In fact, universities' involvement in Social Media in the form of creating and administrating Social Media “Profiles” dates back to the very start of the Social Media evolution. Seen as innovative highly influential instruments, Social Media with its different platforms has been implemented largely in universities' marketing strategies, support services, and recruitment tactics. Nonetheless, few available scholarly have in the past addressed the practicality of conducting a Return on Investment (ROI) process for organisations, let alone for educational institutions. Given that having a clear forecast of the benefits and rewards for implementing Social Media in universities is a key factor leading to its adoption, developing a ROI for higher educational institutions remains a necessity. In this research, a ROI model that depicts the use of Social Media in the higher educational context is developed. Furthermore, an extensive research on SM's use by universities was conducted to identify key factors that drives the need for universities' Social Media adoption. The study also provides valuable insights on the elements of effective SM branding through identifying major factors of successful branding strategies. In addition, after a detailed investigation, the research suggests a SM branding approach that adds value to existing research and can be adopted by universities as a valued approach to reaching effective SM branding.