Corporate Communications of the Russian Universities in Social Networks: Effectiveness Assessment

Abstract

Social networks currently hold leading positions in the modern media system. Corporate communications of the Russian higher education institutions are no exception. For this reason, higher education institutions being centers of education and science aim to meet the constantly changing standards of the media promotion. The main goal of the research Corporate communications of the Russian universities in social networks: effectiveness assessment is to analyze Russian universities practices in social networks. Which social networks do they use most actively; what type of content do they most frequently upload: photo, text or mixed data type; what are the specifics of higher schools social media strategies? This article presents the results gained from the research of the 10 leading Russian universities media communications in social networks. The research has shown that quality examination is more effective than quantity measurements while assessing the effectiveness of corporate communications. Moreover, the research covered the most popular social networks and characteristics of their efficiency. In fact, the high level of audience coverage, which is expressed in the number of subscribers, and an increasing number of publications per day (reaching sometimes 10 posts) do not always correlate to users engagement. This measurement is now the most meaningful for corporate communications.