LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp are being used to promote brand and reaching out to the youth who prefer informal interactive mode of communication
Following the footsteps of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who effectively used social media outlets in addition to traditional media platforms for informal interaction with prospective voters, B-schools in the country have also resorted to social media in order to lure potential candidates amidst the tough competition in the management-education sector.
Top management schools have increased their presence on the four American social media giants – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp and disseminating information albeit in an informal and interesting way to reach out to youngsters who rarely logout from their social media accounts.
From IIMs to ISB, XLRI to SPJMR most of the leading B-schools are maintaining a dynamic media social profile to promote their brand. Besides, pushing "join the institute" campaign on social media pages, the schools are also sharing day-to-day happenings at the campus, major events, research reports, success stories of the alumni in text, photo and video formats.
"Social media is definitely the most effective broadcast tool to attract and interact with the prospective students today. There are hundreds of business schools in India. To stand out in the market, you are supposed to reach out to the right people and engage them," says Nitin Putcha, vice president of the ITM group of Institutions.
"In the age of internet, information is just a commodity easily available to everyone. Though advertisements, websites and brochures provide all the details, the FB page showcases another dimension of the campus which helps the potential students to makeup the mind," says Prof Uday Salunkhe, group director of the WeSchool in Mumbai.
Professors are being encouraged to write blogs. Alumni network is being roped in to boost the brand image in a fight to fill the classrooms which has become a daunting task since last two years. Within two years, social media marketing has acquired top place in the advertising portfolio of the institutes.
Reasons are obvious — Facebook now has 100 million users in India – it's largest outside the US. Twitter has 33 million accounts and LinkedIn nearly 20 million.
IIMs too face competitions from each other especially from the newer ones. Not surprising that, IIM Udaipur's FB page lists the reasons why one should join them. Harvard Business School and London Business School adopted similar strategies many years ago.
Professors take it to social media
Until a few years ago, most of the professors used to have least interaction with the students outside the classroom. The scene is changing, fast bridging the gap between students and teachers, at least in the B-schools. They are now posting good articles on social media to extend the conversation beyond the classroom, share videos of the Tedx talks of famous people and tweet management principles. Hashtags are being used to talk about things from the class to keep the dialogue going.
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