Adoption of

Social Media in
Academia
India Trends Study 2015

Objectives/Ke
y
deliverables:
Social media use
is
gaining
prominence
among education
institutes recently
and each social
media
platform
can be used to
attain a specific
objective.
Examples
of
various
social
media
platforms
that have gained
popularity
over
time are Facebook,
Twitter,
SlideShare,
YouTube, LinkedIn,
Pinterest,
Google+,
Blogs
etc. Each of these
platforms can be
used for different
purposes.
The objective of
our study is to
analyse the way in
which
each
of
these platforms is
adopted
by
different institutes
for
variety
of
purposes
and
determine
the
best practices of
social
media
adoption. As well

as our objective is
to
recommend
innovative ways in
which social media
can
be
successfully
adopted
by
academia helping
them
meeting
their goals.
Project
ASMA
(Adoption of Social
Media
in
Academia)
was
initiated last year
to
study
the
extent to which
Indian
Business
Schools
have
embraced
social
media, established
best practices and
showcased
their
innovative
approach to social
media.
Social media over
the past few years
has not only been
instrumental
in
filling the demand
and supply gap for
quality education
but
also
has
changed the way
educational
processes
are
carried out. India
is becoming an
educational
hub
and is attracting
more and more
global talent. But

some challenges
faced by higher
education in India
are access, equity
and quality. The
higher education
model
is
something
that
needs
transformation to
ascertain
sustainable
development.
The study led to a
framework which
can be treated as
a benchmark by
the
business
schools
before
coining their social
media
strategy.
The framework is
quite
promising
and solid after all
the
extensive
research done and
also
experimenting
with few of the
clients of InnoServ
Solutions resulting
in
favorable
outcomes.

Identification
of problems:
The
goal
of
revising ASMA is to
make the report a
comprehensive
and a current one
that
business
schools can rely
on to devise their
social
media
marketing
strategies.
ASMA 2015
attempts to
showcase the
social media
adoption in
Academia. The
report is based on
an extensive study
conducted in
which business
schools with
diverse attributes
from the country
participated.
Highlights of the
report include best
practices followed
by institutes, indepth analysis of
the survey results
to comprehend
where your
institute is lying in
comparison to the

other institutes,
articles on social
media adoption,
and also valuable
recommendations
that will help
institutes in
getting a rationale
behind their social
media strategy.
Making the
institutes to take
part in the survey
through digital
strategy is a
difficult task.
The

participating

institute will get a

complimentary
copy of the ASMA
report

containing

the best practices

for

social

media

adoption and also

get an opportunity
to be a part of the
launching
ceremony of the
ASMA report the
first

ever

comprehensive
social
adoption

media
study

conducted in India.
Also
participating

the

institutes will get a

special mention in
report.
Immediately after
completing

the

survey, a real life

case

study

on

social

media

usage

by

universities
given
institutes

was

to

the
as

compliment.

Methodology
of
Study/Schedul
e of Activities:
ASMA 2015 trend
study emerged as
a result of rapid

changes that are

happening in the
usage of social
media. We
understood the
importance to
study the current
trends in the
industry and
prepare a report
that will provide
guidelines for
business schools.
Before providing
the guidelines, we
thought we should
collect information
from the
stakeholders of
few business
schools, so that
the report can be
designed in such a
way that it
becomes easy to
relate the same
with the current
objectives at your
college and the
strategies can be
easily adopted.
We carefully
developed a
questionnaire
which we decided
to circulate among
the stakeholders.
The questionnaire
was built on the
Qualtrics platform
and distributed to
more than 2000
respondents

through emails
and circulated in
various academic
groups like Higher
Education Forum
etc. The
respondents were
regularly followed
up to ensure the
completion of the
survey in the
stipulated
deadlines. In
addition to the
lists and groups,
we invited
participation in
survey through
laser sharp
targeted ads on
professional
networks like
LinkedIn, Face
book and Google
display ads. Our
campaign reached
out to a total of
150000 academic
professionals in a
short time span of
15 days.
Through the
questionnaire we
tried to cover all
the aspects of
social media
usage in academia
including but not
limited to
objectives and
goals, platforms
used and financial
aspects. The

target respondents
were the Directors,
Deans, Heads of
the marketing and
IT departments
and management
bodies of the
institutes. Inputs
were also taken
from social media
experts who guide
these institutes to
adopt social media
in the right
direction.

Analysis/Achie
vements:
Guest Article by
digital marketing
head Navneet
Khurana, from
McGraw Hill
Education
Letter of
appreciation from
Dr A K Sen Gupta,

Founder and
Convener at
Higher Education
Forum
Interview with Dr.
Mandi, an
Associate
Professor from
NITIE, Mumbai

InnoServ
Solutions
was a
sponsorer of
the first ever
Digital
Marketing
Conference
in Pune,
24adp.

The state-ofthe-art
planning and
execution of
the
conference
created an
apt platform
for the
launch of
the
prestigious
ASMA 2015
report.
Mr.Siddharth
from
LinkedIn
unveiled the
report.

Around 130
business
schools in
the country
participated
in the survey

compared to
last years
count of 60

Go to market
strategy was
prepared for
the report
ASMA 2015

Marketing
campaigns
were
handledPaid
activities on
Google
Adwords,
Facebook,
LinkedIn and
organic
activity in
Facebook,
Twitter,
LinkedIn.

Conclusion/Ke
y learnings:

81% of the
business
schools that
participated
in our survey
had their
social media
presence
and they
have been
using social
media for an
average of
28 months.
Out of the
remaining
19%, only
14% were
not
interested to
have a social
media
strategy for
their
institute
An average
of 62.43%
was
recorded
when asked

how
important
social media
in their
marketing
efforts is
Face book
(92%),
Linked in
(68%),
Twitter
(42%) and
Youtube
(45%) were
the top
priorities of
these
institutes
43% of the
institutes
dont have
social media
guidelines
and 63% say
they dont
have proper
training in
this field but
still their
institutes
are
represented
by dedicated
marketing
employees
and multiple
employees
From last
years 6%,
this year
results show
12% of the
institutes
opt for

agencies
who have
well trained
professionals
in this field
and also
follow proper
guidelines
Ability to
measure
effectivenes
s of usage
was a major
concern for
our
respondents
(58%)
followed by
privacy
(55%) and
budget
(44%)
Success of
social media
was judged
through
vanity
metrics like
fans/follower
s/likes (81%)
while other
metrics like
leads
generated,
views,
registrations
, shares and
referrals
received
equal
responses
Average
response
time - Within

1 hour
(16%), 1-12
hours (34%),
12-24 hours
(26%), >1
day (23%)
72% of the
institutes
spend less
that 2
million for
their
marketing
efforts. A
minimum of
50,000 is
spent on
social media
by these
institutes
57% of the
respondents
are
monitoring
social
conversation
and 43% are
not. Face
book posts
(49%) and
admissions
queries
(37%) were
monitored
mostly
Creating
awareness
of key
institutional
initiatives
(75%) and
increasing
engagement
with target

audience
(71%) are
the most
successful
goals that
these
institutes
have
realized
Out of the
total
admission
budget
allocated, a
majority of
these
institutes
are spending
less than
30% of that
budget in
social media
Communicat
ion between
staff and
students
(71%) and
file sharing
between
them (63%)
were the
most
innovatively
adopted
methods in
academics
Brand
awareness
(81%) and
Information
sharing
(78%) are
the major
objectives of

brand
building
activities

Institute
Website
(49%) and
Facebook
(37%)
followed by
Linkedin
(31%) are by
far the
biggest
success with
alumni
relations

86% of the
respondents
said
promoting
programs
and brand
name and
79% of the
respondents
said showing
whats
happening in
the institute
is the
purpose of
their content
56% of the
respondents
are
managing
their search
engine
marketing
and search
engine
optimization
74% of them
responded
with Yes

when asked
about their
preference
for mobile
app