Social media for PR in university: Building community and engagement

Public relations and stakeholder engagement at universities have been transformed by social media. According to several studies, colleges are using social media more and more to share information, advertise events, and project a positive image. Some claim, however, that colleges have not fully embraced the participatory features of social media and instead use it as a "spectator sport" for one-way communication. This study aims to analyze how social media helps build community and engagement for public relations purposes in the university. This study uses a qualitative descriptive approach with a case study method. Data are collected through interviews and then analyzed with pattern-matching analysis. This research finds that the faculty's social media initiatives exhibit significant shortcomings, such as a failure to engage in active listening and research, a lack of data-driven strategy, minimal monitoring, and superficial evaluation. The faculty also failed to employ crucial methodologies such as social listening, polls, and focus groups to comprehend the requirements of their target audience, resulting in disconnection and diminished involvement. The efforts are impulsive and disorganized, resulting in missed chances for efficient involvement and community development. The scope of monitoring is limited to responding to comments, lacking sophisticated capabilities for tracking key performance metrics or assessing trends. The evaluation is rudimentary, missing thorough metrics and qualitative assessments, hence failing to provide strategic insights. By adopting a systematic and data-driven strategy, it will be possible to create more effective and captivating social media campaigns, which will enhance audience engagement and improve communication efforts.