Impact of Social Media Technologies on Public Relation Practices in Higher Education Institutes across India�A Live Study

Dr. Shreya Virani; Dr. Smriti Pathak

Volume : VI, Issue : XII, December - 2016

Impact of Social Media Technologies on Public Relation Practices in Higher Education Institutes across India�A Live Study

Dr. Shreya Virani, Dr. Smriti Pathak

Abstract :

Education sector in India, especially the higher education, includes under–graduate, post–graduate colleges, B–schools etc, is vast and has high potential for PR practitioners. Public relation is essential for successful functioning of any educational institute. Public Relations use social media technologies for changing the ways in which educational practitioners reach out and engage their communities. Social media technologies help to diffuse sociology and information with technology. Social media technologies are the fastest medium to disseminate information at lightning speed. The information flow is transparent and free. Emphasis is now being given to content creation and reach and acknowledgement of this content. The process of transfer of information involves PR practitioners play an important role in elaborating the image of education institutes, not only to people reading, but also how they share this information for others to participate. According to few researchers it is similar to as many–to–many model where many oadcast many messages (information / communication) to many. This media can be suited for socializing and shå opinions in the form of blog posts or comments or spoken podcasts or videos etc. These opinions are direct and open which is different from other media options. It also helps like–minded people to form groups, discuss and blend in their own. These factors have resulted in growth of social media technologies and transformed the way internet is used for PR practitioners. For example most of the Education Institutes have their websites to showcase their strengths and work. This information helps people in many ways. It is no longer a one–way communication channel and instead, it is driven by the activities of users on website or associated websites via internet. There are several recently published books that explore how social media technologies are altering the mode of communication between organizations and external – internal stakeholders. Therefore it is essential for organizations to tap into this effective use of social media through public relation practitioners. Effective Public Relations Measures will allow communication between education institutes and people in general for dissemination of information and knowledge. Social media technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, wikis, Flickr, and YouTube have more than a billion users which focus on more than friendly conversation and individual expression. These technologies facilitate remarkably spread out population in immediate participation alongwith platform for effective collaborations. These one liner or even thoughts, opinions of people help connecting and changing the institute image. In order for any higher education institute to grow and to catch up with the ever expanding technological world of social media applications, it has to improve and focus on its PR practices using social media. Social media platforms/ technologies is the key for any educational institute to reach the audience through effective display of strength or showcase of strength (highlights). The proposed study focuses on the various ways in which social media websites are being used as public relations tools by the education sector and how the development and maintenance of such social media websites is crucial for the success of these institutes. Unfortunately, there are few academic articles about social media effecting public relations in the educational sector scholarly literature. Hence the proposed study is aimed at studying the sources of social media being accessed by education sector and its impact on their public relation practices. The proposed study would invite the participation of academicians from the higher education institutes across India. The population to be targeted is the Indian higher academic fraternity. A well tested and structured instrument was prepared to measure the influence of social media on public relation practices. The questionnaire was prepared by taking various constructs from the previous studies. The questionnaire was tested for its validity. The survey was administered to higher education academicians through the online platform. Descriptive statistics shall be used to describe the data. Simple statistical techniques are used to study the influence of social media on public relation practices for education institutes