MBA in Social Media

Undeniably, social media has become a corner stone of nearly all industries, particularly the marketing sector. It is an efficient means to reach a vast area of target markets and particularly engages consumers in a way that fosters the development of long-term customer loyalty. The fact that people are inherently social-beings in turn makes social media’s ability to integrate individuals into a company’s promotional campaign or product development an ideal marketing technique. The growing popularity of social media in the business world makes it no surprise a recent study shows that top Business schools across the U.S. have recently begun utilising online media sites. They include utilising Twitter, Facebook and YouTube in their MBA admissions offices as well as update the world on their recent achievements in order to keep the school new, relevant and cutting edge.

Interestingly enough, the study found that 31% of the top 50 US ‘b-schools’ offered potential applicants and recruiters detailed information on everything from the admission process to recent grad students’ achievements. This is a brilliant marketing ploy as social media is a very cost effective means to reach the majority of a business school’s target markets. Providing interactive videos and tutorials regarding the admission process makes potential students develop a sense of community and connection to the b-schools almost immediately. 50% of the schools actually preferred to have current students blog their experiences with prospective applicants. This further developed networking between incoming students and the school’s community. Furthermore, regularly updated Twitter pages and blogs by b-schools are particularly useful to potential employers of recent grads. In the extremely competitive business school rankings, each and every cutting edge marketing ploy schools can adapt will help put them one step above… or one click above… the competition.

While the study shows that MBA programs prefer broadcast forms of social media versus engagement, they do spend a great deal of effort on developing live chats and online blogs created by admission staff and current students targeted towards incoming students. One sided communication efforts in the form of streamed videos and admission event notifications appears to be the most popular as it alerts students to upcoming deadlines and streamlines the application process overall. Notably, the variation in social media forms did not differ depending on the Business School overall national ranking. The top-ten school appear to use the same methods as the lower ranked schools. This is significant in that social media can be used as a stepping-stone for bottom ranked schools to distinguish themselves and target potential applicants otherwise outside of their reach. In turn, the gap between ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ ranked b-schools will most likely shrink dramatically as their methods of targeting and marketing tactics become increasingly similar. Social media is ideal in that it does not require a large financial base to promote it. Thus smaller b-schools have an equal opportunity to compete with the better known business school and thus hold all schools to a higher calibre.

Image by Avolore

Social Media