SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR DIB AND UTILIZATION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES - Increasing attractiveness for German students

Abstract

This research was commissioned by Xamk, the second largest University of Applied Sciences in Finland. The University and especially the degree programme in Digital International Business wanted to optimize its social media communication strategy to increase its reach also into international markets, in this case, Germany. Xamk already has a confident digital presence and has joined the international competition to attract international students. Qualitative research methods were used to find out the instruments and content to recruit German students via social networks. Interviews with experts and students and observation of four Higher Education Institutions (HEI's) in Finland were conducted. The coding and analysis of these interviews and observation suggest that a large proportion of German young people use the social networks Instagram, Facebook and YouTube and have a very positive attitude towards new technologies. Furthermore, the observation provided an insight into the social media strategies of Turku University of Applied Sciences, Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Oulu University of Applied Sciences and South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences. The thesis showed that a social media marketing strategy in the form of a step-by-step plan was developed and finally presented. The most interesting technology for this purpose was probably augmented reality, whose possible application was also outlined.