Admissions and advertising: Students’ perception of social media advertising as a recruiting tool

Abstract

A qualitative study was performed to understand how students perceive, interpret and are influenced by social media advertising during the college search. Students reported that they are open to advertising, expect advertising and assume higher education institutions (HEIs) will engage in business-like activities. Furthermore, they assess the health of HEI brands based on the quality and relevancy of their advertising and interpret frequency and production quality as indicative of education quality. This study focuses on social media advertising in a broad sense.