MEASURING THE IMPACT OF BRAND REPUTATION THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA ON CHOICE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

The implementation of ICT has changed the way people and organizations operate, interact, employ, and conduct business. Previously, conventional information outlets such as print and broadcast media, friends, family and blogs have been major sources of information about different courses in higher education institutions. Many youth surveys indicate frequent Internet users and social media applications in particular. They would probably use social media applications such as Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Instagram , and LinkedIn as potential prospective students to search for course details.This study focussed on measuring the impact of brand reputation through social media on choice of higher education. The researcher has used stratified sampling and purposive sampling techniques. The data was collected from the students who were studying in Private Professional higher educational institutes.The sample size taken for the study was 200 and the respondents were selected from three major districts of Punjab namely Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana. Multiple regression technique was used to see the impact of brand reputation on decision making of students towards private professional higher education institutes. The results has shown that brand reputation is having a significant impact on students decision making to enroll in private professional higher education institutes for the area under study. This study might help the private professional institutes in developing the social media strategies to improve the student enrolment.