INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ON THE ADMISSION DECISIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE CITY OF VADODARA

The number of internet users in India is expected to reach 500 million by June 2018, and on the basis of user base and revenues for most global telecom companies India ranks very high. The number of smartphone users in India is estimated to hit 337 million by the end of 2018. Indian digital ad industry is estimated to grow with a CAGR of 32% to Rs. 18,986 crore by 2020. Majority of the youngsters and working executives spend their maximum time on Internet and social media, thus shifting the focus of the advertising industry towards social media marketing. Social media has got tremendous capabilities to forge one to one communication, engage customers via feeds, online stories, blogs, digital ads and user generated. The use of Social Media Marketing by higher education Institutes is increasing but the success of Social Media Marketing in influencing the students admission decisions needs to be seen and very little research has been done on studying he effectiveness of social media marketing in driving admissions of higher education Institutes. This research paper presents the results of a study aiming to identify the role and importance of the social media as an influencer in the admission decisions of future students for Graduation and Post-Graduation Courses in the city of Vadodara. Social Media Marketing tools that this paper would cover include facebook, twitter, instagram and search engine optimization. Descriptive research design was used with a sample size of 150 respondents collected on the basis of non-probability convenience sampling, from different groups that included hsc, graduate and post graduate students. Chi-Square test was used to test the hypothesis. One-Way Anova was check if there was a significant difference between different groups on the basis of social media usage and its influence on admission decisions of students in higher education. The research concluded that Social Media marketing has a significant impact as an influencer on the admission decision of students