Determinants of Social Media Communication Usage in the Tertiary Institutions

The purpose of this study was to determine factors that affect social media communication usage in tertiary institutions in the absence of a communication policy. The study was conducted in 10 universities located in Kigali. Those are Kigali Institute of Management (KIM) university, University of Kigali (UoK), University of Lay Adventist of Kigali (UNILAK), Integrated Polytechnic Regional College (IPRC Kigali), Kigali Independent University (ULK), University of Tourism Technology and Business studies (UTB), Mount Kenya University (MKU) Rwanda, Adventist University of Central Africa (AUCA), University of Global Health Equity (UGHE), African Leadership University (ALU) Rwanda. The research interviewed 385 where 200 were universities staffs at different levels and 185 students. The researcher found that the main social media tools used in tertiary institutions are electronic mail, websites, applications, face to face, mobile phones and electronic mail as mentioned by all respondents. This research also showed the benefits of using those social media tools that are immediate feedback, personalized messages and knowledge sharing where 40 percent of respondents show that the main benefit is to get personalized messages.30.27 percent of respondents benefited from knowledge sharing and then 29.73 percent benefit immediate feedback in using social media with their followers. The research revealed that misuse of social media communication in tertiary institutions has many inconveniences such as widespread rumours and misinformation, echo chambers, civility or to be precise the lack of it and social currency.