Social Media Engagement: An Analysis of the Impact of Social Media Campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

Abstract

Social media has revolutionized communication and changed how society accesses and receives information. As social media has become more prevalent, companies' advertising and marketing strategies worldwide have changed. In order to reach their target audience, organizations, including universities, have shifted their marketing plans to include social media. Research shows that social media campaigns enable universities to build positive relationships with potential undergraduate and graduate students. However, previous research on postgraduate social media use focuses on social media as a collective tool and does not analyze engagement by each platform. This study aimed to determine which social media platform, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook, would have the highest engagement, as measured by likes, comments, and shares. Welch’s NOVA indicated a statistically significant difference in the engagement between platforms. However, post hoc analysis only showed statistically significant differences between Facebook and Instagram. These findings suggest that while Facebook may yield higher engagement than Instagram and LinkedIn, universities should consider all platforms when utilizing social media as a recruitment tool in higher education.