The use of social media as the corporate communication tool of universities: A content analysis of Foundation Universities

Corporate Communication activities are based on providing information on behalf of the organization as well as receiving information from the environment of the organization. In an increasingly competitive environment, corporate communication activities are important in terms of maintaining the reputation of the corporations, creating a positive image and strengthening the communication with their target audiences. For this reason, corporate communication activities are becoming more and more important among the universities that enable the change and development of the society. In order to be preferred by the target group of the universities, to gain value for the society and to increase its success as a result of this, it is necessary to carry out the corporate communication activities in the most correct way. As in all other institutions, it utilizes various communication tools while conducting corporate communication activities in universities. With the rapid changes in information communication technologies, social media, which has entered into our lives, has become an effective tool for the preparation and maintenance of recognition and promotion activities of institutions. Universities, on the other hand, started to take part in these channels in order to realize corporate communication activities and take advantage of the opportunities offered by social media. Within the scope of this research, the use of social media in terms of corporate communication studies of the universities has been revealed with a descriptive analysis. Descriptive analysis attempts to reveal the current situation. In the study, Instagram pages showing the activities of private universities in Turkey were examined with content analysis. As a result, it was seen that universities use social media in their corporate communication activities.