Investigation of social media platforms of universities in terms of graphic design

In today's world, instant communication and communication through mobile devices has become possible for everyone with the great change that technology is experiencing day by day. Media tools such as television, radio and newspaper, which are called traditional media, are insufficient to meet the expectations of people to receive instant news. It has become widespread to use mobile devices such as phones, tablets and computers not only for communication but also for sharing with the new media communication tool called social media. In this way, people have reached the technology that can receive instant news of a development occurring anywhere in the world. In a period when social media is so important, the preparation of visual designs in social media shares that can reach millions of people in accordance with the rules of graphic design makes these shares more effective. It is of great importance that institutions that make posts to reach their target audience through social media also consider graphic design principles. In the light of the research I have done in this thesis I have prepared, the posts of the ten private universities that have the highest number of followers on the Instagram platform as of the research date, especially during the university registration period; stylistic features, compliance with graphic design principles and photography usage strategies. With the findings obtained as a result of these examinations, it is aimed to guide the institutions in question so that they can share more effectively with their target audiences. For this purpose, we work in harmony; Although there are many studies on social media in Turkey, the limited number of studies examining social media shares in terms of academic graphic design is important in terms of being a resource that universities can benefit from so that they can share their followers on social media platforms where hundreds of posts are made instantly on the homepage.