The use of Instagram for corporate identity building by universities

With the effects of developing technology, the number of consumers using social media channels has been increasing day by day and this causes consumers to obtain any information they need from social media platforms. Moreover, the consumer expectation has changed in the way that they are looking for more interactive and individual messages from companies in terms of building relationships and reaching their publics. In the light of the these changes, companies produce contents according to the new expectations of consumers through social media channels to build interactive communication in addition to mass media oriented contents. Organizations, regardless of being public or private companies, need to display their corporate identity elements within their social media posts strategically to distinguish themselves from other companies in the competitive environment. Although there are several studies about social media marketing, there is a relative lack in the literature in terms of the analysis of the reflection of corporate values in their Instagram posts by educational institutions. This study analyzes the social media posts of public and private educational institutions in order to examine the differences and similarities in the reflection of their adopted corporate values in their Instagram posts. To this end, the Instagram posts of Yeditepe University and Marmara University that were shared in 2019 will be analyzed through content analysis. Keywords: Corporate identity, digital marketing, higher education, neoliberalism, visual communication design, social media marketing