Universities, and units within, use social media to communicate with their respective publics, for varying reasons, namely to promote interest in a page and the related 'owner', to promote events and opportunities, to 'educate', and create awareness. Experience and anecdotal evidence indicate that visitors to Facebook pages find certain posts more interesting than others, which reality administrators of Facebook pages must contend with. The purpose of the study reported on is to determine the impact of a series of posts to determine, which attract the most interest. The research method can best be described as experimental in that posts pertaining to different subjects were undertaken periodically. Posts were constrained to construction, tertiary construction management education, and related issues such as conferences. The salient findings include that graduation publicity in the form of photos, predominates, followed by project related photos, and events in the form of conferences, presentations, and summits in terms of interest. Based upon the findings it can be concluded that certain posts are of greater interest than others. It is recommended that Facebook page statistics be regularly reviewed to determine the impact and relevance of posts. Facebook page administrators must evolve a 'cocktail' of posts to optimize the impact of their pages, which includes promoting interest in a page and the related 'owner'.
Industry and Academia Perceptions of Construction Management Education: the Case of South Africa
