Communication medium has changed dramatically in the past decade after the emergence of social media. . Not only it became top priority for business houses now a day but other organizations including education institutes are using social media to connect with students. With approximately 462 million internet users and over 241 million active Facebook users; Internet penetration, Smartphone’s, youth exposure are major factors which are responsible for high growth rate of internet and social website users. Decision makers are consistently trying to identify ways through which firms can make use of social media applications such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc. It is a place where people discuss politics, products, cricket, music & movies, fashion, science & Technology and many other issues. This new media has led to a paradigm shift in marketing practices of many companies from a traditional brand or product-driven approach to a contemporary customer-driven approach. Social Media and its technology are consumer-driven as it can directly communicate with consumers for their product and services. Moreover, this new form of media is often perceived more trustworthy source rather than sponsored content transmitted thru the traditional media of the promotion mix. Though organizations cannot control the direction of information disseminated through social media yet social media is being widely used by almost all the companies, in spite of their size or structure. Consumers get instant response and feel more attached with the organization.Considering all these benefits educational institutes and universities are now using social media to reach its perspective clients i.e. students, in order to improve recruitments. Social media sites are generally accessed by youth of specific demographic profile. There is big difference in how and why people use social networking sites. In addition, how much is the involvement and continuation of traditional marketing practices required in social media marketing.Unfortunately, universities/institutes using these technologies often fail to understand the unique opportunities and challenges that accompany the adoption of social media. In this paper, an effort has been made on conceptual approach in identifying issues and challenges in identifying role of social media in higher education and to identify factors that affect the selection of higher educational institutes and role of social media in reaching to the perspective students. The data will be analyzed using statistical techniques like factor or confirmatory factor analysis with reliability and validation checks.
ROLE OF REFERRAL MARKETING IN HIGHER EDUCATION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO PRIVATE SECTOR