Customer relationship management and higher education in India

Educational institutions worldwide are undergoing fundamental shifts in how they operate and interact with their “customers”, students, alumni, donors, and faculty members. Higher education, especially the management education has been changing rapidly and educational institutions are compelled to focus and shift their strategies on student community, faculty members, and industrial organizations so that they remain relevant to the society at large. A nation can remain competitive and its economy can continue grow, only if the quality of knowledge provided by higher education institutions becomes meaningful. Technological, economic, sociological, and governmental forces are altering education dramatically, impacting its institutions, teachers, students, funding sources, and basic function in society. To unlock potential and help talented people to gain advanced training, whatever their background, requires customer-centric approach to education.

Building Marketing Relationships on Twitter

The current study applies a relationship marketing approach to examine how universities use Twitter to communicate with their audiences. To explore social media strategies related to top-ranked universities' Twitter activity, Kotler's (1992) model of five levels of relationship building was refined and operationalized. A content analysis of 1375 tweets distributed by 22 universities was conducted to evaluate the level of relationship building that universities establish through social media in order to engage with current and prospective students, alumni, donors, and external audiences. The authors conclude that top-ranked universities are more likely to engage primarily in reactive relationship building, which can be characterized as the broadcast of an original message with opportunities for followers to initiate post-communication interaction. Results of the message orientation analysis reveal that the vast majority of tweets in the sample were used to give opinion, suggestion, or information.

Building Marketing Relationships on Twitter

The current study applies a relationship marketing approach to examine how universities use Twitter to communicate with their audiences. To explore social media strategies related to top-ranked universities’ Twitter activity, Kotler’s (1992) model of five levels of relationship building was refined and operationalized. A content analysis of 1375 tweets distributed by 22 universities was conducted to evaluate the level of relationship building that universities establish through social media in order to engage with current and prospective students, alumni, donors, and external audiences. The authors conclude that top-ranked universities are more likely to engage primarily in reactive relationship building, which can be characterized as the broadcast of an original message with opportunities for followers to initiate post-communication interaction. Results of the message orientation analysis reveal that the vast majority of tweets in the sample were used to give opinion, suggestion, or information.