The use of social media by higher education institutions

Higher education institutions have been using, to an increasing extent, various marketing methods and tools, which are becoming a decisive factor in building their competitive advantage and achieving success. In order to initiate and maintain long-term relationships with their communities and to conduct other marketing activities, higher education institutions have been increasingly often using social media, which has enabled them to actively create their image. The aim of this study is to utilize big data methods and tools to measure the scale of the use of social media by the higher education sector. The research carried out in the first quarter of 2019 demonstrates that large higher education institutions, i.e. those with over 1696 students (according to the adopted classification), use social media to communicate current news to a larger extent than the smaller ones. A significantly smaller percentage of mediumsized higher education institutions (223-1695 students) and small ones (up to 222 students) have accounts in social media, thus failing to take full advantage of the potential of these media. Higher education institutions use social media mainly to promote events they organise.