The Official Presence of Croatian Higher Education Institutions on Social Networks

New trends constantly emerging on the Internet bring new ways of communication and dissemination of information. Social networks, which have been pre-sent on the Internet for more than 15 years, have lately become a topic of every day conversation, not only among individual users but also institutions. The spread of new technologies affecting even higher education institutions is wit- nessed by a considerable number of researches, papers and discussions about the use of social networks for educatio nal purposes. The key focus of this paper official presence of Croatian higher education institutions, both publicly and privately funded, on social networks. The presence of RSS feeds on web pages of academic institutions was also analysed. RSS was part of this research due to fact that it can be rather easily converted to content on social networks. This paper does not aim to analyse the use of soci al networks as educational tools. It rather focuses on the ways in which social networks can be used to upgrade the current means of communication within an academic community and between the general public and the academic community. The total of 170 intuitions was researched for the purpose of this paper. The gathering of data was conducted in two sessions. The first session was during the academic year of 2009/10 and the second session during the academic year of 2010/11. A comparison of these two data sets shows certain trends in the acceptance of social networks among the monitored intuitions. Additionally, a comparison of the adoption levels of social networks between publicly and priv ately funded institutions is given

The role of social networks in the presentation of Croatian higher education institutions

Cilj ovog rada bio je prikupljanje podataka o zastupljenosti hrvatskih visokoškolskih ustanova na društvenim mrežama zajedno s analizom sadržaja koje ustanove objavljuju kako bi se na osnovi prikupljenih podataka definirale smjernice za izradu komunikacijske strategije i ostvarivanje prisutnosti visokoškolskih ustanova na društvenim mrežama. Podaci o prisutnosti na društvenim mrežama prikupljani su tijekom akademske godine 2013/14. Od Ministarstva znanosti obrazovanja i sporta dobiven je popis svih hrvatskih visokoškolskih ustanova. U potrazi za poveznicama prema društvenim mrežama posjećene su web stranice svih ustanova s tog popisa. Na taj način željelo se osigurati da su pronađeni sadržaji na društvenim mrežama službeni odnosno da iza njih stoji ustanova. Od 133 pregledane stranice ustanova, na njih 53 pronađene su valjane poveznice prema društvenim mrežama. Kako bi se dobile povratne informacije i mišljenja o društvenim mrežama distribuirana su i dva anketna upitnika. Prvi upitnik bio je namijenjen ispitivanju stavova osoba povezanih s hrvatskim visokoškolskim ustanovama. Prikupljeno je 307 ispunjenih upitnika, a ispitanici su bili povezani sa 64 visokoškolske ustanove. Drugi upitnik, namijenjen ispitivanju stavova osoba zaduženih za prisutnost hrvatskih visokoškolskih ustanova na društvenim mrežama, poslan je na 53 ustanove za koje se utvrdilo da imaju prisutnost na društvenim mrežama. Na upitnik su odgovorile 24 ustanove. Provedena istraživanja pokazala su da ustanove imaju korist od prisutnosti na društvenim mrežama, ali da se ne koriste u punoj mjeri potencijalima koje im one pružaju. Kako bi ustanove mogle ostvariti puni potencijal koje im pružaju društvene mreže na kraju rada nalaze se i smjernice za izradu komunikacijske strategije putem društvenih mreža.Social networks are not a new phenomenon. They have been present on the Internet since the middle of the 1990’s, but in the recent years they have become a topic of everyday conversations. As the social networks became a part of everyday life, they also became a part of the academic community. The aim of this study was to collect data on the usage of social networks by institutions of higher education in Croatia, as well as to analyse the published content in order to use the collected data to define guidelines for developing communication strategy and increasing the institutions’ presence on social networks. In its introduction, the dissertation gives a short overview of social networks’ characteristics, as well as the existing definitions. The introduction also proposes a definition of social networks which covers all aspects of a modern social network. Beside the definition, this chapter also proposes a social network classification by which all social networks can be distributed into three categories. The suggested classification represents a more simplified distribution than some other classifications, nevertheless it is comprehensive and applicable even beyond the scope of this dissertation. The introduction also discloses various statistical data about the number of social networks’ users, as well as the manner in which users use them. Data about the presence of higher education institutions on social networks were gathered during the academic year 2013/2014. In order to determine if an institution is present on social networks or not, institutions’ official web sites were reviewed. Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of Republic of Croatia provided a list of all Croatian higher education institutions. There are 136 higher education institutions in total, 101 of which are state funded and 35 are privately funded institutions. All higher education institutions’ web sites were visited and reviewed on September 23rd 2013. Out of 136 web sites, 133 were accessible, i.e., on that date three web sites, one belonging to a public institution and two belonging to private institutions, were unreachable, i.e., their web servers were inaccessible. Upon visiting all web sites, links to all social networks were noted down which means that the list of social networks was not defined beforehand. Out of 133 reviewed web sites, 53 web sites contained valid links to social networks. One web site did contain a link, but it was not a valid Facebook page so it was not included in the study. Out of 53 institutions included in the study, 30 are state funded and 23 are privately funded institutions. Nine social networks were identified in total. Out of those nine identified, institutions use Facebook the most (N=45), then YouTube (N=20) and Twitter (N=17). LinkedIn has a reputation of being a professional business social network so it is surprising that a relatively small number of institutions (N=8) use it. The small number of institutions using Google+ is also surprising (N=2). Other identified social networks (Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr and Vimeo) are each used by only one institution. Two surveys were distributed in order to receive institutions’ feedback and opinion on social networks. The aim of the first survey was to assess attitudes of people associated with higher education institutions in Croatia towards social networks. During a twomonth period, from March 30th 2015 to May 28th 2015, an online questionnaire was sent to employees, associates and students in order to collect feedback and attitudes about the necessity of official presence of Croatian higher education institutions on social networks. The questionnaire was filled out by 307 participants from 64 higher education institutions. The aim of the second survey was to assess attitudes of people responsible for the presence of Croatian higher education institutions on social networks and it was sent to 53 institutions which were officially present on social networks. During the period from April 22nd 2015 to May 22nd 2015, 24 institutions filled out the questionnaire. Another goal of this survey was to gather data about the reasons why the institutions use social networks, the benefits of using social networks and the use of social networks for advertising purposes, as well as the overall opinion about social networks and their benefits. Surveys showed that institutions do indeed benefit from using social networks, but that they also do not use them to the full extent of their capacity. In order for them to do so, the dissertation provides guidelines for developing a communication strategy by using social networks