PhD, Associate Professor M.P. Bondarenko¹
PhD, Associate Professor V.A. Balueva¹
P.A. Sychev^2
1Volgograd State Academy of Physical Culture, Volgograd
²Volgograd State Agrarian University, Volgograd

Keywords: social networks, academic education service, students, applicants, users, physical education university, competitiveness, Social Media Marketing technologies.

Background. Technological progress the world over has facilitated access of the global population to the online communication services with the popularity of the key social networks being on the rise. One of the most promising online tools is the Social Media Marketing technologies of special importance for the PR services. Many national universities, however, still underestimate benefits of the modern Social Media Marketing technologies for the education service promotion purposes, and this is particularly true for the non-economic universities that still operate without marketing/ advertising departments or services – despite the fact that the university entrants and students comprise a dominant group in every modern social network in Russia.

Objective of the study was to analyze the role of social networks for the active/ would-be students and rate the influence of the modern social networks on the academic education service competitiveness on the market.

Methods and structure of the study. We used the following survey methods for the purposes of the study: traditional questionnaire surveys with the sampling techniques; flow analysis of the social networks; and online attendance/ traffic fixing methods. We analyzed the core groups/ attendance statistics of the following main online social networks: Vkontakte, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram [3]. We assumed the attendance growth rates as the decisive success factor in the study, since the attendance statistics is commonly used to profile grouping and channel management in the online networks. It is the attendance profiling data that gives the means to analyze the audience and find if you managed to attract the target group(s), fulfill the project mission and attain the goals set.

Results and discussion. It is the social network content that plays the key role in the audience attraction and retention initiatives. Content may be defined as the information flow across web pages, hubs, blogs etc. [2] that should be unique and appealing for the user i.e. meeting his/ her informational needs. This is the reason why so much attention is given to the content and the university teams need to analyze it in their social networking initiatives with due consideration for the project goals [1]. We believe that some social networks are most suitable for servicing the students’ families, while the others are convenient for potential entrants, and they both may be applied for services to the active students, with the university specialty playing a key role for the social grouping. Thus, Facebook generally attracts more mature groups than Vkontakte; while Instagram and Youtube are appreciated to a degree for their special formats.

Facebook, as was found by our two-year survey, offers the best social networking opportunities for the national and international students. The statistical analysis found this social network audience dominated by the 23-33 year-old group followed by the 34-43 year-olds. We used the Facebook accounts in our study to survey the potential university entrants and their families. It should be emphasized, however, that the 18-25 year-old group is ranked second in the global Facebook audience that means that the social network may be also beneficial for the bachelor and master students.

Vkontakte, as was demonstrated by the attendance statistics as of early 2016, is dominated in Russia by 25-32 year-olds (36%), followed by 17-25 year-olds (26.1%) and 14-18 year-olds (13, 6%). A few groups from the Volgograd State Academy of Physical Culture departments (sports departments, psychology, pedagogy, sports management and economics departments) were found to attract mostly the active students grouped by specialties; albeit the entrants’ survey found more than 30% of the entrants making their decisions with assistance from the group contacts and other online information. The academic web pages were designed for the following two groups: active students broken down by the age groups headed by the group curators; and potential entrants to the bachelor/ master courses who were offered information about the university departments, academic curricula, academic progress options, locations of the field practices, master classes etc. We should confess with regret that our two-year social networking experience on this platform found difficulties for communication with students from some CIS countries and more distant foreign countries due to some segments of the network being either restricted or unpopular in the user communities. It should be also emphasized that Vkontakte is one of the few social networks that gives the means to upload texts and links, generate specific tasks for student groups and check progress on a timely basis. These services facilitate the students' academic performance, meet their interests, help fulfill tasks for the workshops, run practices in the academic curricula and get ready for the tests and exams.

YouTube: we found this social network being highly popular knowing the specifics of the academic physical education service. We further found this network being of high interest and appeal as such; as it allows uploading the real-time classes at Volgograd State Academy of Physical Culture that may be made accessible in the other social networks via active links. When uploading the videos, therefore, it is important to bear in mind the real statistics and specifics of those networks where the videos will be channeled to later on. Most of the social network audiences are fluent in the network integration [4], and such uploads greatly popularize the university department services on the whole and some academic staff members in particular and, hence, help attract potential entrants. 

Instagram was mostly used at the very onset of the study for uploads of photo galleries featuring the university life with major academic events including academic competitions in different sports. With time, however, we noticed a growth of interest in the illustrated reports and growth in direct information requests from the potential entrants. Some students would happily upload their stories on Instagram with detailed reports on their research project activity in the master's courses, on their first-ever teaching practices at the university etc. Based on our analysis of the direct requests, we would classify them into the healthy lifestyle-related and the Volgograd State Academy of Physical Culture specialist training service related ones. It should be mentioned that some reports on the sport department projects, training technologies, open classes with illustrations have been highly popular among users from all over the country.

Conclusion. We plan to launch in the nearest future brief live broadcasts of master classes and meetings with potential employers for the online audience; plus a real-time communication with potential entrants and their families, with a concept of such communication format being underway. We also give a special priority to interviews as a highly promising communication format, with a wide range of topics and speakers: from interviews with the newcomers (to probe their first impressions, difficulties in the studies, communication/ grouping challenges etc.) to interviews with famous graduates, sport celebrities; and interviews with the student activists about the academic lifestyles, student club activities, volunteer services and other Volgograd State Academy of Physical Culture events.

The social networking groups and individuals willing to know more about universities of their interests via the popular social networks may be offered the following recommendations: first find contacts in the social networks who perfectly know the academic policies and requirements, well acquainted with the academic management and teaching staff, open for discussions and willing to respond direct questions. Such inside contacts may be found in the existing student clubs. As demonstrated by our analysis of the current social networking trends, most of the active users keep a few accounts in different social networks, and their enthusiastic contributions may be highly helpful for promotion of the academic service related materials in the Internet.

References

1. Bondarenko M.P. Development of material labor incentive system in professional sports. Volgograd: VSAPC publ., 2016. 280 p.
2. Vorobyev A.V., Kolesnikova D.V. et al. Introduction of information technology in sports club activities. Fizicheskoe vospitanie i sportivnaya trenirovka. 2016. no. 2 (16). pp. 78-82.
3. Kienko M.V., Gezalyan A.G. et al. Interaction of business with socio-economic sphere in context of modernization of economy and education. Proc. Intern. res. – practical conferences (November 21-24, 2016)). Volgograd: VSAPC publ., 2016. pp. 145-150.
4. Bondarenko M.P. Wages in municipal sport facilities. World Applied Sciences Journal. 2013. v. 27. no.  13 A. pp. 478-481.

Corresponding author: mayya_k@mail.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to analyze the role of social networks for the active/ would-be students and rate the influence of the modern social networks on the academic education service competitiveness on the market.

Methods and structure of the study. We used the following survey methods for the purposes of the study: traditional questionnaire surveys with the sampling techniques; flow analysis of the social networks; and online attendance/ traffic fixing methods. We analyzed the core groups/ attendance statistics of the following main online social networks: Vkontakte, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram [3]. We assumed the attendance growth rates as the decisive success factor in the study, since the attendance statistics is commonly used to profile grouping and channel management in the online networks. It is the attendance profiling data that gives the means to analyze the audience and find if you managed to attract the target group(s), fulfill the project mission and attain the goals set.

Results and conclusions. The analysis of social networks showed that Facebook is suitable for working with students from Russia and the CIS countries, and can also be used to attract foreign students. Vkontakte is one of the few social networks allowing you to post texts, links to documents, generate specific tasks for individual groups of students and quickly check their completion. The peculiarity of YouTube is that most of the videos uploaded were made in real-life classes held at the departments of FSBEI HE Volgograd State Physical Education Academy. The analysis of Instagram revealed not only increased interest in photographic materials, but also increased number of straight questions sent to Direct from future university entrants.

The findings indicate raising awareness of the main participants of the experiment, an increase in the number of social network subscriptions.