Abstract:

The emergence and growth of user-based technologies such as blogs and social media has revealed a communication revolution, which Backaler aptly describes as a revolution in user-generated content, the global community, and consumer opinion.

9 out of 10 students consult a college search review site when researching where to study. From this, it is clear that students respect and trust the opinions or their peers - hence the power of user-generated content. The development of social networks has had a clear impact on how universities interact with its audience – in relation with students, parents, sponsors, and any other stakeholder. As marketing is constantly changing, there are a lot of new paid advertising techniques that encourage online communication to influence the target audience of higher education programs and get them to enrol.

Several studies confirm that people who want to buy a particular product or to access a specific service (including professional training and tertiary education) have more confidence in a third party than in the brand itself.

Over the years, there has been a rapid growth and development of technology in all areas, especially in social media, thus providing universities with various opportunities to raise awareness about their programs. This has given rise to a strategic new approach - social media marketing. However, as the previous paragraph has underlined, it takes diligence to have social media as a friend and not a foe. Therefore, today it is no longer a direct marketing, but an avenue in which schools need to practice social listening and also partner with individuals who have access to a large audience and have the ability to influence the intentions of their audience. Needless to say that since their “clients” are in general millennials and generation Z (who were born in the Internet era), universities have to adapt to their digital era.

As influencer marketing is increasingly popular on social networks, the purpose of this paper is to conduct a research on its impact and whether it affects the higher education landscape. Social media influencers marketing strategy consists in promoting products or services through people with many followers, who share their opinions about the product/services on social platforms, thus influencing the purchasing intentions of their audience.

Although celebrities also fall into the category of influential people, the idea of this strategy is to collaborate with those ordinary people who have become famous and credible by building relationships with their audience.

One of the objectives is to identify the platforms used by audiences, the number of influencers they follow, the areas in which they operate, but also the reasons why they follow a certain influencer. Another goal is to research the impact that influencers have on their followers in order to decide over a recommended academic program.

A random sampling technique was used to perform this research. A questionnaire was prepared in view of the objectives. The questions were conceived around social media accounts regarding the most important social media accounts widely used in Romania.

The main objective of the study were students and young professionals. This helps to understand the decision-making model and their behaviour in academic program reviews given by influencers. Then this age group was compared with other age groups.

Keywords:

Higher education, influencers, recruitment, social media, decision‎ making process, youth.