Edukacja na sprzedaż? Budowanie wizerunku uczelni wyższej na Facebooku na przykładzie wybranych uczelni prywatnych w Polsce

Education for Sale? Creating an Image Of A Higher Education Institution on Facebook Illustrated with an Example of Selected Private Higher Education Institutions in PolandWhen a higher education institution functions as a company and is seen through the prism of market categories, it starts to function as an organization: first of all, it meets their customers’ expectations and acts so that it would satisfy their needs and demands in full. Marketing operations of higher education institutions are based on serving the needs of their customer – a student and they use the Internet as it is an environment which appeals to youth most. Higher education institutions have understood that their existence and success in education market should be based on excellent communication with the environment and distribution of their services. Facebook has turned out to be a perfect place as in crowded marketplaces one has to be able to sell himself, convince, encourage to enroll, highlight the advantages, stand out, promote a positive image in media. Higher education institutions have realized that a young person, who is success and fast profit- oriented, when he decides to pursue higher education he will look for such elements that are attractive, innovative, open to him, which invite him to co-create community of students and scholars under new principles. In order to examine how do higher education institutions develop their brand and image, what kind of tools and content is implemented using Facebook, I am going to analyse the content placed on websites of five selected private higher education institutions in Poland. It helped to show not only how important in the Internet the existence of a higher education institution is, but also what are the expectations of future students concerning higher education institutions.