The implementation of social media marketing strategies to increase brand awareness and engagement behaviour of a private college

• Main Authors: Hairuddin, K. N., Thoo, A. C., Huam, H. T., Hang, S. P.
• Format: Article
• Published: Human Resource Management Academic Research Society 2021
• Subjects: HB615-715 Entrepreneurship. Risk and uncertainty. Property
• Online Access: http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/96936/; http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v11-i7/10468

The study was conducted in Malaysia and a private college was chosen as the case study. The method used for this study was action research where a problem is diagnosed from a problematic situation and from the problem, an intervention needs to be implemented to solve or improve the problem. The intervention chosen for this study was to implement social media marketing strategies for a college’s Instagram account. In this study, qualitative and quantitative research design were used including interview and survey distribution. This study consisted of two cycles of interventions. To measure the effectiveness of the intervention for both cycles, the data from Instagram insights were analysed and compared before and after the implementation. The findings show that the major problem faced by the private college is brand awareness. The survey also indicated that the college has low Instagram engagement behaviour. After the implementation, there were positive changes in the performance of the social media especially the number of profile visits and the followers’ growth. The engagement behaviour of the college Instagram was also improved. The implementation of social media marketing in this study had improved the college’s Instagram performance and its brand awareness as there are hundreds of people visited the Instagram profile as well as followed the account.