SOCIAL MEDIA AND ACCESS TECHNOLOGIES AS FACTORS OF INFORMATION AND INFLUENCE IN FRESHMEN STUDENTS OF A HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION

Social media has revolutionized the way people communicate and interact, making it easier and faster for people to get in touch with each other. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of social media on incoming students selected and chosen by the Higher Education Institution (HEI). Based on recent research, this paper proposes the application of a Dutch (Constantinides, 2001) and a Brazilian study (Branco, 2018), about the influence of social media in the decision process of selecting higher education institutions. In order to carry out the research, a survey with 464 respondents was applied in a Brazilian university, with freshmen students in the courses of the Applied Social Sciences area like business administration, accounting and others. The questionnaire was constructed using five point Likert scale. Data treatment was made via cluster, factor analysis and analysis of variance. The questions were structured in 5 (five) main groups: Use of Social Media; Social Media Activities; Channels used to search for information about HEIs; Influence factors in choosing a HEI and Socioeconomic and Demographic Information. The findings of the research indicate the existence of three distinct segments in the population of incoming students regarding social media activities: social engagement; information seeking and content contribution. The results showed that this sample is very adherent to the use of social media and the Internet as an information agent. In addition, it was possible to group individuals into three clusters, based on their social media habits and the main influences on the choice of higher education. Among the social media access platforms, WhatsApp (98.7%) has a large daily adherence, with concentrated uses between 3 to 6 hours per day (62.1%) and also amazing uses by 6.7% of respondents with more than 10 hours a day. Youtube as well has a great use, concentrating between 1 to 3 hours a day. Social media is an important source of “information for students”, with about 65% claiming to use such platforms for this matter. It is worth highlighting the great importance of the “Higher Education Institution websites” as much as “families, friends and acquaintances”. Among the items with low membership are blogs, forums, flyers and billboards, visiting programs, as well as traditional radio and television ads. Decisive factors in the process of choosing an HEI were the perception that it forms skilled professionals for the market, the interest in the courses offered and the quality of education. The research also points out the influence of friends and family in the decision making. The offering of cultural activities has a low appeal when making this decision. As presented by the research conducted by Constantinides and Stagno (2011), and Branco (2108), the results show the possibility of replicating the methodology as a basis for understanding social media as a factor of influence, as well as allowing the comparison of results among students from different countries, distinct regions and diverse level of instruction. This paper presents a study based on Constantinides and Stagno (2011) and Branco (2018), which were focused on the higher education context of the social media use in the Netherlands and in Brazil, respectively. The objectives of our study are twofold: (a) describe the characteristics of potential students for a higher education institution, through a segmentation based on the use of social media; (b) explore the social media as a factor of influence in the choice of a course and an education institution.