Introduction
Your customers are online. In other words, students – both current and potential ones – are available on social networking sites, like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Youtube, etc. So is your organization available on these sites? If not, you are missing one of today’s best proven ways to engage and serve your current students, and also to attract potential students. Plus, this is FREE. In this article, we analyze how the top 15 Somali universities with the highest number of fans on Facebook utilize the social media network. To do so, we refer to the official websites of the universities to find the addresses of their official Facebook pages.
- Number of Fans
In social media terms, fans mean the total number of people who like, follow or subscribe to an official social media account. Since we are examining only Facebook pages, we count the total number of fans who LIKE a Somali university’s official Facebook page.
Overall, the presence of Somali universities on Facebook is low (Salim, 2014). Therefore, the top 15 most liked Somali universities on Facebook are (as of October 22, 2015):
Rank | University Page | Fans |
1 | University of Somalia | 22,254 |
2 | Gollis University | 17,606 |
3 | SIMAD UNIVERSITY | 17,121 |
4 | Edna Adan University | 15,131 |
5 | Indian Ocean University | 12,428 |
6 | Mogadishu University | 10,838 |
7 | Marodijeh International University | 9,535 |
8 | University of Hargeisa | 9,480 |
9 | East Africa University | 8,524 |
10 | ADMAS University | 8,314 |
11 | Amoud University | 6,736 |
12 | Somali International University | 6,549 |
13 | University of Burao | 5,615 |
14 | Plasma University | 4,265 |
15 | Jamhuriya University | 3,880 |
- Frequency of Posts
Frequency of posts means the number of times a university posts a status update on its Facebook page. This is an important indicator of how regularly universities share news or announcements with their students, parents, and the general community.
Therefore, to simplify our analysis, we measure the total number of days it takes Somali universities to make 10 posts. These include photos, videos or regular updates.
Here’re our findings:
Rank | University Page | 10 Posts | Date Range |
1 | SIMAD UNIVERSITY | 5 days | October 20 – October 15, 2015 |
2 | University of Somalia | 11 days | October 22 – October 11, 2015 |
3 | Marodijeh International University | 15 days | October 22 – October 7, 2015 |
4 | University of Hargeisa | 25 days | September 3 – August 9, 2015 |
5 | Amoud University | 26 days | October 20 – September 24, 2015 |
6 | ADMAS University | 27 days | October 20 – September 23, 2015 |
7 | Gollis University | 37 days | October 17 – September 10, 2015 |
8 | Somali International University | 43 days | October 13 – August 31, 2015 |
9 | Jamhuriya University | 45 days | October 20 – September 5, 2015 |
10 | Mogadishu University | 47 days | October 19 – September 2, 2015 |
11 | East Africa University | 51 days | October 14 – August 24, 2015 |
12 | University of Burao | 62 days | October 20 – August 19, 2015 |
13 | Indian Ocean University | 73 days | October 17 – August 5, 2015 |
14 | Plasma University | 87 days | September 30 – July 5, 2015 |
15 | Edna Adan University | 107 days | October 12 – June 27, 2015 |
- Engagement
Do people find interesting what you post on Facebook? That is what engagement means in social media. It is the sum of the likes, comments, and shares a post receives from the fans. For example, if a university makes a post and it receives 50 likes, 20 comments, and 10 shares, that means the post has generated an engagement of 80.
Therefore, we analyze the performance of the last 10 posts of each of the top 15 Somali universities on Facebook. Here’s the result:
Rank | University Page | Engagement/10 Posts |
1 | SIMAD UNIVERSITY | 3,469 |
2 | Edna Adan University | 3,425 |
3 | Gollis University | 1,982 |
4 | Indian Ocean University | 1,509 |
5 | University of Hargeisa | 1,054 |
6 | Jamhuriya University | 806 |
7 | Mogadishu University | 764 |
8 | University of Somalia | 561 |
9 | University of Burao | 527 |
10 | ADMAS University | 522 |
11 | Plasma University | 502 |
12 | Somali International University | 399 |
13 | Marodijeh International University | 120 |
14 | Amoud University | 61 |
15 | East Africa University | 43 |
Conclusion
There is a value in taking advantage of social media. Even higher education institutions can integrate these social networking sites into their overall digital marketing strategy.
But accumulating only huge number of LIKES on Facebook is not enough. The game is more challenging than receiving only LIKES. Maybe some people use the number of fans as a measurement of how a university utilizes social media but that is misleading. Fully taking advantage of social networking sites involves more than just the number of fans. It involves how people engage with your posts. Also, it involves regularly posting on the social site to show your commitment.
This evaluation provides that SIMAD UNIVERSITY is the father of the universities in the side of social media, so we are ready to recognize as a “role model ” with out hesitation.
#thanks for providing this information #
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Thank you Mr. Mohamed Khalif.
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It is good idea
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even though we could not assure how some information you got it and you are fair in some cases and which university you are inclined to
then we say to youb good job
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Hahaha Though I’m a member of SIMAD UNIVERSITY, I’m still an academician and I don’t want to hurt my integrity. The data can be verified.
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is it not advertisement for the university
SIMAD I should say let simad uni be a national university of somalia
i thank u for being always orgonized
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infact the poster i don’t know first who he was and which university he clined to but one thing icould feel is that there is an Exaggeration but just you make case clear and the true is you could not be a mediator.
thanks
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thanks for your research and i am very proud to see somalia making new develpment in educaional side
thanks all teachers and profisors who take part this research
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