REPOSITIONING HIGHER EDUCATION IN A GLOBALLY CONNECTED WORLD: DIGITAL KNOWLEDGE, SOCIAL MEDIA AND NEUROMARKETING

Academic administrators are transforming and instituting innovative strategies to adapt to the new challenges of the digital era to survive and prosper in upcoming years. The online environment in higher education is surging with the expansion of digital knowledge. Online information and social media strategies are expanding the diverse creativity in multimedia instructional offerings worldwide. Universities are partnering with global higher education technology (e-text) and service firms to produce sophisticated marketing strategies and online tools geared to attract perspective students and enhance learning outcomes. Successful online campaigns and creative strategies continue to provide alternatives for online higher education. Enrollment trends demonstrate that the 21st century student targeted is most receptive to personalized web based marketing and digital tools that utilize social media, search engines, and online communication leading to existing and new information. Colleges and Universities will continue to expand the building of highly engaging communities within social media to capture the attention of potential students. This multimedia communication expansion will provide the primary information needed to determine what the potential students want, need, and desire within academic institutions. It would also provide a means for conveying the benefits of pursuing an education at one's institution through conveying the academic, cultural, and extracurricular activities provided toward student success at the academic institutions. Another emerging era is the development of neuromarketing. Higher education recruitment and development may lie in neuroscience research. Neuromarketing is emerging as a method of assisting with new marketing strategies by studying the brain's neuron responses to emotional visual stimuli. Brain based research may provide answers to the decision making process of the potential enrollees who access and review digital information. The virtual world has become the most effective method in reaching perspective students who will become the engines of our future society. Those higher education institutions embracing the continuing changes will succeed as they recreate engaging programs, understand the motivation of prospective students toward advanced education and improve utilizing new and innovative strategies.