UNIVERSITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT. COMMUNICATION AT THE SPANISH UNIVERSITY

Universities have little choice in using social media for their communication with its stakeholders due to the implantation and growth of social media in society. Taking into account the number of users of these media, it seems to be a fundamental tool to strengthen the relationships between universities and their stakeholders (Cancelo-Sanmartin & Almansa-Martinez, 2013). Perhaps this is why social networks are becoming a growing object of study in the context of university research (Clark, Fine, & Scheuer, 2017). Spanish universities corporate presence on social media is a reality nowadays but it is not enough to create a corporate profile in the most popular networks, but the presence must respond to strategic objectives. In the present study, a survey was carried out among those responsible for the digital communication of 17 Spanish universities, who were asked about the communication strategy, the stakeholders and the contents of social media communications. The results indicate an increasing importance of these media in the communication plans and confirm that universities seek to communicate mainly with their students.