Evolution of social media content creation in university marketing: a study on digital tools and trends Atish Dipankar University of Science & Technology (ADUST)

Abstract

Internship report is about the digital marketing practices of Atish Dipankar University of Science & Technology (ADUST) mainly through social media marketing activities of Facebook and Instagram platforms. The study aims at analyzing the use of digital marketing strategies in promoting academic programs, admission offers, scholarships, departmental activities, and institutional branding in the competitive higher education market of Bangladesh. During the internship, the author was engaged in the Marketing Department of ADUST, and among the duties was helping with social media content creation, handling posts, reels, and short videos, as well as supporting digital marketing campaigns.The work outputs of the Skill Development Institute (SDI) have featured in this report as well. The SDI offers a range of skill, based courses such as IELTS, Spoken English, Writing, Customer Care, Telesales that are promoted through social media channels. The paper has employed a qualitative methodology. It has mainly relied on the collection of qualitative data through semi, structured interviews with students and staff members and by observing social media content.The results of the study reveal that among contemporary digital content formats, reels and video, based posts are the ones that lead to significantly higher engagement as compared to traditional static posts. The introduction and utilization of digital tools such as Canva and AI, based applications have brought about a remarkable transformation in terms of the quality, creativity, and efficiency of the content produced. On the other hand, the research has also pointed out some issues that need to be resolved for the social media marketing strategy of the institution to be more effective. Among these issues, the lack of a posting schedule which is consistently adhered to, the underutilization of analytics tools, and the insufficient coordination between departments stand out. According to the report, a well, thought, out digital marketing strategy is essential for educational institutions to achieve a high level of student engagement, an increase in brand recognition, and a more effective communication process with their target audiences. Lastly, the research has come up with a set of actionable suggestions which are aimed at not only enabling ADUST and SDI to improve their digital marketing but also to consolidate their positions as renowned universities in the digital era.