HOW DOES UNIVERSITY FACEBOOK BRAND TONE OF VOICE AFFECT STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY?
HOW DOES UNIVERSITY FACEBOOK BRAND TONE OF VOICE AFFECT STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY?

Summary/Abstract: This research studies the impact of universities’ brand tone of voice in their Facebook communication with students and the perceptions students develop about their university. This phenomenological research used in-depth interviews and applied social impact theory (SIT). A purposive sample of 15 students from eight Bulgarian universities was collected using a snowball strategy. This study contributes to the existing literature on brand communications and brand tone of voice in higher education in particular. The main findings suggest that the brand tone of voice that universities use their Facebook pages is serious, formal, respectful, and rational. However, those definitions are loaded with different connotations. A respectful university sounds bureaucratically polite; a rational university is one that views its current students as a source of income. In adherence to social norms, students expect their university to speak in a serious and formal manner on Facebook. However, they find rigid communication and bureaucratic courtesy disrespectful. From practical perspective it can be assumed that universities need to abandon strictly formal, distancing, and non-inclusive brand tone of voice and their publicistic style and one-way communication.

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