The use of horizontal social networks to promote and publicize university teaching

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of the online advertising techniques through the social network Facebook, as a broadcasting and promotion tool to disseminate information of universities. By means of a case study, we present the findings on a research center belonging to the public sector. Results show that these techniques are able to get a large number of impressions and clicks, which impacts (in terms of awareness and recognition) go beyond the initial targeted group. Although the results are based on a single public teaching center and therefore they cannot be used to make generalizations, the conclusions of the study show the cost-effective effect relationship of these innovative techniques when promoting universities among the online community. Consequently, these methods represent and important supporting point on the universities' marketing strategies when addressing the challenges of this new, digital society.