Instagram Marketing to Attract International Students in an Age of Internationalisation

DEGREE PROJECT IN TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT, SECOND CYCLE, 30 CREDITS STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN 2021

Instagram marketing to attract international students in an age of internationalisation

A case study of KTH University Instagram from the perspective of Southeast Asian students

ANNUSYIRVAN AHMAD FATONI

KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE Instagram marketing to attract international students in an age of internationalisation A case study of KTH University Instagram from the perspective of Southeast Asian students

Annusyirvan Ahmad Fatoni for Master’s Thesis Submission KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden [email protected]

ABSTRACT till Sydostasiatiska studenter i allmänhet. Resultaten indikerar This exploratory study identifies the importance of Instagram först att Instagram påverkar valet för studenter i Sydostasien. to market universities in Southeast Asia and the strategies Vidare, baserat på den första upptäckten, föreslås flera strate- to make interesting content to reach more Southeast Asian gier för att göra intressant innehåll för att fånga deras intresse. students. According to the statistics in 2020 by Statista, South- Sydostasiatiska studenter är mer intresserade av fotobaserade east Asia is ranked second in the world’s most active social inlägg med kortare bildtexter och emojis. Bilder som visar media users, and Instagram is now quickly catching up with universitetsbyggnader, Stockholm / Sverige och studenternas the giant platform Facebook and becoming the rising star. In liv är mer attraktiva. När det gäller tidpunkten visar studien the study, the main Instagram account of KTH Royal Insti- att studenterna inte har några specifika dagar eller tid för att tute of Technology @kthuniversity was analysed. Three main kontrollera sin Instagram, men universitet bör hålla sig till den points were the center of attention: the visual power of the tidigare studien vilket nämner att den bästa publiceringstiden posts, the engaging captions, and the best timing to post. The är under frukost och lunch. study’s methods are focus group discussion with current KTH students from Southeast Asia and an online survey distributed Author Keywords to Southeast Asian students in general. The results, first, indi- Social media marketing; Instagram marketing; higher cate that Instagram influences the choice-making of Southeast education market; Southeast Asian students; trust Asian students’ study destinations. Second, based on the first finding, several strategies to make interesting content to catch ACM Reference Format their interest are proposed. Southeast Asian students are more Annusyirvan Ahmad Fatoni. 2021. Instagram marketing to interested in photo-based posts with shorter captions and emo- attract international students in an age of internationalisation. jis. Photos showing university buildings, Stockholm/Sweden, A case study of KTH University Instagram from the perspec- and students’ life are more attractive. Regarding the timing, tive of Southeast Asian students. Master’s thesis. KTH Royal the study shows that the students do not have any specific days Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. or time to check their Instagram, but universities should stick to the previous study mentioning that the best posting time is during breakfast and lunch.

SAMMANFATTNING Denna undersökande studie identifierar Instagrams betydelse för universitet i Sydostasien och strategier för att skapa intressant innehåll för att nå fler sydostasiatiska studenter. En- ligt statistik för år 2020 av Statista rankas Sydostasien som nummer två bland världens mest aktiva användare av sociala medier, och Instagram kommer nu snabbt ifatt den gigan- tiska plattformen Facebook och är nu den stigande stjärnan. I studien analyserades det huvudsakliga Instagram-kontot för KTH Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, @kthuniversity. Tre huvudpunkter stod i fokus: inläggens visuella kraft, de en- gagerande bildtexterna och den bästa tiden att publicera. Stu- diens metoder är fokusgruppsdiskussion med nuvarande KTH- studenter från Sydostasien och en onlineenkät som distribueras INTRODUCTION This study contributes to the managerial practice of university The technological developments in recent years have shown marketing managers, especially Instagram curators, to reach considerable improvements in every aspect of life, especially and engage more Southeast Asian students. in Internet usage and how people interact online. Recent The studies about Instagram marketing are still scarce. There- statistics show that 59% of the world’s total global population fore, some of the theories in this study are non-scientific. There in 2020 used the internet daily (DataReportal, 2020). That were adopted from sources found on the internet. means more than half of the world’s population is connected to the digital world. One of the most popular internet-based platforms and considered the trend nowadays is social me- PREVIOUS STUDIES dia (Nadaraja and Yazdanifard, 2013). When social media The rise of social media marketing is used to obtain goals, social media marketing is termed Today, everything is about social media (Kaplan and Haenlein, (Brech et al., 2017). Social media penetration in 2020 reached 2010). As Chaffey and Smith (2017) quoted in their book, 49% of the total population, with 3.8 billion users worldwide Chartered Institute of Public Relation defines social media as (DataReportal, 2020). Eastern Asia and Southeast Asia are the term commonly given to Internet and mobile-based chan- the two regions with the most active social media users in nels and tools that allow users to interact with each other and 2020 (Statista, 2021a). It is no surprise that even education share opinions and content. As the name implies, social media institution see social media as an effective marketing tool to involves the building of communities or networks and encour- communicate and attract students (Constantinides and Stagno, aging participation and engagement. Marketing that involves 2011; Gala et al., 2015) social media is termed social media marketing (Nadaraja and Online marketing, in particular social media marketing, has Yazdanifard, 2013). Jadhav et al. (2013) claim that social been getting more attention in the higher education context media is crucial for any marketing practices that want to be (Brech et al., 2017). Social media has become an essential successful today and tomorrow. tool for marketing and education (Tess, 2013), communica- It is argued that social media marketing is a new trend that tion and social interaction (Constantinides and Stagno, 2011). should be added to the marketing strategy for companies op- Many companies are showing interest in using social media as erating in the online space (Jadhav et al., 2013). The primary part of their marketing tool. Galan et al. (2015) argued that benefit of social media marketing is allowing the brands to even universities are utilizing social media usage as a tool to reach more customers that may not be accessible due to tempo- market themselves, not only locally but also internationally, to ral and location limitations (Nadaraja and Yazdanifard, 2013). increase their visual presence. It makes time and space much smaller, allowing the world to The following study is a case study of KTH University In- interconnect (Nadaraja and Yazdanifard, 2013). It can also stagram to examine the strategy to attract more prospective build trust because social media marketing strategies allow students from Southeast Asia. Therefore, the Instagram ac- conversation, connection, and a sense of community among count @kthuniversity was analysed. KTH international stu- its members (Jadhav et al., 2013). dents curate this main Instagram account of KTH to share their Online marketing, in particular social media marketing, has study experiences and also to promote KTH as the next study been getting more attention in the higher education context destination. I have worked as a KTH Instagram curator since (Brech et al., 2017). Social media has become an essential April 2020. Therefore, in this study, I present the strategies tool for marketing and education (Tess, 2013), communica- that have been implemented and then evaluate them from the tion and social interaction (Constantinides and Stagno, 2011). perspective of Southeast Asian students. Three points are the Many companies are showing interest in using social media as center of the study: the visual power of the posts, the engaging part of their marketing tool. Galan et al. (2015) argued that captions, and the best timing to post. even universities are utilizing social media usage as a tool to The research questions that guide this study are: market themselves, not only locally but also internationally, to increase their visual presence. • How far does Instagram influence Southeast Asian students in the choice of their study destination? Instagram in a nutshell • How should universities make Instagram posts to reach Lind and Rauschnabel (2016) mention that the most impor- more prospective Southeast Asian students through Insta- tant forms of social media platforms are social media net- gram marketing? works, blogs, opinion platform, and content sharing platform. To answer these questions, both qualitative and quantitative They listed Instagram as a content sharing platform (Lin and methods were conducted that were based on the literature stud- Rauschnabel, 2016). It is relatively younger than the market ies. A focus group discussion with four current KTH master’s leader Facebook created in 2004 and Twitter in 2006. Since students from Southeast Asia (Indonesia, the Philippines, and its first appearance, Instagram usage has grown significantly. Thailand) were held to provide more elaborated information As of January 2021, Instagram ranked 5th after Facebook, from a Southeast Asian perspective. Moreover, to get a broader YouTube, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger, in the most perspective on the topic, an online survey via Google Form popular social networks worldwide, with almost 1.2 billion was created and distributed globally through KTH Instagram, active users worldwide (statista, 2021b). Although Instagram my social media accounts, and word of mouth. is quite younger than the other social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, but Instagram is the most effective platform for growing engagements (Hawley, 2019). Other than are not only able to post photos but also videos. The quality Facebook, Instagram could be a crucial platform for leading of photos or videos plays a significant role in catching the social networks for businesses and advertisers (Suciu, 2019). audience’s attention (Moltaji 2018). The better the quality, the more engaging the post. Otherwise, users will scroll down to the next posts and not read the caption written underneath the photo or video. High quality photos or videos increase the interest of the audience in reading the texts (Moltaji, 2018). Users can then hit the like button, give a comment or even share the post on their pages. These three actions represent the content engagement or the measurable results of individual interaction with Instagram posts (Schultz, 2017). Not only does content engagement help Instagram curators evaluate the page, but it also increases the relationship of brands with their audience (Schultz, 2017). Previous studies highlight that users who actively connect and engage with social media contents build stronger relationships with the respective brands (Hudson et al., 2016). Interestingly, further studies show that content engagements increase followers’ trust (Casalo, Flavian, and Guinaliu, 2007). Therefore, it is crucial to make content that can generate interest of the audience. Otherwise, the information that brands want to share will sit and have zero interest. The ability of social media content to attract audience attention and persuade them is in line with the term soft power introduced by Joseph S. Nye. He explains that soft power is the ability to influence Table 1. Social media classification by Lin and Rauschnabel (2016) people through attraction and persuasion (Nye, 2018).

Instagram was launched in 2010 with the basic idea to provide Caption and emoji the users with a simple platform to share photos to post content Although Instagram has always been a photo-sharing platform, online with friends via smartphone. Today, Instagram users it does not mean that the visual part is the only important can upload multiple photos up to ten photos or videos in a part. Beyond the visual aspect, Instagram curators should single post. Furthermore, Instagram offers private messaging, consider eye-catching captions to maximize their performance the option to tag content with searchable hashtags, and the (Hutchinson, 2019). Not only captions add the context to the Insta Stories feature that allows the users to post 15 second- photo, but it also creates conversations to the audience (Got- contents available for 24 hours. A new feature introduced ter, 2019). Based on his research, Hutchinson (2019) further recently is Reels that works similar to Stories, but the videos explains that shorter captions are better to spark engagement. can be longer up to 30s and stay forever. Videos more than 30s will be automatically saved as IGTV. On Instagram, users Henry Jenkins et al. (2013) introduced the notion of spread- are mainly looking at photos or videos. They can scroll on ability that means the potential - both technical and cultural Instagram. They will more likely scroll past photos or videos - for the audience to share the media content for their own that can not catch their attention. It means that the photos or purposes, sometimes with the permission of right holders, videos need to have a high quality to stop them from scrolling sometimes against their wishes. He further explains the rea- down to engage with the post. sons why media spread. One of them is the media text that might attract the audience to share the content (Jenkins et al., From the definition of social media in the previous sections, it 2013). Jenkins also claims the importance of spreadability by is argued that the buildings of communities or networks and saying if it does not spread, it is dead. encouraging participants on Instagram are also essential that can be achieved by getting closer or having a social relation- Danesi (2017) defines emoji as a Japanese term that means pic- ship with them (Chaffey and Smith, 2017). A community is ture and letter, making conversation messages more effective. much more than just a follower or audience (Warren, 2020). Moreover, it also emphasises meaning in conversation (Danesi, It consists of people with a common interest and meaningful 2017). As a language system, emoji has linguistic functions connection (Warren, 2020). Creating an Instagram community that can be categorized into three different options: syntac- will help brands boost their brand loyalty and stay connected tic, semantic, and pragmatic (Arafah and Muhammad, 2020). to the customers (Warren, 2020). They further explain that the syntax function is an emoji being a part of a sentence inserted at the beginning, in the middle, The visual power of Instagram or at the end of a sentence. The most frequently used syntax Initially, the main idea of Instagram was to share photos online is a closing sentence (Arafah and Muhammad, 2020). The with other people. It was just like an online photo album. As semantic function is to express deeper meanings in a conver- time went by, the platform has experienced several updates, sation using visual language because the verbal expression of and thus more features have been implemented. Today, users users’ emotions is not enough (Arafah and Muhammad, 2020). interact with the receiver of the message, and even allows the receiver of the message to interact with each other (Jadhav et al., 2013). Chaffey and Smith (2017) listed improving good customer service as one of the social media marketing strategies that directly increase sales through reaching more audiences. This strategy includes outreach to answer customer questions or resolve problems (Chaffey and Smith, 2017). For us to enable customers to answer questions that come from anywhere so that the customer does not have to find us, we find them. We do not want someone to have to leave Facebook to ask a question. We want them to ask it there. (John Bernier, cited in Chaffey and Smith, 2017). Figure 1. The relation between the caption length with the average interactions. Source: socialmediatoday.com Relationship-based vs task-based trust There are two distinctive trusts: cognitive trust and affective Finally, the pragmatic function of emojis can strengthen the trust (Meyer, 2014). Cognitive trust is built through business- meaning and social relations between users in communication related activities, while affective trust is built through feelings (Arafah and Muhammad, 2020). The number of interactions of emotional closeness, and friendship (Meyer, 2014). In her rises with the increased number of emojis (Hutchinson, 2019). book “The Culture Map”, Erin Meyer describes specific differences in how people from different countries with different cultures communicate, particularly at work. There are in total eight different scales, and one of them is trusting. She differentiates the trusting scale into relationship-based and task-based. The further a country falls toward the task-based scale, the more people from that country tend to separate cognitive and affective trust. Their trust is built mainly through work relationships (Meyer, 2014). On the other hand, people from countries with relationship-based cultures tend to combine both affective and cognitive trust (Meyer, 2014). In the following figure 3, Thailand is shown to fall more toward relationship-based, suggesting a similar culture to the other Southeast Asian countries. Figure 2. The relation between the number of emoji used with the average interactions. Source: socialmediatoday.com

Prime time to post Another essential consideration to post on Instagram is the posting time. Although Instagram has switched to a non- chronological timeline, the time to post is still important because it inﬂuences how the Instagram algorithms decide where to put the content (Wahid, 2020). The right posting time increases the probability of posts being seen by the audience (Cvijikj et al., 2013). Studies reveal that brands should post on their Instagram page on weekdays instead of on weekends to receive more engagements such as likes and comments (Wahid, 2020). Regarding the times of the day, further studies show that posting time during breakfast time (6 a.m. to 10 a.m.) and lunch (11 a.m. to 3 p.m.) increase the engagement Figure 3. Trusting scale by Erin Meyer rate (Wahid, 2020).

The importance of customer relation CASE OBJECT: KTH INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT In social media marketing, the content is vital to engage the As one of the leading technical universities in Europe, KTH customers, but customer service is another crucial area for is also following the trend with social media marketing to social media marketing (Helmsley, 2000). Social media is stay relevant to the current higher education market and to different from the traditional media that only communicates increase its virtual presence worldwide. KTH is aware of the one way; for example, in television, radio, newspapers, and importance of social media as an effective tool to maintain magazines, the author send their messages to many people relationships and communicate with the target groups. There- and often disengaged from any reaction (Jadhav et al., 2013). fore, KTH is active on various social media platforms such as This new form of media works two-way, allows the author to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Figure 4. The proﬁle of KTH Instagram followers

As Brech et al. (2017) highlight, most universities have the time, around 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. local time in Sweden. It means main Facebook page and additional brand pages, so does KTH the posts are posted around 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (summertime) or with its social media account. In addition to its main account 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. (wintertime) in Southeast Asian countries. @kthuniversity, KTH operates a set of different accounts fo- The posts are mainly in the form of photos. The quality of cused on different stakeholders and target groups such as @kth- every photo has to be great in order to capture followers’ student, @kthalumni, @kthbiblioteket, @kthinnovation, and attention. Regarding the caption length, both short and long @relocatekth. However, this study only focuses on KTH Insta- captions have been used. However, more extended captions gram’s main account @kthuniversity followed by many who have been used more than shorter versions. The captions used are interested in KTH in general such as prospective students, were purely text-based, without any single emojis. Due to the current students, alumni, staff, innovators, and researchers. limited resource, video is not the top priority. Regarding the Therefore, the other KTH Instagram accounts and KTH social scheduling, we in the Department use a Google Spreadsheet media channels will be excluded from this study. accessible to the other KTH social media curators. I usually plan the content one month ahead, but it is possible to change The main Instagram account @kthuniversity was created in the content as time goes by if KTH has another content with a November 2015 and curated by KTH international student higher priority to promote. ambassadors. The primary task of an Instagram curator is to promote KTH as an attractive study destination. More than As mentioned in the introduction section that it is vital to 20.000 accounts are following @kthuniversity as of 1 March manage the customer relationship. Therefore, I always try to 2021. It is quite a smaller number compared to the Instagram interact with the audience by creating posts that are engaging accounts of some of the other European countries’ technical and interact with the audience, I usually put a simple ques- universities. Cambridge University has more than 956.000 tion in the caption. It does not have to be complicated. Two followers, while ETH Zurich 57.000, Technical University examples are as follows How motivated are you to study in Munich 42.000, Technical University Delft 41.000. However, Stockholm, the city that is well-known as "the beauty on wa- Chalmers University of Technology has fewer followers than ter"? or Do we already have spring here in Stockholm? If KTH. Less than 9.000 followers are following the university the audience reply, I will respond to them as soon as possible. that is located in Sweden’s second-biggest city Gothenburg. Also, when someone sends direct messages, I will answer their The possible explanation is that the higher the university’s questions without any further delay. I believe being responsive ranking on, for example, QS Ranking or Times Higher Educa- as an Instagram curator and interacting with the audience are tion Ranking, the more accounts are following the university’s parts of the responsibility. Moreover, it is also one way to Instagram account. show the audience that it is human behind KTH Instagram. Another way that I do to humanise Instagram is to put the QS THE Instagram curator’s name in every caption and reply to direct messages Universities ranking ranking followers (see appendix 4). Cambridge University 6 6 956.000 The Insta Stories feature is used only on special occasions ETH Zurich 7 14 57.300 to announce upcoming events, share the blog posts written TU Munich 50 41 41.500 by KTH student bloggers, or share posts from the other KTH TU Delft 57 78 41.500 Instagram accounts. It can also post the user-generated content KTH 98 201-250 20.200 that the followers create by mentioning @kthuniversity in their Chalmers 139 201-250 8.025 story. This is one way to stay connected with them. As Warren Table 2. Relation between world university ranking with the number of highlights previously, followers who make content for other Instagram followers as of 1 March 2021 brands actually show their loyalty because they feel a sense of belonging (Warren, 2020). This is what I, as a KTH Instagram curator, usually do. I post regularly four to five times a week on weekdays with six These are the strategies that I have implemented since I started different themes: information about KTH, research, student’s curating the Instagram of KTH in April 2020. As a result, the life, the city of Stockholm or Sweden, interviews with students, number of followers rose from 15.913 to more than 20.400 per and celebrations. The posting time is usually during breakfast 1 March 2021. In the Instagram statistic, countries as the top five KTH Instagram followers are visible. As of 1 March 2021, diversity of perceptions. Hennink et al. (2020) highlight that one of the Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia, is ranked third this sample does not aim to get statistical data but rather to get from previously fifth. The numbers of Indonesian followers elaborated information. rose from 3% to 5,9%. The semi-structured focus group discussion was conducted on Since April 2020, I have worked as the only Instagram curator Saturday, 20 March 2021. It took place online on Zoom, which of @kthuniversity. When I started curating, there was no was familiar to all participants and lasted 60 minutes, from guideline on how to manage the account the best. Instead, my 11:00 to 12:00 CET. At the beginning of the discussion, all supervisor trusted me according to my professional expertise. participants were informed that the process was being recorded Before coming to Sweden, I worked almost six years as Media and transcribed. The transcript would be deleted once the Manager at a German organisation in their regional office in thesis has been graded. The transcribing process was done Jakarta, Indonesia. One of my tasks was to handle their social during the data collection week between 12 and 16 April 2021. media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook promoting At first, I wrote the transcript precisely as what the participants German universities in Indonesia, sometimes in Southeast said without doing any corrections. No software was required. Asia. Thanks to my professional experience, I have not had Everything was done traditionally by listening to one or two any problems managing KTH Instagram. However, I strongly lines, pausing, and writing down. Once every line was fully suggest KTH International Relations Office as the owner of transcribed, I made some corrections to make the lines more KTH Instagram make a short guideline on how to run the understandable without changing the main idea of the lines. account for future curators. Furthermore, participants’ anonymity and confidentiality are essential to the ethical code of social research (Crow and Wiles, METHOD 2008). Therefore, the participants’ names will not appear in The present study is both qualitative and quantitative in nature. the report. Their names are codified. Nevertheless, first, the study started with collecting theory models by reviewing the literature, analysing Instagram ac- Participants Gender Age Nationality counts of KTH and the other five technical universities in AS Female 28 Filipina Europe such as Cambridge University (UK), Technical Univer- SR Female 25 Indonesian sity Munich (Germany), ETH Zurich (Switzerland), Technical IF Male 25 Indonesian University Delft (Netherlands), and Chalmers University of SS Male 26 Thai Technology (Sweden). Table 3. Psychographic features of the participants

Focus group discussion Online survey distribution The qualitative research was very beneficial for this study as it After conducting a focus group discussion, an online survey helped gain more comprehensive and contextualised insights was created and distributed. With the help of this survey, more into Southeast Asian culture. Moreover, Galan et al. (2015) elaborated and broader insights into the target groups could emphasise that qualitative research is most suitable to find an be gained. A questionnaire consisting of 20 questions for answer to the question mark “how”. Therefore it provides this purpose was designed at Google Form and distributed to room for new insights to be explored and thus develops more potential participants in various ways, such as KTH Instagram, understanding (Nash, 2019). Rather than the individual inter- private social media channels, and word of mouth. The type view, a focus group discussion was chosen as the qualitative of questions ranged from multiple-choice questions to a Likert research method. The benefit of such a discussion is that it scale, which provided richer information. The respondents allows participants to respond to other participants, leading to were asked about which social media platform they use the mentioning more elaborated insights (Silverman, 2004). To most, whether they have followed KTH Instagram, which type make it more interactive and make sure that questions are possi- of posts they prefer to see, what kind of captions they would ble to ask from the participants, the discussion was conducted like to read, etc. Several questions showed some pictures or semi-structured. A loose guide consisting of 20 questions was screenshots taken from KTH Instagram, and the respondents sent to all participants one week before the discussion. were asked which one they prefer. There was also a question showing six different post themes of KTH Instagram, such as The study’s nature is a case study of KTH Instagram. There- student life, KTH buildings, Stockholm or Sweden, etc. and fore, the participants’ profile must be KTH students. It can be the respondents were asked to rank the theme from the most assumed that they have followed KTH Instagram. An email favourite to least favourite. invitation was distributed with the help of my colleague from the International Relations Office to all Southeast Asian stu- The survey was open for two weeks, from 27 March to 9 April dents at KTH. The participants were four current postgraduate 2021. As a result, the survey sample consisted of 204 respon- students at KTH Royal Institute of Technology who originally dents—151 among them from the targeted region Southeast come from the Southeast Asian countries Indonesia, the Philip- Asia. The respondents outside this region were deleted. Out pines, and Thailand. The selection of the nationalities was a of these 151 Southeast Asian respondents, 53% are men and matter of availability of the current enrollment at KTH. Only 47% women. Moreover, 74% of them are Millennials (25-40 four participants were invited for the study because according years old), 16% Gen Z (under 25 years old), and 10% Gen X to Krueger and Casey (2014) that four to six are the ideal sam- (41-56 years old). Because the survey was distributed to KTH ple size to allow each participant to share insights and avoid students or alumni and Southeast Asian citizens in general, 48 respondents were not enrolled at KTH. Nevertheless, their answers contribute to the study as they are within the target group.

RESULTS The following chapter presents the ﬁndings from the focus group discussion with four Southeast Asian students at KTH. Furthermore, the results from the online survey distribution will be presented as well. The ﬁgures shown in this section were generated from the online survey responses.

Instagram is the rising star As mentioned previously in the introduction, Instagram is widely used nowadays besides Facebook when it comes to marketing. This statement is in line with both the results of the Figure 6. The most to the least followed KTH social media platforms by discussion and the survey. In the survey, 98 of 151 students Southeast Asian students prefer to use Instagram as their primary social media platform rather than Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. (Figure 6) destinations. Only a tiny number disagree with that statement. During the discussion, three participants said that the social (Figure 8) media platform that they use the most was Instagram. Only The participants during the discussion highlighted that Insta- one participant mentioned that Facebook was her primary gram was able to build an emotional connection with them. social media platform. For example, the photos show them that KTH has nice architecture, Stockholm is a beautiful city where you can get both city and nature feelings, student’s life in Stockholm is amazing, etc. This kind of emotion has ﬁnally led them to choose KTH as their study destination. Both results shows the importance of Instagram in the choice- making of study destination for Southeast Asian students.

Figure 5. The most favourite to least favourite social media platforms by Southeast Asian students

When asked which KTH social media platforms they currently follow (they can choose more than one answer), the result illustrated in figure 7 shows that KTH Instagram is ranked one, followed by Facebook, Linkedin, and YouTube. Interestingly, nobody seems to follow KTH Twitter. Figure 7. How influential is Instagram for Southeast Asian students to The result of the online survey is similar to the answers from the choice-making of their study destination the discussion. Four participants said that they all follow KTH Instagram, only two follows KTH Facebook, one follows KTH Most students started following a university’s Instagram be- LinkedIn, and nobody follows KTH YouTube and Twitter. fore applying to find more information about the universities The results from the online survey and discussion suggest how as shown in figure 9. This is the starting point on how they get vital it is to invest more in Instagram to market universities in to know the universities. Once universities’ Instagram success- Southeast Asia. fully caught their interest, they would find more elaborated information on the universities’ website. Instagram influences their choice of study destination In the discussion, SR highlighted that she started following Interestingly, most students in the online survey think that KTH Instagram when she was about to finish her bachelor Instagram can influence choice-making in their next study studies. As time went by, she had the impression how interesting and engaging KTH was. Then, she started studying about KTH and find more information on the website.

Figure 10. The most favourite to the least favourite themes of KTH In- stagram in the Southeast Asian students’ perspective Figure 8. When do Southeast Asian students start following a university Instagram The photos of KTH buildings and architecture are expected the most. AS said during the discussion, What to post? Despite the possibility to post videos in the feed instead of it would be nice to see the beauty of our future photos, the Southeast Asian students are still expecting photos. campus and especially from a student’s perspective. Figure 10 illustrates the responses from the online survey. This kind of photo that has been shown on Instagram is not often seen on the website. Also, the last time During the discussion, they mentioned that they needed to I checked, there were not many photos of KTH invest more time to watch videos. Therefore, most of the stu- buildings available on the website. dents only expect to see good quality photos in their Instagram feed. Nevertheless, universities should also consider posting The second most favourite theme is the photo of Stockholm videos once in a while in their feed. One student during the or Sweden because the students need to get a picture of the discussion suggested probably one video every two weeks. city they want to live in in the future. In the discussion, SR mentioned, as we are from SEA, it is very rare to ﬁnd Southeast Asian people to travel to Nordic countries. That being said, exposure to the Nordic countries is not that much. That is why it is really nice to see pictures from Sweden or Stockholm on KTH Instagram. I am very thankful that KTH Instagram has shown me beautiful angles of Stockholm or Sweden that could persuade me to come to this beautiful country. The next theme that is interesting for Southeast Asian students is student life. One possible explanation is that because Asia and Europe have different cultures, the students are looking forward to knowing more about how daily student life in Stockholm or Sweden looks.

Figure 9. Type of posts preferred by Southeast Asian students The three least favourite themes are interviews with students, research, and celebrations. All students commented during the Universities need to know what photos or videos they should discussion that posts about interviews with students could be post on Instagram to attract Southeast Asian students. There- more interesting for them if the interviewees were also from fore, in the survey, the respondents were shown six different the same region because they have the same culture, and thus themes that KTH Instagram usually posts. The respondents it would be nice to read the perspective from them. were asked their most favourite theme. Figure 11 illustrates Regarding research-related posts, the students expressed their the results. opinion during the discussion. They mentioned that they The participants during the discussion also had similar answers. would directly go to the KTH website to read about KTH’s All of them favoured the theme KTH buildings, Stockholm latest research. This kind of information is usually written in or Sweden, and student’s life. However, nobody wanted to long texts and thus does not fit to post it on Instagram. Also, see celebration posts in the Instagram feed. They suggested to research-related posts are usually very specific, for instance, upload celebration posts only in Insta Stories. in Chemistry or Nuclear. On the other hand, not all students are focusing on Chemistry or Nuclear. Therefore, this kind of post could not reach a broader audience. Celebrations seem not to be popular. It makes no wonder, the engagement on celebration posts has been smaller than the other posts. IF said that he did not really care about the celebrations. He just wished to see KTH-related posts or photos from Stockholm on KTH Instagram. He recommended posting celebration posts in Insta Stories instead of in the feed. Another theme that has been used by other technical universities such as Cambridge University and EIT Zurich is the teacher’s profile. They regularly show a short profile of the people teaching at the universities and those working at the universities. This theme can get a lot of likes and comments from the students. The Southeast Asian students in the dis- Figure 11. The caption length preferred by Southeast Asian students cussion seem to be excited when they were asked for their opinion. They said it would be great to see the great people working at the universities, especially the teachers. They all caption should contain many emojis. AS in the discussion said agree that this could motivate them more to apply for their It would be nice to have, but just not too much. studies at the university. Clearly, it is very essential to build their trust.

How to write the caption? After the photo successfully caught the students’ attention, they will spend their time reading the caption. This is precisely the right time to deliver the message to the students. Therefore, the following question is raised: How to write an eye-catching caption to make the students read all the way through. Should the caption be written longer or shorter? The survey results illustrated in figure 12 and the discussion revealed that the Southeast Asian students would instead read a shorter caption than a more extended caption. Again, the reason gets back to the main idea of Instagram. That is to show excellent quality photos. They do not have to spend much time looking at one Figure 12. The preference of emoji usage in captions by Southeast Asian photo. students In the discussion, the participants said they did not want to sacrifice their time by reading a long caption. Furthermore, When to post? they agreed they would instead read longer posts or texts on the Regarding the days to post, the result of my study does not university website or in a student blog instead of on Instagram. support the studies from Wahid (2020), who identifies specific Therefore, the caption on Instagram needs to be written shorter. days to post in order to reach more audiences. The students, Consider the caption on Instagram only as a spoiler to catch the both in the survey and in the interviews, indicate that they students’ interest and make them curious to read the whole text. check social whenever that have time. Figure 14 clearly il- The caption should end with the information about the link to lustrates the responses from the online survey and shows that the website to find the whole text. This strategy benefits the Southeast Asian students seem not to have a specific time to website as well because the bounce rate or the visitor number check their Instagram. They might read their Instagram feed would increase. whenever they are free. It could be during weekdays or weekends are both just fine. However, they do not have any specific In line with the previous studies about emojis, Southeast Asian days to check their Instagram. students also prefer to read shorter captions with emojis. Fig- ure 13 illustrates the responses from the online survey. 104 I also had the similar answers from the participants during students preferred to read short captions rather than more the discussion. They do not have any particular days to check extended versions. their Instagram. They go online whenever they have free time. Two participants during the discussion commented that emojis Regarding what times they check their Instagram, the answers in the captions are important. It shows them that there is from both the online survey (illustrated in figure 15) and the an actual human behind Instagram. This comment confirms discussion are similar to the previous text. The students seem the theory highlighted by Arafah and Muhammad (2020) that to not have any specific times. They check their Instagram emojis can build stronger social relations between the audience whenever they are free. It could be during breakfast, lunch, and the brands. Nevertheless, that does not mean that each after work hours, or even before they go to bed. This result also Figure 15. The post frequence per week preferred by Southeast Asian Figure 13. Which days Southeast Asian students usually check their students Instagram the most

DISCUSSION contradicts with the studies from Wahid (2020) that highlights Based on the results, the research questions that were raised the posting time during breakfast and lunch are more engaging for this study can be answered in this section. and the posts would be more likely to get likes and comments. How far does KTH Instagram influence Southeast Asian students to choose KTH as their study destination? The findings reveal that most Southeast Asian students use Instagram as their primary social media platform. Therefore, it is highly recommended for universities to focus more on Instagram marketing. From the findings of this study, we know that KTH Instagram could increase the trust in Southeast Asian students. The perfect combination of photo and caption posted on KTH Instagram has a more significant influence on the choice-making of their study destinations. It has the soft power (Nye, 2018) to attract and persuade them to come to KTH. It is similar to the theory that highlighting the right combination of visual and textual information greatly influences making the customer purchase something (Blanco et al., 2010). SR, during the discussion, mentioned I remember a post of the big garden of KTH with re- Figure 14. What times do Southeast Asian students usually check their Instagram the most ally beautiful scenery. I was dreaming that someday I have to study there. Along with that, the caption says that KTH was in the top 100 universities in Although there is no defined prime time to post to target South- the world. This triggered my motivation to come to east Asian students, it is still crucial to know the number of KTH even more. posts per week. Figuring out the number of posts on Instagram KTH international students curate KTH Instagram @kthuni- could be tricky. On the one hand, too few posts could lead to versity to share information about KTH and share their expe- the risk of losing touch or be forgotten. On the other hand, riences during their studies at KTH. This creates the feel of too many posts could be seen as annoying. SS expressed his transparency and authenticity. In his studies, Evans (2008) opinion during the discussion that brands seem to be desperate mentions that social media can be influential to people through if they post more than two per day. IF added that that kind of transparent and authentic conversations about something of behaviour is annoying and he has unfollowed several brands mutual interest. Similar to the studies by Hew (2011) about the because of that reason. Therefore, in both the survey and linear relationship between the authenticity of the information the discussion, the students were asked how many posts they and student’s level of trust. The more authentic the informa- expected per week. tion, the higher level of trust the students will experience. In the online survey, most students answered less than six The strategy to be responsive to the audience seems to be the per week and not more than two posts per day (figure 16). It trigger for the trust building. SS said during the discussion, makes sense. If they only expect updates on weekdays and universities post at least once every day, the number of posts I am quite impressed with you as KTH Instagram they would have per week would be five. curator. Because I saw that you replied to every comments in the feed and you wrote your replies want to know their future campus and the city that could very friendly. Not every Instagram curator replies be their home during their studies. Posts showing student to every comment, but you do! As someone com- life need to be considered as well. Posts about research and ing from relationship-based culture, I feel like your interviews with students could be posted in the feed once connection with the audience is really close. in a while, probably, once every two or three weeks. Lastly, celebration-related posts should be placed in Insta Stories only. Moreover, the fact that the Instagram curator is a Southeast Asian student is also a driver to motivate the Southeast Asian Another theme should be put in the list from the observation students to become more trustworthy. IF during the discussion of the other technical universities’ Instagram. Posts showing said the profile of the teachers are apparently an excellent idea. On the other universities’ Instagram, this theme gets a lot of likes When I know that the KTH Instagram curator is and comments. Exposure to teacher profiles play with the also from Indonesia or Southeast Asia, it made me students’ emotions and thus strengthen the relationship with realise that KTH, as one of the top universities in the students (Hew, 2011). Hew (2011) further expressed that Europe, was not looking down to Southeast Asian the students’ level of trust increases when they see the teachers students. It shows how KTH accepts equality and on social media and get more information about them. diversity. That is why I am here now at KTH. 3. Caption How did the students know that the curator is from Southeast Photos or videos have always come first on Instagram. They Asia? There are several explanations. I introduced myself are the attention catcher. However, it is also possible for a in the Instagram feed when I started curating. It includes caption to break a post. The reason is that the information or personal information such as my name, nationality, and study the story written in the caption could be just as important and programme at KTH. Second, sometimes I also posted photos interesting as the photos and videos. Captions can be utilised or stories where students can see me clearly. Third, when I to get more likes, comments, shares, and even it can drive the receive direct messages from students, I always put my name students to visit the website. Moreover, it can also build a at the end of my reply. There were several times where they stronger relationship between the universities and the students. asked about my nationality. Based on this study, Southeast Asian students prefer to read The ability of KTH Instagram to connect with the Southeast shorter captions. Therefore, universities need to write the cap- Asian students strengthens the emotional relationships. As tion as efficiently as possible. Figure one shows that caption Erin Meyer claims in her book, people from relationship-based length between 1-50 characters is highly recommended. If countries tend to combine affective and cognitive trust. Once they have much information to share in one post, they should the relationship is built, loyalty and openness comes with it. the students know the link to read the full text. Furthermore, (Meyer, 2014). the text in the caption should also include some emojis which can strengthen the meaning and the social relations with the How should universities make Instagram posts to reach audience according to Arafah and Muhammad (2020). more prospective Southeast Asian students through In- 4. Time to post stagram marketing? In general, the key to getting the post more engaging to the 1. Type of post students is when they are online. The literature shows that The study reveals that the Southeast Asian students would breakfast time and lunch time are the best timing to post on rather see photos than videos on the Instagram feed. The main Instagram. However, the results of this study look ambiguous reason is that they do not want to invest much time to look and contradict the previous studies. From the focus group at one post. Therefore, photo-based posts work better than discussion and online survey, the Southeast Asian students video content in harnessing a quick engagement rate. This show that they do not have any specific day or time to check statement is in line with the statistics from KTH Instagram. their Instagram. They just open their Instagram whenever they Photo-based posts receive more likes than video-based posts. are free. This behaviour seems to be unreliable. Therefore, It shows that the photos are more straightforward and much universities should stick to the previous studies highlighting easier to interact with than videos. However, the quality of the breakfast and lunch time during weekdays as the best posting photos must be excellent. The more excellent the photos, the times. Also, in my opinion, it would be best if universities more likely would the photo catch the interest of the students. stick to the same posting schedule that the audience already Moreover, the more likely would the students choose that spe- gets used to it. Not only does it show them the consistency of cific university to be their next study destination. Otherwise, the account, but it also keeps the account active and engaged. the posts would not be able to engage many students. Good Because of the time difference between Europe and Southeast quality videos can be posted once in a while on Reels, while Asia, it is still possible for the European universities to publish the Insta Stories feature can be utilised to post video content their contents corresponding to breakfast and lunch time in casually. Southeast Asia using scheduling tool available in the market. 2. Theme After knowing the best posting timing, it is recommended to Posts showing the university buildings or architecture and the know how often a university’s Instagram needs to post. The city where the university is located should be two top priorities. answer to this question heavily depends on what the target This is important for Southeast Asian students because they group wants (Carbone, 2018). One or two content per day or less than six contents per week seem to be more favoured by LIMITATIONS Southeast Asian students. The number of KTH Instagram’s As with any study, this research contains a number of limi- posts per week with four to five posts is quite similar to Cam- tations, which could be analysed for future research. First, bridge University’s Instagram. These universities are more this research study only involved Instagram, one of the social active than the other three technological universities in Europe media channels that KTH uses. It would also be interesting on the competitor analysis list for this study. In December to analyse the other channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and 2020, Cambridge posted 25 posts on Instagram KTH 22 posts, YouTube. Another limitation is that this project only focuses TU Munich 11 posts, Chalmers 10 posts, and ETH only 6 on Southeast Asian students. Future research is recommended posts. to broaden the target group to get more perspectives and see if they have different behaviours toward Instagram marketing to 5. Customer relation influence the choice-making of their study destination. For this Trust building in Southeast Asian culture is relationship-based, study, I only used one of Erin Meyer’s culture scales which in which emotion and sense of belonging are involved. There- is trust. It is recommended for the next study to use the other fore, it is very vital to get close to the Southeast Asian audience. scales such as communication and persuading. An Instagram curator needs to be responsive to all the comments and messages. Try to reply to those as soon as possible. SUSTAINABILITY IMPACT Write them in a friendly way. When answering questions in I did not find any potential issues related to sustainability. the direct messaging feature, they should not forget to put your However, because my study was conducted online and it name at the end of the sentence to strengthen the relationship also discussed internationalisation of a university, I had some with them and to let them know that there is a human behind thoughts about how the lectures could be handled in the future Instagram. regarding sustainability. For example, a university could offer international students online lectures, so they do not have to fly to the country where the university is located. This strategy would reduce carbon emission dramatically and thus would have a significant impact on sustainability. CONCLUSION The findings indicate that as the rising star in Southeast Asia, ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS Instagram plays a vital role in this digitalisation time to market One of the possible ethical issues with my study method is universities in Southeast Asia. Instagram with good quality that I did a focus group discussion with four Southeast Asian content has the soft power, making it a major influential fac- students at KTH to get more elaborated insights about their tor for the Southeast Asian students in the choice-making behaviour toward Instagram. I was very aware that the partic- of their study destination. With the authentic and genuine ipants’ anonymity and confidentiality are essential to social content, also a good combination of excellent photos and eye- research’s ethical code (Crow and Wiles, 2008). Therefore, catching captions, the students will experience a higher level at the beginning of the discussion, I promised them that their of trust. Ultimately, students will be motivated to choose this names would not appear in the report. Instead, their name will specific university as their next study destination. Therefore, be codified as follow AA, SR, IF, SS. The discussion was held based on my study where more than 60% of the online sur- over Zoom and recorded. Then, during the data collection vey respondents agree that Instagram was influential in their period, I transcribed the discussion. Regarding the ethical ap- choice-making of study destinations, it is recommended that proach, I promised them that the recording and the transcript universities need to manage their Instagram better to engage would be deleted after the thesis has been graded. Everyone the students. My study reveals that Southeast Asian students during the discussion approved the proposals. prefer to see good quality photos on universities’ Instagram feed with shorter captions that are filled with a good amount ACKNOWLEDGMENTS of captions. The photos they want to see the most are the uni- This degree project would have been impossible without my versity’s look, the city where the university is located, and the supervisors’ continuous support, Leif Dahlberg and Michelle vibrant student life. Photos showing interviews with current Rydback. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to students and about research should be posted once in a while. my colleagues at the International Relations Office of KTH. Celebration-based photos should be posted in the Insta Stories First, thank you to Åsa Andersson and Johanna Berndhardtz, feature. Another theme that should be put in the recommended who gave me the chance to curate KTH Instagram and thus list is showing the teachers that this can increase students’ trust inspired me for my master thesis. Also, sincere thanks to Mar- in the teacher and the university. Insta Stories or Reels should gareta Svedlund for helping me distribute the email invitation be utilised to post videos once in a while. Regarding the post- to the focus group discussion to the Southeast Asian students ing day or time, there is no preference as my study respondents at KTH. Furthermore, my completion of this thesis could not mentioned that they did not have any specific days or time to have been accomplished without the support from the survey check their Instagram. However, the post frequency should be respondents and focus group discussion participants who took maintained well. Based on this study, the recommended post valuable time to participate in this work. I am forever grateful frequency is between one to two contents per day or less than for all the support I received in the past months. Nonetheless, six contents per week. One last strategy to catch the interest this degree project has been produced during my scholarship of Southeast Asian students on university Instagram is to hire period at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, which is funded Southeast Asian students as Instagram curators. by the Swedish Institute. REFERENCES Hennink, M., Hutter, I. and Bailey, A., 2020. Qualitative Arafah, B. and Hasyim, M., 2019. Linguistic functions of research methods. Sage. emoji in social media communication. Opcion, 35(24), pp.558- Hew, K.F., 2011. Students’ and teachers’ use of Facebook. 574. Computers in human behavior, 27(2), pp.662-676. Blanco, C.F., Sarasa, R.G. and Sanclemente, C.O., 2010. 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Proposing to your fans: Which brand APPENDIX 1: FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION-GUIDE post characteristics drive consumer engagement activities on QUESTIONS social media brand pages?. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 26, pp.23-34. 1. Which social media platforms do you use the most on a David, S., 2004. Qualitative Research Theory, Method and daily basis? Practice. 2. What time do you usually check your social media? Statista (2021a). Number of social network users worldwide in 2020 by region. Retrieved 21 Febru- 3. Have you ever followed any university or education-related ary 2021 from https://www.statista.com/statistics/454772/ page on social media? Please specify! number-social-media-user-worldwide-region/ 4. When did you start following university social media? Statista (2021b). Most popular social networks worldwide as of January 2021, ranked by number of active users. Retrieved 5. Do you follow KTH Instagram? Why? 21 February 2021 from https://www.statista.com/statistics/ 272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/ 6. When did you start following university social media? Suciu, P. 2019. Is Instagram The Social Media Service 7. What are the differences of KTH Instagram than the other For Business In 2020? Retrieved 25 February 2021 university Instagram? from https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2019/12/26/ is-instagram-the-social-media-service-for-business-in-2020/ 8. Do you also follow the other KTH social media platforms? ?sh=1e7be0b63bdf 9. What type of posts do you prefer to see on KTH Instagram: Tess, P.A., 2013. The role of social media in higher education Photos or Videos? Why? classes (real and virtual)–A literature review. Computers in human behavior, 29(5), pp.A60-A68. 10. Which of the following themes that are usually posted on KTH Instagram do you like the most? The themes are (KTH Wahid, R.M. and Wadud, M., 2020. Social Media Marketing buildings, student life, Stockholm or Sweden, research, in- on Instagram: When Is the Most Effective Posting Timing. terviews with students, celebrations). EPRA International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 6(7), pp.312-321. 11. How about photos exposing teachers. Do you think it is such a good idea? Warren, J, 2020. How to build a strong Instagram community. Retrieved 14 May 2021 from https://later.com/blog/ 12. Which caption length do you prefer to read on KTH Insta- instagram-community/ gram post: short or long? 13. Do you think adding emojis in the captions would add more value? 14. How often do you want to see updates on KTH Instagram feed per week? 15. We usually post one post per day. Sometimes two posts if necessary. Do you think that should be enough? 16. What if KTH Instagram posted more than 3 posts per day and that would be more than 15 post per week? 17. We don’t really use Insta Stories regularly. Do you think it’s fine? 18. Do you think that KTH Instagram play any role in your choice-making of the study destination? 19. Do you think that, for us South East Asian students, social media can build trust and thus plays a big role in the choice making of our study destination? If yes, how far? 20. When you know that the curator is someone from SEA, does this influence your trust level as well? How did you know about the nationality of the curator? 21. Any comment you would like to add that we haven’t touched during the discussion? APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONS FOR THE ONLINE SURVEY

APPENDIX 3: KTH INSTAGRAM PAGE AS OF 7 MAY 2021 APPENDIX 4: AN EXAMPLE OF A CAPTION AND THE IN- TERACTIONS WITH THE AUDIENCE TRITA -EECS-EX-2021:256