Creating an Academic Community at a Regional Law School that Offers a Large Online Education Program

Social media use has arguably become a fundamental part of modern day western society. People engage with social media for many reasons, including a desire to connect with an online community. Increasingly, businesses and education institutions are also starting to use social media for various purposes. Like most other universities, and to a lesser extent faculties and schools within Universities, the School of Law at the University of New England (‘UNE’) has started using social media to improve UNE’s brand awareness and aid the UNE’s marketing efforts. The overall rationale for building a social media presence was to generate a sense of community for UNE students, the majority of whom are studying online. In order to evaluate the marketing effectiveness of the UNE School of Law’s social media in raising brand awareness, the UNE School of Law team developed a survey instrument that was advertised via Facebook, Twitter, Moodle and email, and received more than 70 responses. The survey’s results are discussed and critically evaluated in this article and indicate that UNE students, alumni and other interested parties, do feel more a part of the UNE School of Law community as a result of social media efforts. To gain a clearer idea of how the UNE’s social media presence has impacted on the UNE School of Law, it will be necessary to repeat a similar survey at a later date. Presently, the original survey indicates how social media has developed at the UNE School of Law since it was launched.