The Mediating Role of Social Media in Choosing a University

Social media offers significant opportunities for brands to carry out their sales and marketing activities, to strengthen their brand position, and to interact with customers. Moreover, social media is less expensive than traditional media. In the case of universities, a greater presence on social media platforms has become a necessity to create a competitive advantage in order to reach students as an audience that uses social media more intensively compared to other channels. In this study, in the theoretical part, a general description of the history of enrollment in Higher Education Institutions in Albania and a literature review on the impact of social media on university selection have been made. In recent years, universities have used social media platforms more intensively to interact with their current students and to reach new students. The aim of this study is to discover the forms of social media use by prospective university students and to measure whether social media is effective in university selection/preference. The research population in the survey model consists of 143 students studying at the University College “Bedër” in the academic year 2024–2025. The data obtained as a result of the responses given by 143 university students were analyzed with the help of the SPSS package program. In conclusion, it was concluded that students are influenced by the internet and social media tools during the university selection process.