'Unofficial' Presence of Higher Education Institutions in India on Social Media: Good or Bad?

The objective of this paper is to analyze the unofficial presence of Universities in India on Social Media with a focus on Facebook and Twitter. Content analysis was used in terms of quantitative approach. A checklist was developed as the main research instrument based on other checklists and questionnaires. It was observed that all the selected institutions have online presence, however, some are very active online and some have static presence. One third of the institutions are on social media and surprisingly one-fourth has unofficial accounts on social media. Government institutions as compared to Private have larger unofficial presence on social media. Unofficial presence on Social Media can be a concern for higher education institutions in terms of security and branding.