Communication policy of Kharkiv universities in social networks

The purpose of this paper is to examine the universities’ presence on the social media as a part of universities’ communication policy and to define the most popular social media with the universities as the communication channels (on the example of Kharkiv). The digitalization processes in the contemporary society lead to appearing and sustainable development of the newest technologies and communication channels. Universities should keep in mind that their key audience is mostly young adults (17 years and older) who use the social media for searching some information, news, chatting. Thus it is obvious that universities should pay their attention carefully to the communication channel and they should use it actively for cooperation with the key audience, other universities, scientific and social organization etc. Thus, firstly it is important to learn how many universities are present on the social media and which social media are used by the universities most frequently. The methodology. The author used such methods as systematic analysis, comparative analysis to learn universities’ communication policy and their presence on the social media. The author used method of techniques analysis to define the percentage of the social media and their popularity with the universities and to define the universities rating according to the fact how many types of the social media the universities use in their communication policy. The results. The article describes Kharkiv universities communication policy that they provide via presence on the social media. The author provides the findings of investigation of universities presence on the social media. The author provides information about which types of the social media are used by the universities and which of them are used by the universities most frequently in their communication policy (all the data are quantitative and percentage). The article has the universities rating made by the author according to the social media quantity are using by each university. The novelty. It is first time of identifying the most popular with universities social media as a part of the universities communication policy and to define the universities rating according to the fact how many types of the social media the universities use in their communication policy. The practical significance. The research results can be used in education and for further improvement of research activities and for further researches of the content provided by the universities on the social media.