*Fareeha Aazam, *Pei Soo Ang, *Noor Aqsa Nabila Mat Isa

Abstract:

This study explores the effectiveness of social media strategies, specifically on X (formerly Twitter), as utilised by universities in Pakistan and Malaysia to engage with their student bodies. By employing content analysis via NVivo 14 for social media managers’ interview data and Python for analysing university student questionnaire responses, the research offers a dual perspective on university social media usage. It reveals a general consensus on the effectiveness of visual elements and the platform’s role in university marketing, but points to a gap in content engagement and authentic campus culture representation. The comparative analysis between NUST (Pakistan), LUMS (Pakistan) and Universiti Malaya (Malaysia) demonstrates varied strategic emphases, with NUST adopting a broad, thematic approach and UM focusing on announcements and visual storytelling.

Keywords: University social media strategy, student engagement, content analysis, visual storytelling, cross-cultural comparison