From Social Media Engagement to Enrollment Decision in Private Universities: An Integrated E-Branding, Brand Experience, Brand Equity, and Brand Loyalty Model

Abstract

Private universities increasingly compete for prospective students within a digital marketplace in which social media functions as a primary touchpoint between institutions and applicants. Despite this shift, higher education marketing scholarship has tended to examine social media engagement, e-branding, brand experience, brand equity, and brand loyalty as separate streams rather than as a connected sequence culminating in a student’s enrollment decision. This conceptual paper addresses that fragmentation by proposing an integrated model tracing the pathway from social media engagement, alongside deliberate e-branding strategy, through brand experience and brand equity, to brand loyalty and, ultimately, enrollment decision. Adopting a qualitative research design grounded in secondary data, the study thematically synthesizes peer-reviewed literature identified through a systematic search of major academic databases, interpreted through the Stimulus Organism Response paradigm and Keller’s customer-based brand equity framework. The synthesis yields a six-construct integrated model and six accompanying research propositions describing how digital brand stimuli are processed into brand equity and behavioral loyalty that shape enrollment outcomes. The paper contributes a parsimonious, theory-grounded framework for private higher education marketing scholarships and offers university marketers a sequenced logic for digital brand investment. Limitations, boundary conditions, and an agenda for future empirical validation are discussed.

Keywords

• social media engagement
• e-branding
• brand experience
• brand equity
• brand loyalty
• enrollment decision
• private universities

How to cite

Umme Salma (2026). From Social Media Engagement to Enrollment Decision in Private Universities: An Integrated E-Branding, Brand Experience, Brand Equity, and Brand Loyalty Model. Sonargaon University Journal, 6(I), 13–26.

@article{salma20262,
  title   = {From Social Media Engagement to Enrollment Decision in Private Universities: An Integrated E-Branding, Brand Experience, Brand Equity, and Brand Loyalty Model},
  author  = {Umme Salma},
  journal = {Sonargaon University Journal},
  volume  = {6},
  number  = {I},
  pages   = {13--26},
  year    = {2026},
  issn    = {2518-3125},
  url     = {https://su.edu.bd/journal/volume-6-issue-1/from-social-media-engagement-to-enrollment-decision-in-private-universities-an}
}