About Us

ASMA (short for, Adoption of Social Media in Academia) is India’s first research initiative by Nextgeninnov8, created to empower academic institutes and universities such that they can leverage social media tools and digital technologies to significantly address challenges faced in areas such as Student Admissions, Alumni Relations, International Cells, Research & Conferences, Learning & Pedagogy, Placements, Institution Branding, Industry Interface, Campus Life and more.

Why ASMA?

Social media is now a de-facto mechanism of interacting with the world. The digital era has forever transformed the way students, institutions and universities function.

Universities, colleges, vocational institutions, business schools, though aware of its potential, are unable to fully leverage social media and digital technologies to their advantage. Reasons being lack of knowledge, resources and ability to plan and execute digital marketing strategies.

Globally, academia has adopted Social Media as one of the important strategies as part of their overall branding, marketing, and communication strategy. In India, 41% of internet users are School going or College going students, which forms largest pool of internet users in India.

There is a tremendous scope of digital adoption in Indian higher education and academic community in general.

What is ASMA?

At its core, ASMA is a catalyst that helps educational institutes and universities harness the power of digital and social media for growth and global reach.

ASMA aims to be the harbinger of change in social media for academia – unearthing the latest insights, anticipating the future based on current trends and providing a transformative social media framework which can be adopted by academia to keep pace with the changing times.

In the last 5 years, ASMA has gained lot of appreciation and accolades from higher education professionals, industry bodies and associations.

ASMA Ecosystem

ASMA users encompass higher education institutes in India who are yet to fully embrace the power of digital for growth. Thus, ASMA collaborates with, and brings together, thought leaders, senior academicians & faculty, and change agents from EduTech companies, Government bodies, eLearning businesses and Academia with an aim to garner best practices, benchmarks, latest developments about leveraging digital media and technologies for their progress.

Who Does ASMA Benefit?

The work of ASMA benefits stakeholders in academia

Internal communication
Faculty interactions
Industry interactions
Student Journey
Effective Promotion/ Branding
Admission Process
Events and conferences
Senior academicians

Why adopt ASMA?

The ASMA framework will enhance internal knowledge and confidence to implement social media strategies. The institutes already on social media can revisit their strategies and make them more effective. The institutes which are new to the social media can plan the social media strategies in an effective way based on benchmarks provided in the ASMA report. The colleges adopting the ASMA framework can themselves become profit centers for business consultancy excelling in social media adoption.

ASMA Framework

The ASMA framework is an industry benchmark for academia to follow while adopting social media. It is a repository of winning strategies and best practices followed by academia to meet various business objectives at all functional levels. The framework has been established on the basis of an extensive secondary as well as primary research on social media adoption by institutes at all levels.

ASMA Rankings

ASMA ranking is designed to rank the academic institutes in various categories and domains. The participating institutes are ranked on the basis of the extent of social media adaptation to meet their institutional objectives such as admissions, placement, industry interface etc. The ranking questionnaire covers many innovative facets of social media adaptation and usage in institution building. The weightage is allotted and the ranking is published and the top rankers are called for an ASMA award function.

ASMA TV

ASMA TV is the video production arm of Nextgeninnov8, which primarily works with top educational brands and helps them tell compelling video stories. ASMA TV is proficient at creating powerful corporate videos for your institution/ university which showcase its essential campus life, students, faculties, courses and facilities. We create persuasive video stories in formats such as documentary, video advertorial, advertisements etc of varying durations (from 20-sec to 10-15 mins), capturing various perspectives of your esteemed institute. Using compelling videos, your institute will be able to create stunning posts, ad material and marketing collateral to help showcase your institute in the perfect light.

ASMA Activation

Digital Marketing and Social media has become a foundational pillar for promoting events & conferences and for engaging with the audience before, during and after the conference. With a well thought out digital marketing strategy, institutions can build up genuine relationships, generate goodwill and earn the trust of stakeholders. ASMA Activation provides all the digital marketing and outreach support to ensure success of your events and conferences. We drive a strategic combination of digital outreach, social media coverage, live coverage, event broadcasting, video storytelling and more to contribute to your institute’s bottom-line.

ASMA Future Plan

After recognizing the best work which is being carried out by the participating institutions in various measuring categories, ASMA will expand the scope of their study in the subsequent releases by including other areas like whole digital marketing. The feedback which is received from this survey will guide us to determine the future scope of study and bring insights about the innovative usage of social media in Indian institutes.