ROLE OF BLOGGING AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE PROMOTION OF ARMENIAN AND GEORGIAN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS FOR RUSSIA

As is well known, development of new communication technologies leads to the globalization in many aspects, including education. The dependence of modern education on new media is determined on the increasing number of web-sites, blogs and accounts of universities, colleges and private schools in social media, for instance Facebook and Instagram. One of the reasons to capture the attention of internet-audience is the following indicator: audience of social media is primarily presented by youth, i.e. potential applicants and students. Moreover, international environment of the university enhances its prestige and ensures the highest ratings in such reputable sources as QS World University Ranking. Nowadays Armenia and Georgia are working on improving of education quality: according to Legatum Prosperity Index, last year with the help of promoting educational programs Georgia was ranked 80th in the rating, while Armenia took the 88th line. It is important to say that Armenian and Georgian universities especially focus on applicants from Post-Soviet community as there are many fellow countrymen (according to Russian Statistics Agency, the population of the state consists of 1, 700, 000 ethnic Armenians and 197, 934 ethnic Georgians). That is why universities essentially choose advertising in social network, and this report analyzes similarities and differences in the promotion strategies of Free University (Georgia), UWC Dilijan School (Armenia), GEO*WORDS Project, Aurora Prize, Tbilisi State University and Russian Armenian University.