B-Schools online

I recently logged in to the MBA aspirant forum www.pagalguy.com after a gap of a year. It was sort of a home coming, since I had personally used the forum to acquire information regarding MBA studies in India and preparation resources. What struck me was the way in which B-Schools in India were using this forum as a stage for online marketing. It is painfully apparent that as far as online marketing is concerned,B-Schools in India are leagues behind their counter-parts across the world. It took third parties like pagalguy.com, coolanvenues.com etc to provide a platform for B-Schools to build an online brand campaign.
Yet the question arises how effective are these platforms? How are these B-Schools going to measure their return on investment? Is it the money they make off selling forms through these sites? Are these promotions SEO optimized? Do the aspirants actually go through the Ad's or do they find it as a hindrance to the normal functionality of the forum.
As I analyzed these questions it became apparent that the key to building a brand image online is to have a open and healthy interaction between you and your
target users. It's really very simple. Between paying Rs.2,50,000 for a huge B-School banner on the top of the forum for a month, and a VIP user status as
Dean/official spokes person interacting in the threads with the potential aspirants which one would you choose? You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out.