The article examines the concept of social communications, which due to the pandemic, the rapid development and widespread use of information technology, have undergone significant changes in today's society. It was found that today a competitive specialist of any profile must have professional competencies, be able to effectively carry out various social actions, perform social functions, establish normal social relations, adhere to the norms of social behavior, interact and, therefore, be socially oriented person. To understand the essence of social and communicative competence of higher education students, the scientific definitions of this concept and its components were analyzed and generalized. It should be noted that scholars mostly consider social and communicative competence separately, but recognize their interdependence and interdependence. In our opinion, social and communicative competence is an integral part of the professional qualities of any specialist and is manifested in the ability to successfully and effectively interact with specific people or groups, achieving goals. The study emphasizes that modern higher education is moving to new formats of education, which are due to the global pandemic, so changes in approaches to ways of exchanging information between teacher and student, as well as between students. Emphasis is placed on the significant place of social networks in the educational process during distance learning. Some platforms of social networks that teachers can use as learning tools are considered. It was found that for modern teachers and educators in social networks can be useful features such as: video communication; communication and file sharing in created groups, chats; possibility of group activities; publication of educational materials; discussion of publications, photos and videos; organization of polls, questionnaires and voting; search for educational events, events or conferences, etc. The use of social networks for educational purposes significantly improves social and communication skills, forms leadership skills, improves digital awareness

social communications, social-communicative competence, professional qualities, distance learning, social networks