Marketing Commons^™

Online Universities: Who Is Creating Virtual Communities?, Lisa Witzig, Joe Spencer, Katlyn Myers

Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2016

The use of online social communities for online universities seems a topic where usage can be taken for granted. This paper provides a literature review that shows the importance of community for students and alumni, and builds the case that online universities need to use online communities to deepen relationship. The paper then identifies the top social media network sites that can be used to build online communities and analyzes the activities of the top 54 undergraduate and top 53 graduate online programs at these sites. Despite the need to engage through these social media sites, online universities in general …