Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Consulting Social Media In The College Transition Process: Experiential Accounts Of The Class Of 2014, Amanda Stageman

Master's Theses (2009 -)

This study examines social media as a relevant marketing strategy for higher education institutions and seeks to better understand how incoming university students utilize social media to communicate with an academic institution and ultimately make a college attendance decision. A basic history of social networking websites is explored, with emphasis on how this new technology is used in public relations and marketing for non-profit organizations, such as colleges and universities. In order to understand social media use from the students' perspective, individual uses of social networking sites are examined through the lenses of uses and gratifications theory, online identity construction …