Social Media in Higher Education: An Investigation into UG Marketing Education in the UK

Abstract

Undoubtedly social media (SM) is currently one of the hottest topics in marketing circles (academic and practitioner). Its scholarly importance is reflected in the growing number of special issues of journals (e.g., Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Marketing Communications, Journal of Business Ethics) and themed conferences around SM and various aspects of marketing. Also, employers of marketing graduates are increasingly seeking candidates adept in SM platforms because of the potential of the aforementioned tools in marketing (e.g., Rapp et al. 2013; Walker et al. 2012; Michaelidou et al. 2011; Kozinets et al. 2010). Notably, the majority of today’s university students are “digital natives” (Prensky 2001), representing one of the most active user segments of the internet and Web2.0 technologies. It is, therefore, unsurprising that the Marketing and PR functions of most Higher Education (HE) institutions have devised SM strategies to target and attract new students (Constantinides and Stagno 2011).