Technology Mediated Recruitment: An Exploration of How Students Used Social Media to Choose College

Abstract

This qualitative study explored the use of social media as a tool to recruit prospective college students. Social media was defined as any electronic media that serves as a networking tool with the ability to educate prospective and current college students about an institution of higher education (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc.). The researcher met with two focus groups comprised of current college students to discuss their use of social media during their college search process.

Recommendations were developed for student affairs professionals and for future research. General themes and categories from participant responses were evaluated. The findings suggest that social media is present during all stages of the search process and professionals should consider what tools work best for them and how to best utilize social media in their marketing plans.

Date of Award	2012
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	Eastern Illinois University
Supervisor	Richard Roberts (Supervisor)