Over the past decade, there has been a growing public fascination with the phenomenon of connectedness. One of the most important ways in which society is now connected is through social media –such as social networking sites. While both students and higher education institutions seem to be utilizing social media more and more, there still are enormous challenges in trying to understand the new dynamics generated by social media in higher education, particularly for the context of community colleges.

This research report has several purposes. The first is to document and to describe the various ways in which social media is used specifically by community colleges across the United States. Second, this report explores community college leaders’ perspectives on the value, purpose, and challenges of social media to better understand:

1. The types of social media used by community colleges.

2. Community college leaders’ perspectives, knowledge, and opinions regarding the value of social media, the various uses of social media, the barriers to using social media, and the role social media should play in the specific context of community colleges.