Employing a content analysis approach, this study examines the purpose and salient messages of social media policies of five U.S. universities. The proliferation of social media has been extensive and many universities and colleges in the United States are seeking to capture its power as a communication and as an engagement resource. Meanwhile, organizations of higher learning struggle to create appropriate, legal, and meaningful social media policies. Social media policies are analyzed with attention to the rights of employees and students to free speech, privacy and intellectual property rights and to the organizational need to improve internal and external communication, learning and information sharing and to protect the university’s reputation. The content analysis of social media policies revealed that the analyzed universities policies are primarily restrictive in nature and designed without affordance in mind. The focus of the evaluated policies is primarily on risk and reputation management and marketing. The article includes discussion of the key issues of using social media in colleges and universities and recommendations for modifying social media policies to reflect the reality and the multitude of applications of social media in academia.