ABSTRACT
Social media are a game changer in the contemporary marketplace. As a relatively new terrain, social media marketing has attracted attention from both marketers and researchers. The mainstream literature ascribed to for-profits has explored social media for various marketing benefits including marketing positioning, segmentation and planning. Non-profit higher education systems have only recently experimented with social media marketing in response to the mounting global education competition. Literature on strategic issues, case studies and best practices of social media marketing specific to a university context is limited. The clash between corporate-driven marketing and public participation on social media invites us to refocus on the value and necessity of community-based relationship marketing. Marketers need to be aware that they are playing in other folks' playgrounds, so they cannot behave deterministically. Community is not foreign to marketing strategies, and social media are deemed ideal avenues for community building and relationship marketing due to their collaborative and interactive nature.
