Chapter 8: Power of the People: Higher Education and Followership in the Time of Mass Media

Between Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, Harvard University has more than 8.5 million followers (Best Colleges, 2020). The top 10 schools with the most followers each have more than 1 million across their platforms, meaning each post these institutions make could reach over 1 million people. As higher education institutions amass social media followers, it opens up new avenues of communication and connection. Through this mass media lens, followership in higher education has taken take on a new meaning, which parallels the ever-increasing complexities of our world. This chapter focuses on how higher education can leverage social media to foster followership. I begin by describing current scholarship on followership and followership education. Next, I outline highlight cases examples of social media use in higher education. Finally, I frame followership in times of uncertainty, and share strategies in how social media can foster followership.