The adoption of social media tools within higher education has become steadily prevalent being applied towards the delivery of a variety of academic disciplines (Wang and Meiselwitz, 2015). Prior research has also indicated that social media use, dependent on its implementation, can support and facilitate various pedagogical approaches towards course provision (Cooke, 2015). Learning in higher education has become ubiquitous with cell phones, PDAs (Personal Data Assistant) and smart phones used to deliver educational content (Pimmer, Mateescu and Grohbiel, 2016). However, despite the apparent increase of its use, research has indicated that academic opinion is slightly divided on this matter. The aim of this special issue is to provide an overview of the current state of the art of social media use in higher education. Furthermore, this special issue undertakes an empirical retrospection that aids to exemplify and illustrate the existing adoption of social media use in higher education settings.