There has been wide academic and research interest in the application of Social Media (SM) modalities, as instructional tools, in contemporary educational settings. Although research on this topic has grown exponentially in recent years a) very little is known about the breadth of research regarding SM in the scholarly literature, and b) few reviews of data-based, outcome studies on the SM-education nexus have appeared. This study was designed to address both these issues. First, the current analysis attempts to gauge the scope of the research domain of SM-education typology by conducting a content analysis of dissertation research in this area. Second, a subset of these studies, with a focus on empirical outcome, on the efficacy of SM in educational settings was examined. A keyword search of the term (Social Media) yielded 662 studies represented in ProQuest's Dissertations & Theses database. Based on the abstract of each study, the author tagged the reference with a descriptor that best represented the main topical focus of the research. The topical areas that garnered the most research attention, within the domain of SM, were (in rank order): political issues/social movements, marketing/business performance, and college-level educational issues. In total, educational applications of SM accounted for 12% of this dissertation sample. The author summarized the major outcome findings of 29 dissertations that had a specific focus on "SM-Education" issues. Of these, only 2 studies reported any negative views by either students or faculty on the implementation of SM platforms for academic purposes. Instructors' lack of efficacy in Web 2.0 technology, privacy issues, and data overload were the major concerns noted. As these results are based on areas of investigatory interest of young researchers, the current findings provide a barometer of emerging trends regarding critical issues in "Social Media-Education" research.