Abstract:

Social media is everywhere. Pick up almost any newspaper or magazine and you will undoubtedly find a story referencing social media.The person sitting next to you on the bus or train or plane, is probably checking their wall on Facebook for the latest posts or tweeting about some interesting happening via their mobile phone. Even at work, you may catch a glimpse of someone posting a status update, blogging about some topic of interest, or even watching an entertaining video on YouTube. There is so much happening in social media that we now have a whole industry of experts whose job it is to follow this movement and make sense of it for those few of us left who haven't joined the party and/or for marketers who want to cash in on it. In just the last few years, it is quite evident that this thing we call social media has turned from an interesting curiosity into a full-blown phenomenon.