Social media is any online space where people can interact with one another. This form of interaction may include reading the profile pages of other members on the social media site and possibly even contacting them. Social media contains highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, YouTube and even Wikis. Some other sub-categories of social media include social networking, blogging, micro-blogging and more.

Although the concept of social media dates back to the 1960s, exponential growth and commercial interest only arose well after the advent of the Internet. The rapid increase in participation in very recent years has been accompanied by a progressive diversification and sophistication of purposes and usage patterns across a multitude of different social media sites.  The Internet’s viral and social capabilities have created a whole new forum for consumers. This proliferation and increasing usage of social media websites provides a platform for nurturing brands and impacting people’s purchasing decisions.

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