Social media is the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. This focuses on communication, community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration.
People, today, use social media to stay in touch, interact with friends and family and network among various communities. Businesses use social media to market and promote their products and to also track customer concerns. Business-to-consumers websites include social components, such as comment fields for users. Various tools help businesses track, measure and analyze the attention the company gets from social media, including brand perception and customer insight.
Much of the news and information people gain is from social media. Society can have up to the minute news and information about events as it is posted quickly as opposed to waiting for the nightly news or daily newspaper. There are some drawbacks to social media as it can be used in negative ways and some youth have learned hard lessons as the proper use of social media.
