Abstract
In this age of digitisation social media has become an integral part of our lives. It is an important tool for business decision makers as it enables them to stay connected with their consumers. The firms intend to make profitable use of social media applications such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Mobile Apps. This chapter details out the concept of social media, how it differs from traditional media, the specific categories such as content communities, micro blogging, collaborative websites, social networking sites, live casting, virtual game and social worlds, etc. Further the impact of social media on youth is highlighted. This chapter presents guidelines regarding optimum utilization of social media. Also the strategies to handle different social media activities are discussed
TopSocial media, is not just a virtual hangout these days. It is much beyond that, social media is an ecosystem in itself which is affecting individual’s life and society at large. Besides having a huge commercial importance, it is also playing a transformational role in affecting the way information being consumed by individuals (Drahošová, Martina, Balco & Peter, 2017).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Content Communities: Content communities allow users to share online multimedia materials. Popular content communities include YouTube, Flickr, and SlideShare. After registering for an account, individuals upload their materials, describe them, and make them publicly available.
Media Trends: Anything which is trending can be any topic, event or individual which a lot of people are discussing or mentioning on social media.
social networking sites: A social networking site is an online platform that allows users to create a public profile and interact with other users on the website. Social networking sites usually have a new user input a list of people with whom they share a connection and then allow the people on the list to confirm or deny the connection.
Social media: Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or any medium that helps the users to participate in social networking.
Live Casting: A webcast that is streamed live, often combined with an integrated chat forum for those watching.
Competitive advantage: A competitive advantage is the unique ability of a firm to utilize its resources effectively, managing to improve customer value and position itself ahead of the competition. In other words, it’s something that a company does better than its competitors because of some proprietary process, service, or brand.
Artificial Intelligence: The ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. It refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. The term may also be applied to any machine that exhibits traits associated with a human mind such as learning and problem-solving.
Microblogging: Microblogging is a web service that allows the subscriber to broadcast short messages to other subscribers of the service. Micro-posts can be made public on a Web site and/or distributed to a private group of subscribers. Subscribers can read microblog posts online or request that updates be delivered in real time to their desktop as an instant message or sent to a mobile device as an SMS text message.
Blogs: A website or web page which is updated regularly and typically run by an individual or small group on which contents or text is written in an informal or conversational style.