Social media are a computer mediated tools that allow people to create,share and exchange information and ideas.

There are various social channels dedicated to interaction, content sharing and collaboration. Some of them are-

1.Facebook-Facebook is increasingly becoming an essential tool for small businesses to promote their brand. At this time, it is critical for every business to have a strong presence on social media. If you are planning to advertise your business, Facebook is a significant platform that can help you grow your business. But every platform works differently and you need to have sufficient knowledge in order to discover new opportunities. Your advertising campaign should be such that you can gain maximum promotion for your brand without having to spend much. So device proper advertising strategies but at the same time avoid practices that might result in failures. Refer this article

http://toolowl.com/business/dos-...

In our present age due to the development of scientific & technological development covering the large track of global environment , social media has to play a very important part with their honest , & integrity mode so that the society may receive a right type of information .

With this even though it is  pertaining to the question posed but as it has an indirect connection with social media i take the opportunity to submit my publication where i have express my views in the line under the captioned '' The responsibility of social media which i submit herewith for your perusal & also for our valued readers .

This is my personal opinion 

Dear Shafagat

Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration.

Websites and applications dedicated to forums,microblogging, social networking, social bookmarking, social curation, and wikis are among the different types of social media.

Here are some prominent examples of social media:

Facebook is a popular free social networking website that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues. According to statistics from the Nielsen Group, Internet users within the United States spend more time on Facebook than any other website.

Twitter is a free microblogging service that allows registered members to broadcast short posts called tweets. Twitter members can broadcast tweets and follow other users' tweets by using multiple platforms and devices.

Google+ (pronounced Google plus) is Google's social networking project, designed to replicate the way people interact offline more closely than is the case in other social networking services. The project’s slogan is “Real-life sharing rethought for the web.”

Wikipedia is a free, open content online encyclopedia created through the collaborative effort of a community of users known as Wikipedians. Anyone registered on the site can create an article for publication; registration is not required to edit articles. Wikipedia was founded in January of 2001.

LinkedIn is a social networking site designed specifically for the business community. The goal of the site is to allow registered members to establish and document networks of people they know and trust professionally.

Reddit is a social news website and forum where stories are socially curated and promoted by site members. The site is composed of hundreds of sub-communities, known as "subreddits." Each subreddit has a specific topic such as technology, politics or music. Reddit site members, also known as, "redditors," submit content which is then voted upon by other members. The goal is to send well-regarded stories to the top of the site's main thread page.

Pinterest is a social curation website for sharing and categorizing images found online. Pinterest requires brief descriptions but the main focus of the site is visual. Clicking on an image will take you to the original source, so, for example, if you click on a picture of a pair of shoes, you might be taken to a site where you can purchase them. An image of blueberry pancakes might take you to the recipe; a picture of a whimsical birdhouse might take you to the instructions.

Regards 

Here is a book chapter I wrote titled Understanding Social Media 

Chapter Understanding Social Media

Social networking is a sociological not technological concept. Emerging in the late 1800’s social network analysis flourished as a field of study during the 20th Century and is based on the study of, and interactions within, communities of people.

According to social scientists, social networks are groups or organizations made up of individuals connected by some form of interdependency, such as kinship, friendship, membership status, common interests, beliefs, orientation, profession, political action, knowledge, and location Linton, 2006). The individual agents within social networks are known as nodes and the interdependency among nodes forms what is referred to as ties (also known as links or connections). Social capital plays a crucial role in the success of social networks and refers to the strength of the trust, norms, ties, resources, and relationships within a social network with the idea that networks with high social capital have a greater ability to achieve positive outcomes (Bordieu, 1983).

In recent decades, the introduction of the World Wide Web has taken social networking to larger, richer, and more complex levels. As such, when we consider social networks today we are referring to Web-based services that are sets of people or organizations that use computer mediated communication (CMC) to generate a community (Garton, Haythorn,Thwaite, and Wellman, 1997). Suter, Alexandar, and Kaplan explored the various dimensions of social networking systems as including: “tools for augmenting human social and collaborative abilities; … facilitating social connection and information interchange; and an ecology for enabling a system of people, practices, values and technologies in a particular environment (2005. P. 49).”

The Website What is Social Networking? (2010) explains that social networking is the grouping of individuals based on the sharing of interests, hobbies, concerns, motives, beliefs, and affiliations and is commonly facilitated by social sites where connections among people are made. This may be an overly simplistic definition, so perhaps the definition that is the most reflective of the current proliferation of social networking was offered by Boyd and Ellison (2007) who defined social networking as:

Web-based services that allow individuals to:

1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system;

2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection; and

3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system (Boyd and Ellison, 1).

I agree with Nicole.

Dear @Rohit M Parikh,

Thank you very much for opinion.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear @Saeed Al Rashid,

Thank you very much for informative answer.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear @Nicole Buzzetto-Holllywood,

Thanks a lot of for comments and an article.

Regards, Shafagat

In addition, from another point of view, social media are computer-mediated technologies that allow the creating and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks. The variety of stand-alone and built-in social media services currently available introduces challenges of definition. However, there are some common features:

1. Social media are interactive Web 2.0 Internet-based applications.

2.User-generated content, such as text posts or comments, digital photos or videos, and data generated through all online interactions, are the lifeblood of social media.

3. Users create service-specific profiles for the website or app that are designed and maintained by the social media organization.

4.Social media facilitate the development of online social networks by connecting a user's profile with those of other individuals and/or groups. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media)

Regards

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Why_do_we_use_social_networking_tools_in_research

 Dear @Aristidis Matsoukis,

Thank you very much for interesting opinion.

Regards,Shafagat

Dear@ Nisar K S, thanks a lot of for link.

Regards,Shafagat 

Social media is a collection of Internet sites, which are based on online technologies enable users to establish communication with each other and produce user-generated content. In other words - is a web resource, created to communicate on your network.

Dear @Nirmala S.V.S.G ,

Thank you very much for opinion.

Regards, Shafagat

ResearchGate is also an example of social media. RG provides a way to communicate and share with with other researchers.

Thanks a lot of dear @Waqas Mahmood,

Regards, Shafagat

Dear Shafaat Mahmudova,

The most important thing about the social media is that they provide us with wonderful opportunities for interacting with  interesting  people from all over the globe. Notably, social media help us to surpass the physical barriers to learn from and share information with wonderful people like you.

Best regards,

R. Biria

Dear @Reza Biria ,

Thank you very much for answer.

Regards, Shafagat

This paper provides a definition of social media and includes an exhaustive list of all different types of social media, e.g. social networks.

Article Measuring the Degree of Corporate Social Media Use

Dear @Thomas Aichner,

Thank you very much for comments.

Regards, Shafagat

I agree with the points mentioned in the answer of Dr. Aristidis Matsoukis.

Regards

SM Najim

Dear @Salah Mahdi Najim,

Thanks for comment.

Regards, Shafagat

Social media is a form of electronic communication (such as Web sites) through which people create online/offline communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, etc.  In addition, from another point of view, social media are computer-mediated technologies that allow the creating and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.

Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. Social media is becoming an integral part of life online as social websites and applications proliferate.

Dear @Nirmala S.V.S.G,

Thank you very much for comments.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear @Goli Srinivasarao,

Thanks a lot of for answer.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear @Ahmed Al mayahi ,

Thank you very much for opinion.

Regards, Shafagat

Through social media, we can communicate better, but, there are advantages and disadvantages of the social media. You are able to stay connected to friends and families in today’s fast paced and ever changing worlds, but at the same time you should be aware of the disadvantages of social media.

Dear @Mahfuz Judeh,

Thanks a lot of  for answer.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear Shafagat,

social media is a place where you can share ideas and knowledge and communicate with others people on Internet from your office or your appartment, You just need a table,a chair. a computer (tablet, phablet, smartphone,...) and (fast) Internet connection.

Social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instragram... and ResearchGate) are the the most famous representatives of social media.

I attach a link for may presentation about Digital marketing for start-up companies (I do hope it will be helpfull to you):

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312869070_Basic_marketing_issues_for_start_up_companies_-_an_accent_on_digital_marketing 

Best regards,

Igor 

Presentation Basic marketing issues for start up companies - an accent on...

Dear @Igor Jurčić ,

Thanks a lot of for answer and link.

Regards, Shafagat

is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community interaction content-sharing and collaboration.

Here are some prominent examples of social media:

Facebook is a popular free social networking website that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues. According to statistics from the Nielsen Group, Internet users within the United States spend more time on Facebook than any other website.

Twitter is a free microblogging service that allows registered members to broadcast short posts called tweets. Twitter members can broadcast tweets and follow other users' tweets by using multiple platforms and devices.

Google+ (pronounced Google plus) is Google's social networking project, designed to replicate the way people interact offline more closely than is the case in other social networking services. The project’s slogan is “Real-life sharing rethought for the web.”

Wikipedia is a free, open content online encyclopedia created through the collaborative effort of a community of users known as Wikipedians. Anyone registered on the site can create an article for publication; registration is not required to edit articles. Wikipedia was founded in January of 2001.

LinkedIn is a social networking site designed specifically for the business community. The goal of the site is to allow registered members to establish and document networks of people they know and trust professionally.

Reddit is a social news website and forum where stories are socially curated and promoted by site members. The site is composed of hundreds of sub-communities, known as "subreddits." Each subreddit has a specific topic such as technology, politics or music. Reddit site members, also known as, "redditors," submit content which is then voted upon by other members. The goal is to send well-regarded stories to the top of the site's main thread page.

Pinterest is a social curation website for sharing and categorizing images found online. Pinterest requires brief descriptions but the main focus of the site is visual. Clicking on an image will take you to the original source, so, for example, if you click on a picture of a pair of shoes, you might be taken to a site where you can purchase them. An image of blueberry pancakes might take you to the recipe; a picture of a whimsical birdhouse might take you to the instructions.

Some of the Known Issues With Social Media?

Social media isn't all just fun and games with your friends, celebrities you admire, and brands you follow. There are lots of common problems that most major social media platforms haven't totally solved, despite their effort to do so.

Spam: Social media makes it easy for spammers – both real people and bots – to bombard other people with content. If you have a Twitter account, you've probably experienced a few spambot follows or interactions. Likewise, if you run a WordPress blog, you may have gotten a spam comment or two caught by your spam filter.

Cyberbullying/Cyberstalking: Children and teenagers are especially susceptible to cyberbullying because they take more risks when it comes to posting on social media. And now that we all interact on social media via our mobile devices, most major platforms make it possible to share our locations, opening up the doors for cyberstalkers to target us.

Self-image manipulation: What a user posts about themselves on social media only represents a small portion of their life. While followers may see someone who's happy and living it up via their posts on social media in such a way that makes them feel boring or inadequate by comparison, the truth is that users have the power to completely control what parts they do and don't want to broadcast on social media to manipulate their own self-image.

Information overload: It's not unusual to have over 200 Facebook friends or follow over 1,000 Twitter accounts. With so many accounts to follow and so many people posting new content, it's almost impossible to keep up.

Fake news: Fakes new websites promote links to their own totally false news stories on social media in order to drive traffic to them. Many users have no idea that they're fake in the first place.

Privacy/Security: Many social media platforms still get hacked from time to time despite having good security measures in place. Some also don't offer all the privacy options that users need to keep their information as private as they want them to be

Daer mam,

Shafagat Mahmudova

my opinion,

a media where people can done various social activities such as interaction, communication, knowledge sharing, understanding new things, culture, news etc.

Some times we also use this for increasing reputation, celebrating and fashion.

We are highly depend on social media

Dear Shafagat,

Building on some of the excellent comments above describing the core aspects of social media interactions. There is an evolving application of social media to communicate research results, build online communities and influence health policy. Below are two recent review articles:

Research & Online Communities:

Article Social media in medicine: A game changer?

Health Policy:

Article Social Media, Health Policy, and Knowledge Translation

Hope this helps,

Best wishes

Jatinder

Sharing link:

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/interactive.html

Regards!

I think dr Aristidis has rightly mentioned.

thanks dr Shafagat for recommending my answer.

Social media are a computer mediated tools that allow people to create,share and exchange information and ideas.

There are various social channels dedicated to interaction, content sharing and collaboration. Some of them are-

1.Facebook-Facebook is increasingly becoming an essential tool for small businesses to promote their brand. At this time, it is critical for every business to have a strong presence on social media. If you are planning to advertise your business, Facebook is a significant platform that can help you grow your business. But every platform works differently and you need to have sufficient knowledge in order to discover new opportunities. Your advertising campaign should be such that you can gain maximum promotion for your brand without having to spend much. So device proper advertising strategies but at the same time avoid practices that might result in failures. Refer this article

http://toolowl.com/business/dos-...

2. Twitter:Twitter is one of the top social media platforms next to Facebook that is utilized by small businesses at the moment. When used smartly, twitter provides immense opportunities for brands to reach their potential customers. The challenge is to convey your message under 140 characters to the users who are constantly flooded with information and have a short attention span. Twitter has about a billion users and with proper guidelines, small businesses can use it as an effective tool to establish a powerful presence on social media. Refer this article http://toolowl.com/business/dos-...

3. LinkedIn: LinkedIn gives you space for various purposes like making connections, recommendations, recruitment and the most importantly lead generation. It enables you to dive into large networks of professionals and make sales via your company page, ads, and updates.Unlike other social media sites, you must know the etiquettes of utilizing LinkedIn at its full potential so that you can market your small business in a right way. It can be very helpful to achieve your business goals and to go beyond your expectations.

http://toolowl.com/business/dos-...

4. Google+ : Google+ is part of a bigger plan launched by Google that is not a competitor of other social media sites. Instead, it evolves the way we relate to one another and how we communicate with the world and our own personal sphere. For business perspective, Google+ allows you to bring your brand closer to followers and prospective customers.

Refer this article http://toolowl.com/business/dos-...

There are some more examples of social media such as :

Wikipedia, pinterest, reddit etc.

Social media is the medium to connect people or they also share or exchange their information as well as ideas to all over the world. But if we talk about some years back situation, then it seems to very old as compared to today's life. So there is a very high amount of change going in our daily life. For current days, several things have becomes very easy and useful on these days. When the concept of the internet got to innovate, it was a golden day for all human beings. After getting huge success on the web or internet social media was introduced and then it is becoming an everyday part of everyone's life. Social media is the good platform to make new friends, check new updates or news; here also you can complain any issue. It is very good or potential platform to promote any product or brand, through this promotion you get much-targeted customers or your brand becomes word of mouth.

Today, social media profiles also become very important because on this you can find anyone at just second. It is the good platform to share your thoughts, talking about issues, also share your difficulties or problems to get better solutions. In social media platforms, there are many opportunities such as creating the communities, poles where anyone can share their idea, thoughts or some new invention news with billions of people. This is very awesome because to create this type community in real life is very difficult but this can be done on this platform easily. Here I have listed some top social media platforms:

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Google+

YouTube

Pinterest

Instagram

After all, each day the user interface and the activeness on social media platform are increasing.

Social media is a series of websites and applications designed to allow people to share content quickly, efficiently and in real-time. Most people today define social media as apps on their smartphone or tablet, but the truth is, this communication tool started with computers.

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-is-social-media-2890301

Interesting , following

Websites and applications dedicated to forums,microblogging, social networking are among the different types of social media.

Interesting discussion.

Social media refers to online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other.

way/tool for communication with the help of new technologies

Well in earlier days when such social media was not available, people used to waste their precious time doing something non-constructive what was known as "GOSSIPING".It is also done today. The same thing is better done through the so called "SOCIAL MEDIA". I am very against it. If I do get some spare time, I would be penning some thoughts or philosophy which might be of some use one-day.

Social media is a form of online communication used by people around the world. Social media sites allow you to communicate with friends and family, learn new things, and develop your own interests.

It is a modern web-based technology application for communication and interaction between humans through audio messages, written messages and video messages. These devices build and activate living communities around the world. People share their interests and activities with these applications.