Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and  scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.

Social media has modernized the business community. Businesses are now able to reach consumers in a new way; through the internet. Social media has become appealing to big business. Credible brands are utilizing social media to reach old customers, gain new ones and build or maintain credibility and reputation among consumers. In recent years social mediums have drastically grown.

This has tremendously increased the number of consumers that producers are able to reach. Social mediums have not only grown in popularity with the increase in consumer participants, but social mediums have also expanded globally. Twitter, for example has expanded its global reach to Japan, Indonesia, and Mexico to name a few. This means that brands are now able advertise in multiple languages and therefore empower brand and consumer reach and improve their brand.

Social media has become the new "tool" for effective business marketing and sales. Social mediums are not only a way for businesses to interact with consumers but also a source of networking and communication between people. Popular networking site including Myspace, Facebook and twitter are social mediums most commonly used for socialization and connecting friends, relatives, and employees.