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Social Media
Practical Law Glossary Item 6-505-4136 (Approx. 3 pages)
Glossary
Social Media
Internet or mobile-based websites, applications, and services that allow end-user interaction. While traditional media provide for one-way communication, social media enable bidirectional and multidirectional communications between and among users. Social media exist as both:
- Sites and applications dedicated to user interactivity, for example, social networking sites.
- Social or interactive features of otherwise traditional sites, for example, a blog that invites user comments on an otherwise static website.
Social media take many forms, including:
- Social and business networking, such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
- Blogging and microblogging, including blogs on traditional websites and applications like Twitter.
- Content sharing (including user-generated content) and viral publication, such as YouTube.
- Wikis, which are databases of web pages that can be edited live by the public, such as Wikipedia.
- Virtual worlds and multiplayer online role-playing games, like Second Life.
For information about risks and benefits of company use of social media, see Practice Note, Social Media Risks and Rewards.