What is Social Media? Comm 460 Blog #2

What is social media? For me, the first thing that comes to mind is the endless list of "social media" platforms; Twitter, Facebook, Vine, Instagram, WordPress, Pinterest, and the list goes on! But do those platforms make social media or does social media make those platforms? Social media in the business sense is used primarily for social networking. Personal accounts however are used more for sharing and keeping people updated about their lives. Social media is and has been growing at a fast pace for the past 10 or so years, but in my opinion it has been in the past 4-5 years that the most significant progress and boom in usage has been created. I believe that social media will continue to be a competitive ,progressive, and innovative market as long as the internet is around because people are always looking for a way to stay in the loop, plus it is a wonderful business tool!