This document provides an introduction to social media, discussing what social media is, how and where it is used, and why people use it. It covers several types of social media like social networks, blogs, microblogging, video, and different levels of engagement businesses can have on social media from monitoring to owning their own niche social networks. The key aspects are that social media allows users to create and share their own content, has low barriers to participation, and harnessing "the network effect" to spread information widely.
