Social media is broadly defined as ‘‘. . . activities, practices and behaviors among communities of people who gather online to share information, knowledge, and opinions using conversational media.’’ The explosion of social media has left many businesses grappling with the ways to use such tools to their advantage.

‘‘[O]ver the last several years, social media has evolved beyond the fleeting concept of self-promotion and friend-collection to a highly-advanced and necessary tool to disseminate and manipulate information and gain market share.’’ By way of example, the most well-known social network, Facebook, continues to grow exponentially. The social networking giant reported 665 million daily active users worldwide through March 31, 2013. This is up from roughly 525 million in March 2012.

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