What do we mean by social media?

My initial, quickfire, non-researched definition would be "global, digitally-networked platforms/tools, which allow users in any place, at any time to share information, content and opinion with one another". High profile examples include Flikr, facebook, twitter, youtube and myspace. There are then non-branded, social media tools available to us all like blogs and forums, which allow us to share thoughts and comments with our own, open or closed followers and audiences.

Researched and classified definitions include:

'An umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures' - www.anvilmediainc.com/search-engine-marketing-glossary.html

'Social media is content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies'
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

'Online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other'
www.tvb.org/multiplatform/Multiplatform_Glossary.aspx

'Social media are works of user-created video, audio, text or multimedia that are published and shared in a social environment, such as a blog, wiki or video hosting site'
www.capilanou.ca/help/active-cms/glossary.html

Whatever your chosen definition there are three essential elements of 'people', 'interaction' and 'technology'

Interestingly the only definition I found even mentioning the word 'business' was this one:

'Social Media is the collection of tools and online spaces available to help individuals and businesses to accelerate their information and communication needs. [Axel Schultze]'
communitymanagers.pbwiki.com/Glossary-and-Reference

This quote is interesting in that it describes the main business use of SM technology being for accelerating information and communication. Good business strategy often relies on limiting, slowing down or iteratively releasing the flow of information and product rather than simply speeding it up.