Social media are digital Web 2.0 applications that facilitate interactive
information, user-created content, and collaboration (see Elefant, 2011).
Social media exists entirely on the Internet or portals that can access the
Internet (e.g., computers, tablets, and cell phones). Applications are different
technological mechanisms to connect people and information. The
most popular and well-known social media applications are SNWs. SNWs
are a subset of social media and meet the following three broad criteria:
(1) they are an online service that allows users to build a profile within
the network, (2) they allow users to build a list of other users that they
share a connection with, and (3) they allow users to view and to navigate
the information created by other users on the social network (Boyd &
Ellison, 2007). Because of these unique features, SNWs have been the
focus of academic research in the area of employment selection (Van
Iddekinge, Lanivich, Roth, & Junco, in press). However, SNWs are only a
subset of the broader domain of social media that will be explored in
this chapter