Social media may have begun, as its namesake implies, as a tool intended purely for social engagement, but the commercial value soon became apparent and it has become the marketer’s new best friend too. As social media use now far outweighs traffic, circulation, audience reach for all traditional media channels, marketers have had to seriously alter their game plan to take this shift in the media landscape into account. The industry is finding that conventional strategies have had to be re-written and the basic structure of any campaign transformed. How is it that a platform once devoid of any commercial content has had such a significant impact on the marketing industry?