The method of obtaining website traffic or attention to a particular website with the help of social media websites is known as social media marketing. The focus of social media marketing schemes is to concentrate on efforts and campaigns to build specific content that will draw the attention of its readers and encourage the audience to share it with their own networks through their social network profiles.

This form of marketing is known as 'earned media' rather than 'paid media', because there is a spread of information and message from one user to another, which appears to come from a third party source that is considered to be a trusted source, rather than coming from a brand or a company or its public relations agency.

One of the chief aims of social media networks is to allow users to build relationships and interact with one another. When organisations enter into social channels, it gives them the opportunity to interact with their consumers and audience and communicate with them on a direct basis. This form of interaction gets the organisation and the user on a single platform to interact on a personal level, as opposed to conventional forms of marketing such as advertising or outbound marketing.

With regards to the Internet, social media engagement indicates that consumers and stakeholders are active participants on the network rather than just spectators. With the introduction of social media in business circles, anyone and everyone has the right to convey or share an opinion/thought concerning a particular aspect of the organisation's product or service online. When a consumer becomes a participant, he becomes part of the marketing section of the organisation as other readers view comments or reviews posted by the consumer regarding the organisation. This form of social media engagement is highly critical to successful social media marketing.

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