Gone are the days when companies hesitated to use social media in the business environment. Today, using social media is not an option, but rather a way of doing business. Social media refers to the means of interaction between people in which they create, share and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks (wikipedia). There are many types of social media platforms: blogs like WordPress, microblogs like Twitter, video sharing sites like Flickr and YouTube, social networking sites like Facebook, and professional networking sites like LinkedIn (isaca.org). Social media offers many benefits such as increased brand recognition, customer loyalty, marketing channels, 24/7 communication channels, and building personal, professional, and organizational networks. While social media offers many potential benefits, there are four areas of risk: organizational, data, people, and technology. Businesses wishing to use social media must adopt a social media strategy integrated with the overall organizational strategy to address risks, together with appropriate governance and assurance measures. Social media monitoring should be carried out to ensure that risks are adequately identified and that controls are adequate to address the issues, concerns and risks. Uses/Benefits Social media offers many tangible benefits that lead to cost savings and increased revenue. The ability to tweet or post a message is more cost-effective than placing a paid ad or sending thousands of marketing articles (adsolutions.yp.com). With advanced advertising tools, businesses can easily customize ads for target audiences. Businesses can provide better customer service by quickly responding to customer comments, concerns and questions. Social me......middle of paper......ConclusionThe use of social media is becoming very popular and this has significant implications for both businesses and individuals. While social media offers great opportunities to interact with customers and business partners in new and exciting ways, there are significant risks for those using this technology without a clear strategy that addresses both the benefits and risks (isaca.org). Restricting the use of social media to avoid risks is not a viable option, therefore the company should engage all relevant stakeholders to develop a strategy and associated policies to address issues arising from the use of social media. Because this is an emerging communications technology and companies are new to using and managing the risks associated with social media, it is necessary to implement a control to adequately address the concerns and risks related to the use of social media..