Categorically reviews the theories of communication, best practices in social media and previous research, and analyzes the corporate involvement towards strategic and tactical stewardship in serving customer-centric business requirements.PART I: EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA 1. Shifts in Marketing Communication 2. Market Communication and Grapevines 3. Strategic Planning with Social Media PART II: ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECTS 4. Social Marketing 5. Digital communities 6. Social Media for Consumer Insight 7. Social Media Metrics 8. Technology and Media Effectiveness PART III: THE SYNTHESIS 9. The Human Factors 10. Communication and Conflicts 11. Globalization and Consumer BehaviorDr. Rajagopal is Professor of Marketing at EGADE Business School of Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), Mexico City Campus, Mexico, and Fellow of the Royal Society for Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce, London. He is also Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, and Fellow of Institute of Operations Management, United Kingdom. He has been listed with his biography in various international directories including Who's Who in the World since 2008, and 2000 Outstanding Intellectual of the 21st Century published in 2009 by International Biographical Center, Cambridge, UK. He offers courses on Competitor Analysis, Marketing Strategy, Advance Selling Systems, International Marketing, Services Marketing, New Product Development, and other subjects of contemporary interest to the students of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs. Rajagopal holds post-graduate and doctoral degrees in Economics and Marketing respectively from Ravishankar University in India. His specialization is in the fields of Marketing Management, Rural Economic Linkages and Development Economics. He has to his credit 40 books on marketing management and rural development themes and over 400 research contriblÉ