Social media has quickly become the foremost activity on the Internet. The explosive growth in user-generated content has been a boon for insurance claims adjusters and fraud investigators. Navigating the social media landscape, however, can be tricky.

When the World Wide Web was established, early websites were mostly electronic versions of documents. They did a good job at broadcasting information to a wide audience but were not effective at brokering communication. With the advent of Web 2.0 and social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, bidirectional communication became one of the key reasons to use the Web.

The adoption rate for the use of social media in our daily lives is astounding. When radio was introduced, it took 38 years to reach 50 million people. Television was faster, reaching 50 million in only 13 years. The iPod reached this milestone in three years. Facebook did it in mere months. Social media technology is changing the way the world communicates. Half of all mobile Internet traffic in the U.K. is for Facebook. It should be pointed out that it's not just kids using social media sites. The Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that 46 percent of all American adults use at least one social networking site.