Billions of people around the world now use social media. It is deeply embedded in society, including the global business environment. It seemed like a glorious gift to businesses because now they could promote their brands with no geographic limitations. It was a gift but one with strings attached. The metaphorical strings are the challenges that business leaders need to manage in order to generate full value in the social media space. The opportunities are endless with being able to reach a global audience and to identify market trends topping the list. However, the challenges include successfully managing cross-cultural communication, building a strong brand when the internet makes it easy for users to forgo brands, and harnessing the data and analytics to capture value.

The opportunities associated with utilizing social media on a global basis are fairly obvious. It is theoretically possible to reach billions of people on all the continents. Social media enables even ...