My incomplete taxonomy of social media seeks to differentiate tools from social media themselves. It also attempts to create buckets of social media platforms and tools based on their functional similarity. Social media are distinguished by their basis in user-generated content, their ability to foster collaboration and community, and typical use of more-than-two way conversations. Tools are services that perform functions to make our social media lives easier. In the middle, I've created a swim lane of some tools that have the potential to become bonafide social media but at present don't have all of the characteristics (e.g. they may be used more for broadcast/sharing than as a true "meeting place").