Social media has shaken up the world of sales, with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter offering new ways to hound leads and unprecedented insights into clients.

Sales teams use social media to generate leads and track clients as they move through the sales funnel. Operations and distribution teams forecast supply chains, while research and development squads brainstorm product ideas.

Social media, for all of its limitations, is rarely irrelevant. The stream of updates on your Facebook page, for instance, is algorithmically engineered to be darn-near irresistible.

The use of social media makes users self-focused, which in turn creates loneliness and causes people to blame one another in homes and public places which used to be friendly and lively.

To a man with an internet connection, every thought and every movement sounds like a tweet or status update.

Companies and managers that find a way to harness social media stand to gain.