In this article, the authors present the results from a structured review of the literature, identifying and analyzing the most quoted and dominant definitions of social media (SM) and alternative terms that were used between 1994 and 2019 to identify their major applications. Similarities and differences in the definitions are highlighted to provide guidelines for researchers and managers who use results from previous research to further study SM or to find practical applications. In other words, when reading an article about SM, it is essential to understand how the researchers defined SM and how results from articles that use different definitions can be compared. This article is intended to act as a guideline for readers of those articles.

中文翻译：

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社交媒体二十五年：1994年至2019年社交媒体应用和定义的回顾

在本文中，作者介绍了对文献进行结构化审查的结果，确定并分析了1994年至2019年间被引用最多和最主要的社交媒体定义（SM）和替代术语，以识别其主要应用。突出显示了定义的相似性和差异性，为使用先前研究结果进一步研究SM或找到实际应用的研究人员和管理人员提供了指南。换句话说，在阅读有关SM的文章时，必须了解研究人员如何定义SM以及如何比较使用不同定义的文章的结果。本文旨在作为那些文章的读者的指南。