Abstract
The substantial growth and development of social media for the past twenty yearsmotivate scholars to advance marketing theory and practice. Hitherto, despite numerous studies,no systemized theoretical platform for marketing explorations in social media is recognized. Evendifferent terms such as social networks and social media are employed interchangeably. This studyanalyses the historical background of social media and theories applied for marketing research,clarifies the term of social media, suggests a classification for extant theories used for currentmarketing investigations in the social media context, and demonstrates a need for elaboration ofsystemized marketing theory of social media to enhance the effectiveness of marketing explorationsand practices.