By: Jennifer Hanford

Social media has revolutionized the way people do business, maybe even more so than the telephone did, way back in the day.

Every day, we find new and potentially better ways to incorporate social media into our daily lives, and this doesn't go unnoticed by most of the social media networks we use.

To keep up with user demands, each of the primary social media platforms (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.), needs to constantly evolve. If they weren't continually developing enhancements and improvements, they would quickly lose their relevance in today's marketing world. And if they lose relevance, their users will lose interest.

This all bodes well for businesses that plan to use, or are already using, social media as part of their marketing strategy. Social media for business is growing more popular - just as it has for individuals. Even though some people still consider social media for business to be a passing fad or trend, most of us know better by now.

Statistics, such as the following, show how social media usage is continuing to grow:

The number of active social media users worldwide is 2.78 billion, out of the world’s population of 7.47 billion. (we are social)
More than 2 million advertisers regularly use Facebook to market their business. (Hootsuite)
85% of people rely on Twitter and Facebook for their morning news. (Byte of Data)
The numbers don’t lie, right? But what is it, exactly, that makes social media for business so appealing? With so many businesses using social media for marketing already, there must be plenty of good reasons.

Here are three of the best reasons why businesses need social media:

1. Social media for business costs less than traditional marketing
Traditional marketing often requires a sizeable budget for printing marketing brochures or hiring people to make phone calls. Many businesses are learning that marketing through social media, by comparison, costs much less – at least monetarily.

"If you're looking for a type of marketing that's able to reach the most people for the lowest cost you may want to consider using social media over traditional marketing. In addition to reaching more people, not having a strong social media presence for your business can end up costing you in the long run." 
Source: No Time for Social

2. Social media for business provides brands with more exposure and awareness
As noted above, people are joining social media at nearly astronomical rates, and those numbers seem to be growing on a daily basis. The brands that are regularly engaging and interacting with their followers on social media have advantages over the others that aren’t.

Social media for business can lead to efficient “word of mouth” marketing, and provide benefit to brands in the forms of increased traffic to their websites and more leads generated, for example.

3. Social media offers efficient and cost-effective networking and communication for businesses of all sizes
Social media makes it easy to network with anyone in the world, at any time of day. Virtual meetings and communications will never completely replace face-to-face interactions, however, they do have plenty of other benefits, including saved time and money.

"Effective communication is important in every business, big and small. The expansion of social networking has thrown open the door for corporations of any size to build a strong network of loyal customers. The Internet is swelling with online communities, discussions groups, forums, tweets and fan pages, all ready to sing the praises of any business working online."
Source: Be Social Worldwide

Over to You
These are only three of dozens of reasons why businesses need social media in today's digital world. From increasing awareness of a business to developing relationships with potential clients to selling products or services - social media has become essential for success.

Are you using social media for your business? What do you think are the best things about it?