You haven’t missed the boat if you ask, ‘Why is social media marketing important for business?’ I always say the only dumb question is the unasked question, and in fact the basics in social media marketing matter. So the importance of social media for business is a basic question that you should get an answer for. Let’s investigate a few reasons why social media marketing is important for business. 
First, social media is where the customers are these days. Fewer and fewer people watch regular TV. Fewer and fewer people answer their phones (despite the attempts of robocalls). And fewer and fewer people read their physical ‘snail mail.’ But more and more people spend time on Facebook, on Twitter, on Snapchat, on Instagram, on LinkedIn, on YouTube. So the first reason why social media is important for your business is that it is where your customers hang out. It’s where they like, where they comment, where they share. It’s THE place for content these days.
Second, social media marketing is important because it provides both free and paid (advertising) opportunities to engage with your customers. You, as a brand, can create fun, even viral content, and folks can like it, comment on it, and engage with it. It’s interactive in a way that TV, direct mail, and other forms of marketing are not. It’s almost akin to those old-school booths at the fair in which they show some new kitchen gadget and tell you, ‘It slices. It dices. But wait there’s more.’ So, if you can create a great infomercial on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. (especially in video format), more power to you. As long as it’s engaging.
But third, social media is where customers conversations including reviews and recommendations take place. Yes, they still take place face-to-face or over the phone, but they take place more and more when a customer posts a selfie to Instagram, a customer creates a shared YouTube video about an experience about your brand, or even something as simple as a review on Yelp or Google. Social media marketing matters to your business because the online conversation – on Google reviews, on YouTube, on Instagram and other places matters to the ultimate success of your marketing – building your brand and (ultimately) selling more stuff.
