While many businesses are still sitting on the sidelines, waiting to jump into social media marketing, social media is becoming a more integral part of customers’ daily lives. Facebook alone has 800 million active users, half of which log on to Facebook on any given day.

In order to stay relevant and top-of-mind with customers, now is the time for business marketers to engage in social media. Here are three of the main reasons why your business needs to leverage social media now:

Eyeballs and Mindshare Are Moving Online
According to eMarketer, in 2010, advertisers spent more money on online marketing than on newspaper ads. In 2011, the budget for online advertising is projected to grow and surpass newspaper advertising by close to $4 billion dollars. This money trail indicates the growing number of eyeballs and mindshare to be captured online. Social media marketing is an inexpensive way for businesses to enter this online advertising environment. Unlike traditional paid ad models, the only real cost of social media marketing is the time required to build and maintain your presence.

Powerful Word-of-Mouth Capabilities
The real power of social media marketing lies in the potential for word-of-mouth online influencers. If a customer has 5,000 followers on Twitter and tweets something positive about your business, then that tweet is like a free online advertisement with a potential audience of 5,000 new customers, plus any Twitter followers of those 5,000 people, and so on. The same kind of thinking is true for Facebook wall posts and LinkedIn questions and answers and group discussions (for business-to-business marketing).

The Rise of Mobile
Not only are more and more customers involved in social media, but these folks are increasingly accessing social sites from their smartphones. According to Nielsen’s Q3 2011 Social Media Report, almost 40 percent of social media users access social sites from their mobile devices.  This means that users are connected to social media sites 24/7.  To start, you can advertise your social media presence from within your brick-and-mortar location and visitors can “friend” your business instantly from their phones. Add cutting-edge mobile marketing tactics like location-based marketing and QR codes to the mix, and the possibilities of mobile and social media marketing are limitless!