Not sure if it’s worth the time to invest in your company’s social media efforts? Besides the fact that social media sites are almost all free to setup and use, here are 5 other benefits for using social media for your business that stand out for us.

1. Engage your customers. Cost benefits aside, social media lets you communicate with your customers in ways that no amount of advertising can bring. You’ll stay updated on the latest trends in your industry by actually having ongoing conversations with the people that matter the most to your business.

2. Brand your company or yourself. Build your brand by having all of your social media efforts look and feel the same, so that visitors will know what your brand is all about.

3. Get feedback and results faster. Instead of waiting around to hear your customer’s concerns and feedback, you will have everyone at your fingertips on social media sites. You can be sure that people are accessing social media multiple times a day.

4. Create more links for people to find your website. The more involved you are in social media and the more often you update, the more links you’ll have going back to your website.

5. Find people who are interested in what you offer. On social media sites, people are going to follow what interests them the most. You don’t have to worry about your message being wasted on people who aren’t looking for it because your followers will consist of people with similar interests.

Just remember, social media is a great tool to use, but the goal is to bring people to your own website, so make sure you make your Twitter and Facebook fun and interesting to stay in the loop and keep visitors coming back.