Sometimes talking with clients it comes down to one simple question and that is where they challenge me to tell them "why do I need social media?" I'm never bothered by that question because it's the same reason a company does any advertising and marketing.
Most businesses will agree their primary goal is to make more money and to increase sales. Where it gets fuzzy for them is identifying what you have to do to get to the point of making more money.
Let's assume first of all that you have a good product or service to offer. Next you need to build awareness and good branding to let people know who you are, what you offer and that you are a reputable company so they want to work with you.
All marketing efforts want to showcase a company in the best light. Social media does that too but you have the added benefit of getting an immediate response to your marketing efforts to see if they are working. If they aren't they you haven't spent a large sum of money on a marketing campaign that isn't going to succeed.
Instead you can take you social feedback and use it to go forward. If your current efforts are on track then your member community will tell you and you can continue, if not then you have a chance to learn what the consumer feels about you. This real time data is vital so you can determine if you have issues with your pricing, staffing, services or other problems that could be keeping you from growing your business.
So the real question is "why aren't you using social media?"
Feel free to follow me @sandeemiller or www.marketingdaze.com.