The real benefits of social media marketing are often debated. Given the endless hours it takes to develop a social media marketing plan, grow your followers and fans, and continually update your accounts with well thought out, witty and relevant posts or Tweets it is important to determine what the real benefit of social media marketing is to your bottom line.

First, you need to analyze your business. Some businesses see tremendous results with social media marketing, while others may see no impact to the bottom line at all. If you sell products or services to the general public, or have a very specific target demographic, then utilizing Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube are likely to have a positive impact on your profits. However, if you only sell your wares wholesale to niche retailers, your advertising budget is probably best spent on pay-per-click campaigns or other internet marketing strategies.

So the million-dollar question is: How do you convert fans and followers to customers? The answer is two part:

1. Turn your existing customer base into followers and fans, and offer them special deals to bring them back to your business or offer them incentives to spread the word to their network of online friends and colleagues.
2. Attract new followers and fans through contests and promotions and reward them for their attention by offering deals they can only get through your social media efforts.

Of course, the challenge comes in the fact that you have to continually update your social media accounts by combining the perfect blend of humor, informative or interesting tidbits related to your business or industry. You have to figure out exactly how often to update- enough that your fans and followers don't forget who you are, but not so much they remove you from their feeds. And you have to do all of this while still maintaining your day-to-day business tasks, ensuring it does not drain your valuable time.

So is social media marketing worth it? Only you can determine the value it will have to your business plans and goals. If time is a resource you lack, investing in the help of a virtual assistant can help you get the most for your efforts while leaving you free to run your business.