I have had a few people ask me recently about the benefit of social media and what do i say to people who just cant get into it.I believe that there are a number of benefits that need to be made clear to the people who are still unsure about the great benefits of social media and social Networking. Firstly, have a look at the sheer numbers of people using these sites (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube etc) According to Alexa , (the foremost authority on web use and trends) Facebook is just about to take over the number 3 spot (behind Google-no 1 and Yahoo- no 2) from  Youtube.

Twitter currently sits at number 27 and is growing rapidly. Now these figures represent a massive growth in companies using these applications for marketing and other business reasons.

The fact that Twitter and Facebook have opened up their applications to 3rd party developers means that people are developing applicaions that suits all types of requirements. Apart form business applications, there are many useful things that these social sites can be used for: Keeping updated on news and events. from friends and family, and also a point that many don’t realise and that is these sites can be used as the best feedback and information booth ever.

Lets say that you need an answer about some current event or trend that is taking place now or in the past few days, you can type your question on Facebook or Twitter and you will get an instant response. If you typed the same question on Google, sure you will get results, but those results will not necessarily be current. Your results may go back in time for several years..not much good if your looking for current trends or want to find the latest sports score! All you need to do is type a question that you need answered and watch the responses flow in, work needed by you to source the answers is very minimal.

The other major bonus is that all of this is absolutely free. The majority of the 3rd party applications are free to, so what have you got to lose?