Before you answer that question you need to look at the most visited websites. During 2010, thanks to pro site news, we can see who is the most popular.

 

1. Google – No suprise there, whether you like it or not they are still top of the stack
2. Facebook – The social media platform. You are now seeing companies advertising their Facebook pages before their own websites.
3. Youtube – Can't get enough of cat's riding tortoises? The video sharing network goes from strength to strength.
4. Yahoo – Please are still using Yahoo so they are still ranker highly, but for how long is anyone's guess. Has more of a portal feel than Google.
5. Windows Live – Same as Yahoo, this might be the Microsoft bundle effect? Nice new layout with Bing might enable them to gain more market share.
6. Wikipedia – Chuck out your encyclopedias everything you have ever wanted and more can be found here. You know what they say, "it says it in Wikipedia, so it must be true" – the only thing is here that the users write the content, still most of the information is accurate.
7. Blogger - the blogosphere platform owned by Google.
8. Baidu – never heard of it. Oh, its from China and there is a lot of Chinese. I don't speak Chinese so but i am sure it has plenty of censored good content.
9. MSN – Batting off competition from Google's wave still the instant messaging platform for many people - though its taken a little bashing from the facebook chat service.

10. Yahoo Japan – double entry from Japan.

So counting from list above we can see there are 4 social media websites in the top 10. These being; Facebook, Youtube, Blogger and MSN. You cannot underestimate the importance of theses sites they are a must have for business giving them a tool for helping companies with their online presence.

But social media Is for kids. Right?

Well its would be dangerous to think so. Of course the kids have been instigators in using these technologies but that doesn't mean that they can solely benefit. Surprisingly,
• 65% of Facebook users are 25 and older.
• 40% of Facebook users are over 35.
• The fastest growing demographic continues to be 55+. (up 922.7% in 2010)
Believe it or not, but the statistics for Twitter are even more skewed to those over 35.

But do we need it?

This is the big question. The answer is probably a logistical question rather than a practical one. Most companies would definitely benefit from utilising social media – however, just paying lip service to it is another thing. How many times have you joined a group in Facebook, which doesn't tell you anything or keep you updated into what is going on with their product, service or business. You need a plan, you need to fit the daily integration into your business for it to truly work and once it does you will start to see a benefit to your businesses bottom line.