Businesses use social media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn for a variety of reason.

The charts below are very interesting in what they reveal.

---

---

---

And social media is not just for branding. It can result in direct sales if utilized correctly.

An Twitter-exclusive promotion brought in 15% of their day’s business, an associate of Naked Pizza told Advertising Age. “Sure, there’s the brand marketing and getting-to-know-you stuff…but we wanted to know: Can it make the cash register ring?”

Apparently it did.

Recently, Ad Age offered five tips for marketing on social media platforms:

* Track sales made on social media.
* Don’t use Twitter as Facebook (and vice versa). Know what each can do and the strengths/weakness of each platform.
* Create a conversation with friends and followers.
* Sell last-minute inventory.
* Alert followers to changes.