With all the hype around social media these days, it would appear that everybody is using social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube to facilitate their online conversations. While some see social media as either a fad or a waste of time, others see social media as an integral part of the future of business, begging the question: Is it possible for my business to survive without using social media?

A good place to start when looking for an answer to this question is to first recognize that social media can certainly be beneficial to a business. Think about the impact on your business when a single marketing message sent as a Tweet or a video on YouTube for example spreads like fire and can be seen by literally millions of people in a short period of time. Consider the fact that a large portion of the business population monitors their LinkedIn status feeds almost as frequently as they monitor their stock market application. Taking Facebook into consideration, it seems like there is hardly anyone in the world who is not plugged into site for several hours a day.

Your business already has an audience, all you need to do is plug in to the social media sites they are on and begin to show them you are real people with personality and have no problem in engaging in the conversations that are already taking place out there.

The short answer to the question at hand is that no one really knows for sure if your business will survive without the use of social media. Once thing is for sure however if social media turns out to not be a passing fancy, playing catch up will be difficult at best.

Nonetheless, social media is the de facto standard right now and even if it were to fall by the wayside sooner or later, the momentum you can gain today can go a long way towards the success of your business by securing more clients through the existing social media initiatives and those clients have the potential to become endorsers or evangelists for your business in the future.

Therefore, it is still extremely beneficial for your business to be engaged in the conversations by marketing your products and services on the existing social media sites.