The term social media has become ubiquitous over recent years, and with good reason: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest combined to represent roughly 37 percent of time spent online by U.S. adults in 2016—up from just 12 percent three years earlier, according to comScore. The world is becoming increasingly connected and users are now interacting more with brands on social media than ever before. In addition to growing popularity among consumers, there are now more social networks available for marketers to pursue relationships with their customers.

Simply put, social media marketing is about promoting your business or organization using social networks. Today there are hundreds if not thousands of ways to harness these tools to promote yourself, which can be confusing for any business owner. There are so many services out there how do you know what platform is best? Which sites give you better analytics? What’s really important when it comes to branding? Get answers to these questions and more in our beginners guide on social media marketing. If you already use some form of social media in your marketing strategy, you will want to learn about new ways that can bring in fresh customers. No matter where you are with your current approach, we’ll point out new techniques and provide insights into how they work.

Advertising with social media is no different than advertising with any other channel. The primary benefit of social media marketing is its wide reach. In just a few short years, social networks have become ubiquitous among internet users, and people who once didn’t know what a hashtag was can now join in on conversations involving thousands—if not millions—of other individuals. Brands have access to a huge potential customer base through social media, and if they choose to target a specific demographic or geographic region, there’s no limit to their potential reach.

Many entrepreneurs (and businesses) are hesitant to invest in social media marketing because they view it as an additional cost or time sink. But social media can be a crucial component for businesses, especially start-ups. The first part of your business plan should include a strategy for integrating social media into your marketing mix and should show how you’ll accomplish that goal at scale without spending too much money.