Reasons why companies advertise through social media?

[Tom B]

Social media leads to increased brand recognition, customer interaction, buzz building and increased consumer insights without significantly increased costs.

You can adapt quickly with social media. Unlike traditional media sources, like print, billboards, TV, or radio, you can create or change an ad campaign in minutes without spending a ton of money.

Pay per click allows you extremely targeted advertising as well. Demographically speaking, you can target your audience based on location (down to zip code), by company they work for, age, sex, marital status, and more.

In the link below, a survey is referenced showing that over 1800 CEOs of large companies all agreed to either increase or not decrease their social media marketing budget for the 2012. It's because social media works well.