Many industries have been slow to explore social media. But many business-to-business service industries are really lagging behind, especially those in the financial and legal sectors. Though they have always been conservative in nature, in this new highly regulated environment they’re absolutely stuck in place.

When a B2B business balks at social media, here are the common objections:

Who is really on those sites anyway? They’re for kids.

More than 63 percent of all American adults have joined at least one social network. It is the number one platform for creating and sharing content. And the king in that game is Facebook.

Facebook has exceeded 600 million users and the largest demographic in terms of sheer numbers using the site is ages 35-44. The fastest-growing demographic is 55+. The average user not only logs on every day, but logs on several times a day.

Is there a way we can turn off the comments?

On most platforms, there is. But it’s not advisable. The rise of social media comes from the human truth – we like to share. What makes social media such a wonderful marketing tool is the ability to connect and have conversations. To encourage sharing. You can’t do that if you’re creating a monologue. And, unlike broadcast media, if you don’t let them participate they will simply tune you out.

We’d have to unblock it (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.) and our employees would waste all their time on it.

If your employees want to utilize social media sites, they can do so despite your blocks. Smartphone penetration in America is expected to be more than 50 percent before the end of 2011.

Every one of those phones is Internet-ready right out of the box. Most of them come pre-loaded with Facebook, YouTube and Twitter at the very least. If your employees want to access any site available on the Web, they can do that from their own phones at the click of an app.

Why do we need to use social media? What’s really in it for us?

That’s really the ultimate question, isn’t it? Why should we do this? There are lots of very valid reasons for businesses to be wading into the social media waters. Here’s the biggie:

Because you want customers for life who bring you even more long-term customers.

You don’t want to have to compete on price alone, you want to be perceived as unique and valuable in the marketplace, and you want to have better margins. All of these things result from deeper relationships with your customers. The longer a good customer stays, the less they fight you on price, the more they value you and the more they buy from you. They also are your greatest source of new customers. That’s Marketing 101.

Social media takes these truths and amplifies them.

Social media tools allow you to share your expertise, take your rightful place as a community leader, educate, support good causes, invite critique and conversation and ultimately allow you to become and stay relevant in the lives of your customers.

The best part is, your customers are already there. Isn’t it time you joined them?

Drew McLellan is Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group and blogs at www.drewsmarketingminute.com. He can be reached by email at Drew@MclellanMarketing.com. © 2011 Drew McLellan