In just a few short years, social media has allowed businesses of all shapes and sizes to build large, highly-engaged communities of fans and customers, raising brand awareness, driving traffic to e-commerce portals and boosting sales.

It’s as recent as 2006 that both Twitter and Facebook opened their doors to the general public, but the world has changed dramatically in that time. Some 80 percent of Americans now use at least one social network – that’s over 245 million people.

And with over 30 percent of the world’s population now online, the modern business simply cannot afford to ignore social media. This infographic from website development firm Wix takes a closer look at why your business must go social.

(Source: Wix. Social media image via Shutterstock.)