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This is a guest post by the fabulous Sarah Santacroce from Simplicity – Simple Small Business Solutions

When Martina asked me if I’d like to write a post for her blog I was of course thrilled and immediately started thinking about possible topics. We agreed that I’d write about ‘Blogging’ and my first thought was to tell you about the benefits of blogging. But that’s boring, right? So that’s why I chose a more dramatic approach 😉 Here we go:

Social Media to create Buzz?

When I get contacted by a prospect I often hear ‘Sarah, I want you to create buzz for my business on Social Media’.

‘Ok, let’s have a chat’ I say.

In this chat, which usually evolves into a 30 minute conversation, I try to explain that in order to create buzz on Social Media, they need to provide some kind of content. Usually the content comes in form of blog posts, but it can also be white papers, research data, audio recordings, video etc.

Without your own content, you will end up with one of the following two scenarios:
a)    You only share other people’s content, promoting someone else’s website
b)    You only share promotional updates, which your followers will soon grow tired of

In order to create buzz, you need to create your own content by blogging regularly.

Social Media doesn’t generate sales

If you’d listen to all the Social Media gurus out there, you would think that Social Media is the answer to all your problems. ‘If you have a fancy Facebook page, your sales will increase by 80%’ Or ‘Pinterest will increase your traffic & leads by 50%’…

Don’t listen to them! Yes, Social Media is part of the equation, but it’s only a tool to an end, a great way to spread your message and increase brand recognition. But it’s very rare that an actual sales transaction happens directly via Facebook, Pinterest or any other social platform. Sales happen after people have developed trust in your business, by reading your regular blog posts!

What if Facebook starts to charge for pages?

It’s not impossible, don’t you think? Already they make us pay to ‘promote’ our posts, in other words get them seen by our own fans. The truth is that you don’t own your Facebook fans, Twitter followers or Pinners. But you DO own your blog. The domain is yours, the look & feel is yours, the content is yours and you can do whatever you want with it. No restrictions.

Build your list with your blog

Do you know what else you own when you blog regularly? Your e-mail subscriber list. Besides providing content to share on Social Media, a blog is probably THE best way to grow your e-mail subscriber list. If people like your content, they will subscribe to your list. And the good news is: you own that list! In fact, it’s one of the most important assets of your company. Over time your list will grow, and so will the value of your company.

Social Media rocks, but…

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for Social Media. It’s one of the best inventions ever for small business owners. Whether it is Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Google+, all of these channels are a great way to socialize & converse with your target audience. But if you’re not blogging you really are wasting your time, because you don’t achieve the most important goal of social media: driving traffic to your own site.

Let me know what you think: do you agree or disagree? Do you blog and have already seen the positive impact on your small business? Please share with us in the comments below.

Sarah Santacroce is a certified Social Media, Internet Marketing & Virtual Event specialist. She helps small business owners and individual entrepreneurs to find their place in today’s online world. Sarah is a Swiss national, but thinks with a global mind. Read Sarah’s latest blog posts.

futureshape/Flickr Creative Commons

Tagged as: blogging, blogging for small business, blogs, email marketing, Facebook, internet marketing, social media