In yesterdays blog on how useful is Twitter as a business tool, we concluded that blogging is a more useful way of reaching our audience. An article in the Telegraph reports that 52 pc of respondents to a survey found that social media was useless for their business.

This comes as no great surprise as the whole social media thing can become the means itself rather than the means to the end, when most small business owners really want and need to concentrate on doing the stuff that results in an invoice.

It is a surprise, however, how many SMEs, don’t even have a website, preferring to use the more traditional methods of mail shots and face-to-face meetings and telephone calling. That is a pity, really as they are missing a trick here. The first thing that mots businesses do when they receive a mailshot, no matter how good it may be, is to check ou the business on the old world wide interweb and if there isn’t a website, or it is of an amatuerish nature, then the mailshot has effectively been wasted.

Keeping Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin up to date can be all consuming, it is true and whilst the company may feel that their time could be better spent elsewhere in the business, there is absolutley no excuse for not having even the simplest of websites.

A small html based brochure site can work wonders as a virtual shop window and need not be expensive. For most businesses, one extra order as a result of the website will prove a significant ROI.

We would advocate the addition of a blog to any website and use this to update the world on what is happening in the business. Of course, it needs to be updated regularly – minimum once a month – but it need not take too much time. Allocate an 1 hour on a Friday to add a few words to your site. It will reap enormous benefits.