Do you get stuck when it comes to writing new blog posts or newsletters for your business? Everybody does at a point in time.

I have compiled a list of 25 topics you can use as a basis for writing your next 25 articles.

In this post, I have substituted “community” to replace “customers, clients and subscribers”. So when you see ‘community’, it may mean any of the three words.

Fasten your seat belt and let’s begin ;

1. What we did when customer ‘X’ …; Who is customer X and what did they do or say about your products? Where did they do or say it and why did they do or say it?

2. Product/service updates we’re working on. So your already awesome products are getting even more awesome features. Your community needs to know about this.

3. Why our competitors can’t compete with us. Show your customers your remarkable side. A truly remarkable company is almost like a monopoly. Do you agree?

4. What our customers complain most about and what we are doing about it. Your customers are not happy about … and what you’re doing to make it better.

5. What our customers praise us for and what we think about it. Your customers say you are the best at … Your products helped them to … And you say you …

6. What we wish our customers will help us achieve more of. In other words, you will be telling your customers that you need their help and they will be glad to help. At the end of your message, ask, “will you help us?”

7. About our product’s raw materials. What important roles does each of your raw materials play in your products? Educate your community on what they are using.

8. How our company is using social media. Social media is going to help you do what? Use the right words to build up your content. Instead of saying it will help you sell more, say; it will help you reach more customers. If you say ‘sell’ your message will sound self-centered. It’s cool to see more people will be taking the same actions your community took when they first met you.

9. What features we have on our Facebook fan page. So you have analytics, a cool video, cool design and a newsletter on your Facebook fan page. That’s so cool. Before saying “go and take a look at our fan page”, tell them the cool things you have put on there. Most will go and really take a look.

10. Videos we shared on our Youtube channel this day/week/month/quarter/year. Okay, so you’re on Youtube and you have a channel. Have you told your community about it? Many people don’t. Instead integrating, they disintegrate. Tell your community about your Youtube channel and the videos you share there.

11.What people say @ us on Twitter. Show your community that there are conversations going on with you on Twitter. Some will automatically follow you and say something @ you.

12.Our best selling items and why they sell so well. You have bragging rights. Use them. Want to sell more of your products, brag and sell more.

13. What lessons other businesses can learn from us. Flaunt your strengths and achievements to your community. Add that you couldn’t have done it without them.

14.What our last survey showed us about our customers. You surveyed your customers, now show them the results and let them know what you will be using the results for. As a customer, I hate it when I participate in a survey and don’t get to see the results. Don’t be mean. Please share .

15.Why and how we chose our brand ambassador. What are the responsibilities of your brand ambassador(s)? How did you choose them? Choose your brand ambassador from your own customers please.

16. Who our partners are and why we partnered with them. Tell your community why you need your partners and why it matters to them.

17. How we built our communities on social media and networking sites; Show them how you gathered all your following. Show them how you cheated or failed to cheat . Show them some stats to serve as social proof, if you numbers are high.

18. How and why we got featured in the news or a top blog. Show your community how likable you are. This will let them take you serious and they will see you as an authority in whatever you got in the news for. Link to the news source.

19. New businesses/ services we are building. What’s happening in production? Give just a little detail to build anticipation.

20. When our next contest will be hosted and what we will be giving away. Build anticipation and get your community coming back to see if there are any updates concerning the competition. WildfireApp can help you run a fancy, buzz filled contest campaign.

21. What your company’s customer traditions are; Maybe you give away a bundle of products for cheap during your birthday or you organize meetups during your birthday for your customers to meet each other or you … etc.

22. How to use ‘your product’s name’ to … Show your customers different ways they can use your products. If your products are customizable, show them how they can customize them.

23. How we celebrated our birthday in-house; What did your company’s employees do on your birthday? Share some multimedia will you .

24. How and why we choose our customers for our adverts; Show your customers the reason why you care about them.

25. Customer interview #1; yea, interview customers on your blog, ask them what they think about your products, how they use your products, what they will like to see in your products, etc. This will serve as testimonials and will add some humanness to your website/blog. Reward interviewed customers with a heavy discount or free stuff from your product line. They will send the word out and … you know what will happen . Don’t forget to change “#1″ to “#2″, “#3″ and so on as you interview more customers.

That was fun. Now you have 25 topics to write on. Get started today. Do you see yourself using these post ideas on your blog or newsletter? What do you normally struggle with when it comes to blogging or writing newsletters? Share your views.

Do you really understand social media? Understanding social media is not a difficult thing at all. However, some businesses still can’t figure it out. They can’t figure it out because misconceptions are spread all over the internet concerning social media.

Getting more involved in social media now is better than waiting until later because it will get to a time that it will seem more confusing and even more difficult for businesses.

If you hold any of the beliefs below, do away with it and jump on board before you miss the train.

• Misconception #1: Blogging is a tool: Blogging is a business strategy, not a tool. A blog is rather the tool used for blogging. A blog also helps you integrate your other strategies like social media marketing by linking to other strategy enhancing tools like social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube. Yes, social media marketing too is strategy. All the strategies you use in your blogging and social media strategies are just sub-strategies of blogging and social media which are your main strategies for success in achieving this or that.

• Misconception #2: Social Media is about numbers: Is it of essence to build 40,000 Twitter followers and 20,000 Facebook fans who don’t buy from you? Social media is about relationship building and influence. Sorry, but having a large number of followers doesn’t mean you are influential. One-to-one relationships build influence. Good relationships later lead on to influence. If you have 200 Twitter followers who listen and engage with you, you stand a better chance to get a sale from them than from 40,000 people who don’t send you @ messages about anything of your business’ interest. It’s best to follow the people you want to talk or listen to (a.k.a. your target audience) than follow just anybody.

• Misconception #3: Automation Means Using Tools: No, measurement rather means using tools. Automation means your fans and followers will do your work for you. They will be your evangelists and will recruit more fans and followers for you. The number one quality required here is patience. If you rely on tools to build your fans and followers, you will most likely recruit web robots who also want you to buy something from them. Would you rather waste time gathering status update spectators or you want to utilize your time to build a more targeted following?

• Misconception #4: Be present everywhere: So you’ve been told to have a Twitter profile, a Facebook fan page, a Youtube channel, a LinkedIn group, Digg profile, etc. Well, are your customers gathered there? Do you have the resources to manage your business on every social media and networking site? Before you put your business on any social networking site, be sure of what you want to achieve with that profile; customer service, more leads or maybe sales. After setting your goal, stick to it. If at any point you find any trouble getting the results you want, perform a social media audit.

• Misconception #5: There is no ROI: If you are not getting any ROI, then you are either doing something wrong or you’re not measuring things right. Dell has been able to make over $6.5 million on Twitter alone. Avaya also made a $250,000 sale using Twitter. Small businesses are also using Twitter to bring in some ROI using social media. To make social media marketing work for you, you need to communicate your intentions well with your followers. Dell’s @delloutlet clearly tells everyone they will be selling. We all know what an outlet means. If all you are going to do with one of your Twitter accounts is to just give discount coupons, tell your customers about it. So anybody who follows you knows you’ll be tweeting coupons from time to time. Secondly, ROI is not just about money or profits. If your aim is to get leads or newsletter subscriptions, your ROI will be the number of leads you collect. Then your ROI on those leads will be the number of leads you convert to sales. Social media can be a channel for both lead collection and direct selling. You need to communicate it well. Plan your campaign well. Remember, the most important thing in marketing is communication so don’t forget to plan about what you want to communicate to your followers.

Now that we have gotten these wrong ideas taken care of, where are you headed to with your social media marketing campaign? In your experience, what other misconceptions have you found?