More and more small businesses now embrace the value of social media in building their brands and increasing sales. Over a third already use social media and market researchers are predicting a huge increase in the next few months. Smart business owners realize they can’t risk being left behind more agile competitors. So they’re rushing to get on board the social media juggernaut.

But not everyone is joining the revolution. Some business owners are still reluctant to participate in this fundamental change to the business landscape. An oft-heard objection boils down to one word: time.

Let’s face it. Most small business owners very work long hours every day. There is never enough time to do everything that needs to be done. So who has time to mess around with website updates and Facebook feeds on top of everything else?

The short answer is that you can’t afford not to take the time. But it may be far less time than you imagined.

TraffikWorks Media offers tools that make it a snap to update your site yourself and even create online coupons. What exactly is content? It could be just about anything: a link to a product review or blog post, a photo one of your online community members contributes, or a video from YouTube. All you have to do is include the link and add a few words of your own.

Don’t worry about being a “polished” professional writer. Authenticity is much more important. It’s not hard to establish yourself as a trusted expert if you publish useful information. And you don’t even have to write much!

Here’s just one tip from the TraffikWorks Social Media Guide, now in production. You can easily set up a search at www.google.com/alerts using a keyword from your industry. Then you can “harvest” the links to provide valuable information to your customers and prospects.

Once posted on the “Interactive Wall” of your website, the content will be duplicated in your company’s Facebook and Twitter feeds, from which a whole new audience can link back to your website.

Creating content is neither complicated nor difficult nor especially time-consuming. Perhaps an employee (or even one of your kids!) can handle the task.

Bottom line: the benefits are large. And the time required is probably much less than you thought.