Social Media | Life Coach Reid Walley

By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY

A surge in social-media use by small businesses reflects a shift in how they operate and their comfort with increasingly easy-to-use technology.

In growing numbers, small-business owners are adopting social-networking services, location-based services, Twitter and online video to promote products and services, according to a new study by MerchantCircle, a social network for small businesses. It polled a fraction of its more than 1.3 million members.

The survey results are the strongest evidence yet that small businesses — which account for more than 90% of all U.S. companies and fuel the economy — are accelerating their use of social media at the expense of traditional media such as newspapers, the Yellow Pages and radio. Even e-mail messages have taken a beating.

Read full article: More small businesses use Twitter, Facebook to promote – USATODAY.com.

This week we saw two days that shook the viral marketing world. Old Spice, a long-neglected–if not forgotten–Procter & Gamble brand unleashed a social media blitz that may have changed the rules of social network marketing.

“Holy sh*t, best get-well video EVER from Old Spice.”

Key to the effort was the response to Kevin Rose, the founder of social network Digg.com. Rose tweeted the Old Spice Man about his own illness that day. Old Spice Man made a custom-response video. Rose was enamored. He tweeted, “Holy sh*t, best get-well video EVER from Old Spice.” That message went out to his million-plus Twitter followers. A viral phenomenon was born.

Entrepreneur.com Daily Dose – Lessons From The Old Spice Man.