When my friend's small business was struggling a while back, I suggested he add some social media initiatives, and his answer was that he was too busy. His business has since closed, but his mindset is still out there. According to a study (http://www.ad-ology.com/smallbizrpt.cfm) of 1700 CEOs a couple of years ago, only 60 percent of companies today use social media for marketing, and only 12 percent of those feel that they are using it effectively.

What's the problem? It seems to me that there is abundant proof in the marketplace of the financial returns to both large and small businesses, the low cost of entry, and the ubiquity of social networks. Dell (http://readwrite.com/2009/06/12/social_media_roi_dells_3m_on_twitter_and_four_bett) announced years ago that it had earned $3 million in revenue and a high ROI from using Twitter, and other businesses report daily on increases in web traffic up to 800 percent.

I suspect that a good...