Welcome to March everyone and our second month of the Friday 5.  I hope you are enjoying our new blog series.  What type of Friday 5 items are you most interested in?

Here are some of the highlights and tidbits from this week.

1. Casinos have been in the St. Louis news lately, and this week the region welcomed another casino to the neighborhood.  River City Casino (run by Pinnacle Entertainment, the same company that opened Lumière Place downtown in 2008) opened on Thursday in Lemay, MO.
2. The University of Maryland released “The State of Small Business Report” and it states social media usage has increased from 12% to 24% in the last year among small businesses.  I’m surprised a higher percentage of small businesses aren’t taking advantage of social media, what do you think?
3. Are Toyota owners staying loyal?  That is a question Ad Week is asking this week.  Following the recent push of messages the company has sent out through TV and radio commercials, how do you think the company is handling its communications crisis and brand reputation?
4. The second annual Shorty Awards were presented this week.  What are the Shorty Awards you ask? Well it’s an award dedicated solely to Twitter users!  Check out the winners.
5. A topic of discussion this week at TVG included the best options for social media monitoring and reporting.  You can use free services like Google Alerts or Social Mention and then there are paid programs through Radian6, Vocus, Cision and many others.  We’ve used different methods for different clients. What is your favorite monitoring and reporting social media tool?

I’ve posed a lot of questions in this week’s Friday 5, so let us know what you think.  Have a great weekend.