B2B Corporate Blog Facebook influence innovation marketing Social Media social networks Tips Twitter insurance John Hancock LIMRA LOMA New York Life State FarmI was privileged to be on a panel with some outstanding social media practitioners from the insurance industry at the 2011 Social Media Conference for Financial Services put on by LOMA LIMRA this morning. Financial services firms – and insurance companies in general – are often seen as boring, but what these companies are doing within the confines of a heavily regulated business is anything but that. With 1.3 MORE >>

Steal a page from Cisco, whose corporate page is one of the best B2B presences on Facebook. B2B corporate Facebook Social Media social networks Tips cisco SuperFanWant a low-cost, fun and effective way to reward your most active Facebook contributors? Last year, Cisco started the SuperFan program to recognize its best community members. Each month, administrators recognize one fan and highlight him or her at the top of the page. Two of the monthly winners were just chose as SuperFans of the Year and celebrated on the Facebook page as well as on the Cisco Platform Blog. MORE >>

These forces will affect B2B and B2C businesses, nonprofits and government agencies. Scott Wright is the general manager of the Wyndham Wingate Hotel in Erlanger, KY, and in a 15-minute ride to the airport yesterday morning he taught me something about the future of business. The fact that the manager of the hotel was driving me to the airport was unusual in the first place, but Wright makes it part of his routine. “I try to get out of the office at least a couple of times a week and connect with the customers,&# he said. Customer service is number two. “Take it,&# I said. MORE >>

B2B book podcast video cmo advantageI spent a fun half-hour chatting it up with Ed, who’s a good friend and fellow media enthusiast. He told me how he spends most of his time these days working with inner-city gang leaders to mediate disputes. It makes social media marketing seem rather unimportant. MORE >>

A couple of notable B2B efforts have caught my eye recently that I wanted to share. No doubt this wasn’t cheap, but it’s impressive to see a B2B community demonstrate this kind of ingenuity. Two impressive B2B social media efforts by two companies addressing very different audiences. B2B communities marketing Social Media videoOne is Element14 , a social community for engineers sponsored by an electronics distributor of the same name. Focused sub-groups – scores of technical forums ranging from LEDs, robotics, FPGAs, engineering student design teams, etc. MORE >>