The best way to provoke discussion on LinkedIn is to ask questions. The Sales Best Practices group on LinkedIn has a different membership than the Construction Professionals group. Here are a couple from the Sales Best Practices group: Eat that Frog! If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first. I spend a lot of time in LinkedIn groups and have learned a bit about maximizing their potential as conversation-starters. link]. MORE >>

lot of professional videographers have developed the skills they need for fast and high-quality online production and people are learning some basic best practices: Have a story to tell and a script to work from. I spent some time with comic video whiz Tim Washer  (also @timwasher ) at B2B Forum last week, and he followed up with a few questions about how B2B companies are using online video as part of their content marketing programs. shared some opinions with him, but why not share them with everybody else as well? I’d like to hear your answers to these questions, too. B2B vide MORE >>

Conversely, the owner of the Best Western Premier Marlemont can cut the advertising and direct mail budget because customers are doing a better job of promoting the hotel than any marketing could do. 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. Customer service is number two. “Take it,&# I said. MORE >>

Your best chance to be remembered by the person you've just met is in the days immediately following the encounter. Back in the early days of my career, I made a point to go on frequent informational interviews. These meetings, which were usually conducted in person, gave me a chance to sit down with people who were successful in their field and to learn from their experience. never overtly asked people for a job or anything more than a little of their time. My goal was to learn, and possibly to make an acquaintance that could prove fruitful in later years. Have an agenda. Ask questions. MORE >>

His best story actually had nothing to do with insurance but everything to do with using social marketing to build loyalty and word-of-mouth awareness. I 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. I couldn’t drink it.” MORE >>