I wrote about Twitter many times in SoulSoup and elsewhere.
Nowadays, more and more people finding new ways to use Twitter (and other microblogging platforms) in business. Laura Fitton collected a nice list of articles on usage Twitter for Business Reading List. Some examples:

• Brave New World of Digital Intimacy, New York Times Magazine
• CEO Guide to Microblogging, BusinessWeek (6-part Special Report)
• Four Ways Companies Use Microblogging, CIO Magazine
• Five Marketing Tips for Tackling Twitter, Steve Mulder
• How Twitter Can Help at Work - Shifting Careers - Small Business - New York Times Blog
• Tara Hunt’s Tweeting for Companies 101

At Web Worker Daily Aliza Sherman wrote a post on 10 Everyday Ways to Use Twitter for Work

From Lee Leefever : Twitter in Plain English. Genius as usual!

BTW: I am SoulSoup (obviously) at Twitter!

Dr. Robert Sapolsky National Geographic special, “Stress: Portrait of a Killer” airs nationwide Wednesday night on PBS. The special explores what 30 years of baboon research have taught Robert about stress, and how humans have a knack for turning psychological dis-ease into physical disease. LinkedIn folks sat down with Robert and sought to apply his groundbreaking research to the common office primate.

As we’ve evolved, the human stress response has saved our lives. Today, we turn on the same life-saving physical reaction to cope with intense, ongoing stressors - and we can’t seem to turn it off. “Stress: Portrait of a Killer” reveals just how dangerous prolonged exposure to stress can be.

Beyond the four key tips Robert offers for reducing stress, he notes the importance of friends and grooming, which are “much more predictive of health than your rank.” This can be applied to the professional sphere and networking online. LinkedIn helps professionals maintain a network of quality relationships which should accurately reflect their offline experience. As Robert says, “Primates don’t get a lot of solace from 2000 friends” — build a reliable network of people you know and trust. Instead of literal “grooming”, professionals need recognition and approval from peers to help reduce anxiety, depression, or neuroses.

Over at LinkedIn Answers, Robert asked:

When it comes to balancing stress and professional achievement, how do you decide when “enough is enough”?

A 2 part series on Creating user-centered taxonomies by James Kelway from User Pathways. Found via: elearningpost

Part 1, Part 2

a step-by-step guide for those wishing to create new taxonomies for their business unit, or client. It will outline the many different elements that make up a quality taxonomy and the pitfalls you should be aware of when starting a new project.

The Ultimate Small Business Owner’s Resource Guide - a great collection of lists over 100 businesses that can help you be more successful in running your web-based small business.

The book normally costs $35 for a print version, but it’s available as a free PDF download here today. The 102-page volume is a compendium of webapps, engines, indices, software, and online tools for small biz owners looking to get things done cheaply and easily.

Download The Ultimate Small Business Owner’s Resource Guide PDF here.

Found Via: Lifehacker

e-Learning 2.0 The Learning Guild Report compiled by Steve Wexler, Jane Hart, Tony Karrer, Michele Martin, Mark Oehlert, Sanjay Parker, Brent Schlenker and Will Thalheimer now available for download.

Found via : Ignatia

Here are some interesting findings:

• E-Learning 2.0 modalities are growing at very fast rates with use of blogs up 20.7% from a year ago, communities of practice up 12.3%, and Wikis up 7.7%.
• 40% of respondents indicate they are making some use of e-Learning 2.0 approaches.
• Over the next 12 months, 70.1% of survey respondents plan to apply more e-Learning 2.0 approaches to their learning endeavors.
• 66% of survey respondents believe that younger workers will demand e-Learning 2.0 approaches to performance support.
• Only 28.1% of members report that their organizations are preparing workers on using Web 2.0 approaches for learning and work.
• Among members working in organizations with 10,000 or more workers, 10.8% cannot access LinkedIn, 26.2% cannot access Gmail, 35.0% cannot access YouTube, and 39.2% cannot access either Facebook or MySpace.
• Among members who have made significant use of e-Learning 2.0 approaches, 60.6% reporting improved learner / user performance.

The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam is one of the best books on visual thinking.

Author Dan Roam asserts that that everyone is born with a talent for visual thinking, but that we — especially in the business world — are never encouraged to develop it. In this video, Roam shows us how anyone with a pen and a scrap of paper can exercise their imagination and work through any business problem by creating pictures.

A short Introduction of the Book By Dan [Video]

Abstract

A bold new way to tackle tough business problems even if you draw like a second grader. When Herb Kelleher was brainstorming about how to beat the traditional hub-and-spoke airlines, he grabbed a bar napkin and a pen. Three dots to represent Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Three arrows to show direct flights. Problem solved, and the picture made it easy to sell Southwest Airlines to investors and customers. Used properly, a simple drawing on a humble napkin is more powerful than Excel or PowerPoint. It can help crystallize ideas, think outside the box, and communicate in a way that people simply get. In this book Dan Roam argues that everyone is born with a talent for visual thinking, even those who swear they cant draw.

Drawing on twenty years of visual problem solving combined with the recent discoveries of vision science, this book shows anyone how to clarify a problem or sell an idea by visually breaking it down using a simple set of visual thinking tools tools that take advantage of everyones innate ability to “look, see, imagine, and show,”

“THE BACK OF THE NAPKIN” proves that thinking with pictures can help anyone discover and develop new ideas, solve problems in unexpected ways, and dramatically improve their ability to share their insights. This book will help readers literally see the world in a new way.

Dan Roam visited Google’s Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss his book, as part of the Authors@Google series. Here goes the complete video:

From Change This Manifesto download for free : The 10 1/2 Commandments of Visual Thinking: The “Lost Chapter” from The Back of the Napkin

From STVP Entrepreneurial Thought Leader podcast series 2 great podcasts on negotiation.

What is Effective Negotiation? Stan Christensen throws light on the art of effective negotiation. He defines it as any attempt to persuade or influence a party to do something. He adds a note of humor by illustrating it with a story of one his students.

Secret to Successful Negotiations by Joel Peterson

Joel Peterson, founder of Peterson Partners, discusses the secret to successful negotiations. He reminds us that negotiation is how one navigates their way through life, and in order to have successful negotiations, people must be empowered, have high character, and confidence. Peterson draws from his experience as CEO of one of the world’s largest real estate development firms and most recently founded Peterson Partners- an equity fund in search of talented and visionary CEOs.

Stan Christensen : The Art of Negotiation

Stan Christensen is a partner at Arbor Advisors, an investment banking firm where he negotiates on behalf of mid-market technology companies. In this lecture, Christensen builds a framework and illuminates a few of the classical mistakes in negotiation. He defines negotiation as an attempt to persuade or influence a situation. He emphasizes relationship management and problem solving as being fundamental to negotiation. He also alludes to the conceptual framework by illustrating examples from his vast global experience.

From Tony Karrer

Work Literacy and the eLearning Guild are partnering to provide you with a great (and free) opportunity to get up to speed on Web 2.0 tools and their implications for learning professionals. This 6-week, highly active, social learning event will introduce you to new methods and tools. It will be moderated by Michele Martin and Harold Jarche, with help from Tony Karrer. This is your opportunity to ramp up your understanding of Learning 2.0 technologies prior to DevLearn 2008 so that you can participate better either in-person or as an outside spectator, and to interact and learn with people who are passionate about learning.

Each week we will share new activities that will allow you to explore different Web 2.0 tools and discuss their implications for learning. The activities can be done at your own pace and will be hands-on.

You can start by signing up for the Work Literacy Ning network.