If you were to take a brief survey of the people in your social circles to ask them what the benefits of LinkedIn are, you might get a wider variety of responses than you’d imagine. For some, LinkedIn is all about landing a new job with the website serving as an online resume of sorts. For others, LinkedIn is a tool for garnering sales leads. And still others will say that LinkedIn is just as social as Twitter and Facebook, acting...

At this point in time, most people have heard of Groupon. And most people have taken advantage of one of their daily deals, purchasing everything from cases of wine to dental cleanings. In fact, some might even say that they’ve placed orders simply because the deal seemed too good to pass up – as opposed to actually needing the item or service. Online coupon houses and deal-of-the-day sites have become the new what’s-hot trend – thrift is suddenly en vogue. And...

Because of the work of two men more than 10 years ago, we as a society are able to pinpoint the most decisive factor in employee retention. And surprisingly enough, it’s not pay. It’s not benefits, either, or the company work environment. It’s the boss. In 1999, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, two researchers from The Gallup Organization, published the results of in-depth interviews with more than 80,000 managers in more than 400 companies. The book was titled, "First, Break All...