In part one of this series, I detailed the first step to creating your business videos: the script. In step two, it’s all about the setup.

While Hollywood directors can afford to spend days building a set, you likely don’t have the luxury of a cast, crew, and a big budget to create one. Luckily, there are a few easy steps you can take to make a great-looking video before the camera even starts rolling.

Here are four tips to setting up your video.

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I have to admit to being caught up in TV shows like “West Coast Customs”  and “Wheeler Dealer” that take ordinary cars and transform them into sleek, customized, speedy machines.

So when I saw that the Cisco NOW Vans had been revamped — though you won’t catch any of them drag racing through the streets — I was intrigued. (NOW stands for Network on Wheels and vans are filled to the brim with Cisco solutions and offer a way to easily show off Cisco technologies to customers without having to be at a Cisco office.) The newly refreshed vans may not sport chrome wheels or hydraulic action (yet!), but new EnergyWise and SMB solutions are bound to cause quite a stir.

This video details the rebuilding process, shows off the interior of these new vans, and offers some tips for partners on running a smooth and successful customer event.

Read on to find out details of what’s new inside the new NOW Vans…

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Over at the Social Media B2B site, they’ve compiled a list of videos with a B2B perspective on social media. For consumers and those using social media for personal purposes there are lots of best practices out there, but the B2B perspective isn’t as widely discussed. So it was great to see this useful B2B blog post today — and exciting to see one of the Channels blog’s videos listed there.

Whether you’re just learning the basics of social media or have been doing it for awhile, these 10 videos offer a variety of perspectives on Twitter, branding, and business blogging — and how these tools are being used in B2B.

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Cisco’s Value Incentive Program (VIP) is now in its fifteenth consecutive period. For those who haven’t yet gotten involved, it’s a program designed to help increase margins and differentiation for customer-focused partners. In short, VIP rewards partners that focus their practices on technologies that are part of Cisco architectures like collaboration, virtualization, or borderless networks. And who doesn’t like rewards?

Of course, there is a catch: You must enroll in VIP15 by February 19, 2010 to be eligible. To do that, just head on over to the VIP page where you’ll find information about the program, eligibility, and all the info you need to get started. Once enrolled, you can view daily bookings for all enrolled architectures via the Partner Program View.

If you aren’t familiar with VIP, here is Cisco Senior Director of WW Channels Strategy Surinder Brar speaking about the last iteration, VIP 14.

Keep track of those important upcoming VIP15 dates…

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With everyone from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to Queen of Jordan Rania Al Abdullah to outspoken Virgin chairman and businessman Richard Branson now active on Twitter, the popular social-networking site can certainly help you keep up with the latest musings from actors, politicians, and business people.

Cisco partners and execs alike have said they find Twitter to be a useful business tool to help stay in touch with colleagues and customers, even amid rumors of Twitter’s growth slowing down. (The site still had its busiest usage day on January 12, 2010, so there’s no reason to quit tweeting anytime soon.)

Keep reading for our informal survey results and helpful Twitter tips.

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