Say Cheese!

So, we’re not big fans of the traditional corporate headshots, but we figured it was about time to say “cheese!”  Or, is that “cheesy?”  Watch out, Charlie’s Angels!

How To Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn

Thanks to one of our favorite sites, Mashable, we’re able to share some important tips on how to build your personal brand on LinkedIn.

1. Brand your profile

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Your LinkedIn profile needs to be absolutely flawless, since you’ll be judged harshly by recruiters who are analyzing you to see if you fit their corporate needs. That means no spelling or grammatical errors and it should be completely filled out, leaving no experience or details out. Think of your profile as an asset and as a portrait of you as a professional who someone would want to possibly hire for a newly available job.

How to brand your profile

Custom URL: Your LinkedIn URL should appear as “http://linkedin.com/in/yourfullname.” If it doesn’t, you’re missing a vital opportunity to have your profile rank higher in Google () and to make it easier for people to find you. To do this, go to your profile and click “edit” and then next to where it says “public profile,” click “edit” again. At the top, you’ll want to click “edit” one more time next to “your public profile URL,” and then type in your full name, without spacing, and click “set address.” If the unique URL is taken, then try using a period between your first and last name or use your middle initial.

Headline: Your headline will automatically be displayed as the last job you’ve had, unless you change it manually. I recommend that you brand yourself for the job you want, not the one you have! This means that you should revise your headline so instead of “Marketing Specialist for Toyota,” it could be “Internet Marketing Expert for Fortune 500 Companies.” This way, you’re positioning yourself for a future potential job, while leaving your current job within your LinkedIn profile.

Summary: Your summary should include a brief paragraph summarizing your work experience, especially work experience that is relevant for the job you want. Feel free to spice this section up with your unique abilities and differentiators, such as industry awards and honors. In the second paragraph, you should define your career aspirations.

Experience: Don’t just list the past few jobs you’ve had. I recommend that you put every single job you’ve had that is still related to either your current position or the job you are searching for. The easiest way to complete this section is to copy and paste the bullets from your traditional resume.

Keywords: You should flood your entire LinkedIn profile with keywords because recruiters and other individuals will be using LinkedIn as a talent search engine. By selecting a few keywords that are also found in your headline, and sprinkling them throughout your profile, you will rank higher for those terms when someone conducts a LinkedIn “people search.” If you show up first or second, then you may get the opportunity over everyone else.

Applications: If you have a blog, then you should definitely use either the “WordPress ()” or “Blog Link” (Typepad ().com) applications. With this integration, you’re able to show people your thoughts, feelings and emotions on top of a more traditional resume format. List only your past two or three blog posts so you don’t overwhelm the reader. Another application that you may want to try is the “Slideshare Presentations” application to showcase how you compile information, your formatting and creative skills to employers who may glance at it. Finally, the “Box.net Files” application can be leveraged to allow employers to download your portfolio of work.

Websites: LinkedIn gives you the ability to list up to three website links. I would recommend that you select your blog, any web pages you own, your company and possibly your Twitter profile link. Instead of leaving each title (for each link) as “My Website,” you should change them to the actual title of each of your links, so that the link can be associated with the URL. This will help optimize your profile and drive Google PageRank to your other web properties.

Recommendations: Many people argue if LinkedIn recommendations are legitimate, especially because they typically come from your trusted network of friends and colleagues. The truth is that they are very significant because when a recruiter searches for talent, they will view and identify profiles that have the “thumbs up” graphic next to them. If you don’t have a “thumbs up” graphic, that means that you haven’t been recommended and if you do and you’ve been recommended several times, there will be a number next to it. If two candidates for the same job had the same background and skills, yet one had twenty recommendations, who would you choose? Exactly! Recommendations can come from colleagues, teachers, managers and even celebrities.

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2. Develop your network

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Now that you have a compelling and immaculate profile, it’s time to start developing your network. A LinkedIn network is all about your professional network graph. That means that your first, second and third degree contacts are visible and can help you with career opportunities. The more first degree contacts you have, the more second and third you will gain, which is why I recommend that you accept everyone as a contact. You never know when someone can help you!

How to develop your network

Import your contacts: If you’re brand new to LinkedIn or you want to start building your network, without having to search for people, you should use the import function. LinkedIn allows you to important contacts from Windows Live, Hotmail, Gmail (), Yahoo! and AOL. You can also search through your college or workplace and add people you’ve worked with or have gone to school with.

Be open and available: A huge part of LinkedIn is its messaging system and by being available and open to accepting contact requests and continuing conversations, it will help you build relationships.

Leave your email address: People cannot add you to their network without your email address, so you should either leave your email address at the end of the summary area or put it in the contact field and label it public.

Promote your URL: Take your distinct URL and put it in your email signature, on your traditional resume, on your blog (with an optional icon graphic), your website, your presentations, and possibly on your business card.

Update your status: Don’t worry, you don’t have to update “yet another” status bar with a message. Try using Ping.fm () or hellotxt.com to push your status to all of your social networks at once. Make sure that your LinkedIn status message is extremely professional because the audience is more career minded people and hiring managers.

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3. Position yourself as a leader

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Now that you have a remarkable profile and you’ve developed a sizable network, it’s time for you to become a leader on LinkedIn. This professional network allows you to do a few key things that will help you gain followers, attention and, possibly, a new job.

How to position yourself as a leader

Start a group: Groups are extremely powerful assets for your brand. Instead of starting a group based around your company, if you have one, do it around the topic you want to “own.” Decide whether you want to localize it (Group Name, Boston) or make it international, allowing anyone to join. By starting a group on LinkedIn, you’re automatically portraying yourself as a leader. You should invite your current contacts to your group, especially after analyzing their profiles to see if they would be interested. You should also promote the group on Facebook, Twitter and your blog to gain an initial base of members. After a few months of delivering news content, helpful articles and seeding it with discussions, you will see (just like any other community) that it will grow based on member activity. Another important strategy is to syndicate your blog through LinkedIn; you’d be surprised how much traffic you can get from it. I still am!

Start an event: LinkedIn events are strictly for professional interests or for conferences. By starting your own networking event, you can easily promote it to your current LinkedIn audience, as well as your second and third degree contacts. It’s a great way to become a known connector and leader in your niche.

Ask and answer questions: If someone in your network asks a question pertaining to an area that you have knowledge in, you should answer it. By participating in these types of discussions, whether you’re asking or answering them, you are perceived as a valuable contributor to your network and someone to go to if people need help.

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4. Leverage LinkedIn as part of your unified brand strategy

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When it comes to your personal brand, LinkedIn is only one piece of the puzzle. You’ll want to supplement LinkedIn with profiles on Facebook and Twitter, in addition to your own blog or website and profiles on industry specific social networks. Your LinkedIn profile should be consistent with your online presence, which means you should be using the same avatar, your full name and your personal branding statement. As you grow your brand over time, make sure that your LinkedIn profile is updated with your latest job information and experience. If you’re looking for a job right now, toss away your traditional resume, click on “PDF” on your LinkedIn profile and print it out for your interview. This, in effect, displays more of who you are in a different format than recruiters are used to, so you stand out.

Decide how much time you want to invest in LinkedIn, as opposed to your other online assets. LinkedIn requires less upkeep, but to leverage it to the best of your ability, you will have to put your time in. By building your personal brand on LinkedIn, you’ll be where people are searching and you’ll have access to those who can help build your brand now and in the future.

Harvey Mackay’s Morals #3

• Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can’t get it wrong.
• Remember the 10 most powerful two-letter words in the English language- If it is to be, it is up to me.
• What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us. What we have done for others lasts forever.
• Positive thinking turns obstacles into opportunities.
• All the world’s a stage, and most of us need more rehearsals.
• You can’t count your days, but you can make your days count.
• Stress often gives a little thing a big shadow.
• Creativity has no script; it is inspired ad-libbing.
• The most powerful single thing you can do to influence others is to smile at them.
• The wise person isn’t the one who makes the fewest mistakes. It’s the one who learns the most from them.

Harvey Mackay Morals #2

• Love your competitors. They are the only ones who make you as good as you can be.
• In business, you should walk your talk…and know when to talk before you walk.
• If you want to be remembered for all the wrong reasons, say something stupid.
• Getting an idea should be like sitting down on a pin; it should make you jump up and do something.
• The hotter things get, the more important it is to keep your cool.
• Entrepreneurs are people who take the cold water thrown on their idea, heat it with enthusiasm, make steam, and push ahead.
• The difference between failure and success is doing a thing nearly right and doing it exactly right.
• Control yourself: Remember, anger is just one letter short of danger.
• Keep an open mind. Your first job may not be your dream job, but it doesn’t have to be a nightmare.
• If you want a place in the sun, you’ve got to expect a few blisters.

Harvey Mackay’s Morals

I came across an archived newspaper article, which has some gems of sayings by columnist, Harvey Mackay, of the Orange County Register. He states, “We live in a world of 10-second sound bites, so messages wrapped up in tight little packages really grab attention. Here’s some of my favorite morals.” Over this week, I will be posting his morals in lists of ten.

• A foot in the door is worth two on the desk.
• Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the mastery of it.
• Negativity makes a person look at the land of milk and honey and see only calories and cholesterol.
• The greatest undeveloped territory in the world lies under your hat.
• You don’t have to shout to get your point across, if you use the right words.
• A person without a sense of humor is like a car without shock absorbers- jolted by every pothole in the road.
• The more you exercise your networking muscles, the stronger they get.
• The person who is everywhere is nowhere.
• People like to do business with people they like.
• Money can buy a lot of things except common sense, which is free

My favorite is #8. How about you?

Save the Date for the Sixth Annual Columbus Day Drive Golf Tournament

It’s time to Save the Date for the Sixth Annual Columbus Day Drive for Special Olympics. Your participation is truly valued, as is your support in this fall’s benefit tournament on Monday, October 12, 2009. Once again, we’ll be hitting the links on the scenic grounds of the challenging Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo.

As the tournament nears, you can look forward to receiving timely updates on event details and valuable sponsorship opportunities. To date, a record $250,000 has been raised to support the greatest needs of Special Olympics Orange County!

To register for the Sixth Annual Columbus Day Drive golf tournament, visit our website at ColumbusDayDrive.com.

On our website, you can also learn how you can change an athlete’s life, while helping your business align with a global cause.

So, mark your calendars for Monday, October 12, and tee it up for the athletes who make us all feel like winners!

Walters Leads Experience of Wooden Classic

Laguna Niguel, CA – Business leader and philanthropist Cristina Walters has been named chair of the John R. Wooden Classic Resource Committee. In keeping with legendary Coach John Wooden’s commitment to serving mankind, the committee’s primary goal is to create a legendary experience through a three-day series of events, while raising funds for two local charities.

The UCLA Bruins will make their way to Anaheim to headline the 15th annual John R. Wooden Classic college basketball doubleheader on December 13 at Honda Center. UCLA will take on DePaul, with a rematch of last year’s thrilling game between San Diego State and Saint Mary’s.

Leading to the December 13 match-ups are a charity golf tournament at Monarch Beach Golf Links and a Coaches Dinner at the Anaheim Hilton, both benefiting Special Olympics Southern California and Orangewood Children’s Foundation.

According to Walters, “It’s a privilege to work with committed professionals, many of whom have donated their time to enhance the lives of so many. In just my second year chairing this committee, we’ve exceeded expectations, while striving to offer experiential moments to a range of valued supporters.”

Under Walters’ leadership, the John R. Wooden Classic intends to strengthen the legacy of Coach Wooden and now involves many who emulate his ideals. The event’s Honorary 10 includes such sports and business icons as: Sue Enquist, Rafer Johson, Don MacLean, Henry Samueli, John Vallely and Bill Walton. In addition, last year’s inaugural Pyramid Award bestowed upon Olympic gold medalist Rafer Johnson will be awarded to yet another extraordinary example of leadership and philanthropy.

Principal of C&M Communique, a full-service marketing firm, and co-founder of Women Who Win, Walters is a member of Special Olympics Southern California’s Board of Directors. For details of the John R. Wooden Classic, visit WoodenClassic.com.