Increasing Employee & Client Engagement

Building your profile is the single most important element you need to do to get set up…
It needs to be robust. It is critical to optimize your profile. It doesn’t need to sound like a resume but needs to highlight all your attributes, experiences and expertise. This will help people find you and more importantly give a good first impression.

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Lets look at a very detailed look at your profile and how to make it robust…
Here is the link to my public profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/chadrothschild
By no means is it perfect, but I have put a lot of time into it and am always tweaking and trying to improve it. Would love your suggestions.

Lets start with your basic information, I recommend you usue your first and last name because that will be important for people searching you. I am lucky there is only one other Chad Rothschild in LinkedIn so it is easy to find me, but there are names that could have 20 pages of results and not easy for people to find you.

This makes your vanity public URL very important… so that you can put it on your website, email signature, business card, twitter etc. This is under your basic information just above your summary. If you haven’t changed it, then there is a bunch of numbers and letters after your name. Make sure you edit it and you can make it whatever you want (as long as that is available and not used). I suggest you make it the same as your facebook or Twitter handle to make it easy for people to remember. All of my handles are the same and match my blog.

My LinkedIn Profile- http://www.linkedin.com/in/chadrothschild
Twitter - @chadrothschild http://twitter.com/chadrothschild
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/chadrothschild
Blog - www.chadrothschild.com

These are on my email signatures, my business cards etc. This is the new way to communicate and connect so I post them everywhere I can so people can easily find me.

That leads us to your Professional Headline & Photo… This is absolutely the most critical piece of your profile because every thing you post, whether discussion or answer or basically anything will show your photo with your headline.

Make sure your headline describes what you do, not your title of your position…  
How you service, solve problems, important topics etc. Here is mine so you can see for yourself. I actually typed mine in word so I could add symbols to break it up a little and pasted it in there.

Chad Rothschild
Marketing & Branding Expert | Social Media Marketing Authority | Author | Speaker | Workshops | www.chadrothschild.com

Status updates are like facebook and twitter…  They let people know what you are doing. What you are working on, what value you are adding to the world. I always post my blog posts, or speaking engagements I will be doing and other topics. If you are going to be at a networking event, put it in there. Keep it business (not personal), that is what differentiates it from Facebook.

Your current jobs, doesn’t have to be just what your current job title is…  I have several current roles I want to highlight. I have my blog, my speaking engagements, my workshops etc.

Author | Speaker – Marketing & Branding Expert at www.chadrothschild.com
Chad Rothschild Social Media Marketing Workshops
Senior Account Director at Summit Marketing
CMO at House Of Rothschild

So don’t sell yourself short… Think of everything you are doing that you can highlight.
Your past positions are just important. I would post as many key words as possible throughout your profile so people can find you when searching for relevant topics you want to be found with. I want to score high on Marketing and am number 5 by keyword.

Education in the Basic Info needs work in my opinion, because it only says the college name, not what you were there for. I got my MBA and would like that to be highlighted up top in case they do not scroll down to my actual education session. I got both of my B.A. and M.B.A. from the same college so it looks like a duplicate when it is actually two degrees. None the less it is important section.

Recommendations are very important… I only have six right now and my goal this year is to get all of my clients & fans to support me by endorsing me and letting the world know about me. I saw someone with 256 recommendations and that is almost as many connections as I have…

Websites are Crucial for People to Learn More… This is how people can find you. When you are entering the info you want to make sure you select custom in the drop down box and enter your own title for it. Do not use their generic titles. As you See below, I put www.chadrothschild.com instead of website and in the next one it says Engaing Your Audience Blog vs My Blog which will take you to www.chadrothschild.com as well.

· www.chadrothschild.com
· Engaging Your Audience Blog
· Twitter @chadrothschild

While you are in doing your addl information, go ahead and enter your Interests – put your personal & professional, Groups & Associations – Put every networking group you are in or every association you are a part of and even past ones and lastly your awards and honors.

Now it is time for your summary…  This needs to be a little like a resume, but more from a human voice. Highlight every attribute, tell people what problems you solve and will solve for them. Use a lot of keywords. Make it dynamic, energetic, exciting and sell yourself.

Specialties is where you want to list every key word someone might want to find you with…  
List out every function you specialize in. Again I would do in Word and Copy and past into so you can use symbols to help break it up. I did mine in a column for easier reading, but do it in a way you think will highlight the best. 500 Character max, so use your words carefully.

This tackles the first part of your profile and will take plenty of time to do… Take your time, do not rush, really put a lot of effort and make sure it really hilights what you are doing. You will get out what you put in. Do not climb the next rung until you finished the last. It is a process and a journey. We will tackle the more sophisticated areas of the profile next.