LinkedIn: The Professional Place to Be Online

Can the right people find you?

Whether you are returning to work, changing careers or building your existing business, it is imperative today to establish a professional online brand. The best way to do this is by becoming a member of the #1 ranked professional networking site in the world: LinkedIn.  LinkedIn is a social networking site that helps you make better use of your professional network. There are currently over 75 million members in over 200 countries using LinkedIn.  Executives from all of the Fortune 500 companies are members and LI is one of the first places that hiring managers and recruiters search for job candidates.

LinkedIn is not just for job search; in fact it is the premier place to network with the right professionals for your industry. You can establish business relationships, find clients or customers, discover breaking industry news in discussion Groups and share your own expertise with others around the globe. Want some tips on maximizing groups? Check this post out by Dave Taylor of Intuitive Systems.

No matter your path to a professional networking site, it is imperative to highlight your personal brand and share your experience, talents and strengths in the best possible light. There are many free tutorials on the LinkedIn site to help you learn. The IHM Job Search Ministry Group in Cincinnati offers a free monthly “One Stop Job Search” Workshop that covers everything from writing resumes and cover letters to networking and on-line job search strategies including LinkedIn. (Disclosure: I teach the LinkedIn portion of the free workshop for IHM JSM.) Better yet, find a LinkedIn consultant or small group lab class for individualized attention and knowledge on tips & tricks to maximize this great tool.

My company, C3: Creating Connections Consulting, LLC, offers LinkedIn Lab classes for Women only.  This program is limited to just four women per class for maximum individual attention, but at group pricing. You can find more information here. Classes are offered on several dates in October.

I also provide LinkedIn  programming for clients of Act Three in Blue Ash.  Act Three focuses on assisting women in charting their next phase of life and offers many great seminars and workshops for women. My next class at Act Three is on October 6th and includes a detailed analysis of your completed LinkedIn profile in addition to the lab training class: a great combination offer!

Cincinnati’s own Mashable Meetup on Social Media Day 2010

Michelle contemplating Social Media Day Festivities

It’s finally here: the first annual Social Media Day world-wide celebration. Activities planned for this day by local Social Media Networking group, Cincinnati Social Media,  have quickly sold-out, but you can stay in the loop by following the #cincysm hashtag while enjoying your own celebration.

Pete Cashmore, of Mashable has recorded a video greeting that you can view below. Pete hopes that today will be the start of communities coming together on a monthly basis to host Mahable meet-ups and further social dialogue in the community.

On-line relationships are great and can be wonderful begiinnings, but the real deal occurs when we can meet in the flesh and begin a more personal dialogue with one another. I have seen this happen over and over in my own relationships and business endeavors which are made all the more rich through our mulit-layered connections and conversations.

I would love to hear your story of an on-line business relationship or friendship that led to a meeting where you achieved an outcome that might not have occurred without the initial social media connection.  I will share the most intriguing stories on the Blog.  Send your story to michelle@creatingconnectionsconsulting.com

Remember being social is all about the conversation!

Update:

Here are some shots of today’s event at Lavomatic in OTR (Over the Rhine).  Felt like a reunion of the local social media community movers and shakers.

Lavomatic, Over the Rhine- Cincinnati

What's a Social Media Meetup without Great Food! Thanks Lavomatic & Vitrue

Social Media Day Gourmet Goodies

Creating Connections in Cincinnati

Gotta love the whole idea of social media connectivity.  I was on the air Monday night (6/7/10) on Cincinnati Fox 19 News with an interview about a seminar I created called  “Keeping Kids Safe on the Social Media Highway” which ran at the METS Center on 6/8/10.  How the interview came about is a lesson in the six degrees of separation game with some good old fashioned social media sleuthing thrown in for good measure.

Various people had been spreading or RTing (Retweeting) the seminar information over the previous two weeks on Twitter.  Corey McConnell (@Fox19Corey), reporter for Fox 19 News, happened to see Suzanne Deatherage’s  (@SDeatheragePR) Tweet below:

@SDeatheragePR

Corey and I had never met and were not linked in any way on the social media highway.  She sent a public Tweet (using an @message) to Suzanne, asking her to call as she was trying to get some info on me.  Suzanne gave her my contact number which she happened to have because we met last fall at a Northern Kentucky networking event at Hofbrau Haus sponsored by Justin Rains, owner of Portal Planet- a web development & hosting company.  Since then, Suzanne and I have bumped into each other at other networking events around the city and frequently communicate on Twitter. Justin was one of the first people I met in the New Media Cincinnati Group almost two years ago. I’m not sure what the initial connection was between Suzanne and Justin, but I’m sure there is a great networking story in there somewhere!

I had my Droid on silent and did not realize that Channel 19 was trying to contact me.  I was, however, working on a project on my PC and received a LinkedIn notification from Suzanne that Corey was trying to reach me. Suzanne’s 9:30 a.m. Tweet finally brought Corey and I together at about 1:45 p.m. and she had a camera crew on their way out to the C3 Office for an interview within 2 hours.  The interview aired that night and the next morning.  See interview HERE.

What I love about this story is the thread of community connections.  People I have met in the Cincinnati area Social Media/PR/Marketing world have been incredibly willing to share their knowledge/expertise with others and to help promote events and work that colleagues are doing.  I am proud to be part of an incredible circle of business associates and friends and am honored that so many people believe in the work that I am doing in the On-Line Job Search arena for professionals in Transition and the Internet Safety/Reputation Management work I am doing for tweens and teens.

Often times we joke about living in the Cincinnati ‘Mayberry’ Bubble, where “everyone knows your name” or at least went to your (insert: grade school, high school, college, parish, church community) or knows someone who did.  I’m glad that my Mayberry Community is made up of special people like Shannon Boyer, Sean Ater, Jeanne Bernish, Ann Lightfoot, Daniel Johnson Jr., Erin Schreyer, Elaine Suess, Mike Boehmer and a countless host of others who

stay passionately connected to causes that make a difference in the lives of folks in our city.

Thank you!

Networking with LinkedIn

Just experienced an 18hr straight run with Social Media- yes, I did sneak in about 4.5 hours of sleep in the middle of it all, but I can tell you that my lunch-time Diet Coke must have just hit the wall, because my energy level just tumbled. Anyway, getting to the point: the importance of taking on-line networking connections off-line and into the real world.  I am the first to say that social media tools are an excellent way to make that first connection.  I have written numerous times about the clients, business partners, and new friends I have met first virtually.  The key is that all of these relationships were taken to the next, more intimate level:  the in-person connection.  That connection can be anything from a simple phone call, an actual meeting or doing a web conference call with Skype or Talkshoe.  Choose whichever method allows you to interact with the other individual in a way that goes beyond mere words on a screen.

It completely rocks when that virtual connection you have been stoking the flames with creates a real life feeling of being in synch with the other party.  I think the time spent virtually gives most of us that ability to jump right into a more intimate relationship because we have already cut through all of the exterior niceties.  We can jump into the heart of our meeting whether it is a business deal or a friendship because the basic  info has already been shared.

One of my passions is working with women in transition.  I had the opportunity to do a seminar on Networking With LinkedIn for Act Three owned by Julie Shifman. Julie’s company helps women to navigate the next chapter or “act” in their lives.  Her mission is a great fit for my passion, so look for more to come from our collaboration.  Want to know my thoughts immediately following the dynamic discussion with the women in attendance today?

You know the drill- press the PLAY button!

And video  from January talking about C3′s LinkedIn Classes for Women:

IHM JOB SEARCH MINISTRY: LIGHTING THE WAY TO SUCCESS 1 DAY AT A TIME

IHM Job Search Ministry Banner created by Katie Wagner

I am on the Board for the IHM Job Search Ministry Group sponsored by Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Anderson Township.  This group is an off-shoot of the very long running Job Search Focus Group (JSGF) in Hyde Park.  The IHM JSM sponsors evening meetings on the 2nd & 4th Thursday of each month and has been holding 1/2 day Job Search Workshops on select Saturdays that covers:

• resume writing
• networking
• interviewing skills
• cover letters
• social media tools used in Job Search (i.e. LinkedIn)

Board members are all volunteers who share their time, talent and professional backgrounds to support and educate those in transition. We begin each meeting and  each workshop with the following prayer:

“God, our Father, I turn to you seeking your divine help and guidance

as I look for suitable employment. I need your wisdom to guide my footsteps

along the right path, and to lead me to find the proper things to say and do in this quest……”

Full prayer here

Here’s a short video for a preview of what a Saturday Workshop is like.

Great learning, awesome people, hot coffee!! Take a look:

Social Media Skeptics Absent at CincySM

CincySM Hashtag Logo

CincySM began life as the digital/social media networking group Cincinnati Social Media Breakfast and was a part of the national network of Social Media Breakfast Groups founded by Bryan Person in August of 2007 to bring professionals, enthusiasts and newbies together to exchange ideas.  You can read about Bryan’s start HERE. Our local group was founded by Kevin Dugan, Director of Social Marketing-Empower MediaMarketing; Dan Lally,Vice President of Public Relations- Powers Agency & Dave Knox, Brand Manager – P&G Productions in 2008.  Stacy Cole, an attorney with Graydon Head & Ritchey joined the group in late 2009.  All powerhouses in their respective fields, the group has consistently brought excellent content to the local social media digital scape.

Events include nationally well-known speakers at unique venues around the city that allow for plenty of Q&A time and networking.  Hints are dropped about upcoming registration opps and if you aren’t plugged into one of the group member’s live feeds or connected directly to the CincySM LinkedIn Group, you are bound to miss out.  Some events have been known to sell-out within hours.  Reminds me of Buffet in the summer……. Each event has a sponsor that makes the event zero cost to participants and for those who are “locked” out and reside on the perpetual wait list, there is always the live-stream. Follow the hashtag above and you will feel as if you were in the room as this group does an excellent job of live-tweeting the meeting.

So here are some take-aways from yesterday’s “Social Media for Skeptics at LPK” Event.  Gotta tell you that of the 100 folks registered, I’m betting that there were few skeptics in the room.  Cruise the partip list and you will see some of the biggest names on the local social media scene.

CincySM recommends these key points when evaluating Social Media

Strategy:

RECONSIDER ON-LINE MODELS

BE YOURSELF

PARTICIPATE

FAIL

SET SOCIAL MARKETING

CONDUCT DUE DILIGENCE

REVISIT CREATIVE BRIEF

SHARE & MAKE YOUR CONTENT SHARABLE

REVISIT TOUCHPOINTS

Some great examples of Social Media Success Stories:

• Mentos & Diet Coke Experiment- user generated video went viral and the equivalent of $10 million in free publicity was obtained
• Pepsi- Iced Cucumber SKU introduction in Japan- Bloggers sang it’s praises, went viral and Pepsi moved 5 million bottles in 8 weeks

Look for case study info on these success stories:  Sharpie, SODEXO and our local Cincinnati Museum Center in an upcoming post.

If the group interests you- join the LinkedIn CincySM group NOW:  HERE!