I attended the last 1st Fridayz event and I really did enjoy it.
First, Heidi had Chuck Hester who is the Communications Manager for iContact, a email marketing firm. He is also a power networker of Linked In with over 6,000 connections in his network. Chuck was very gracious in his interview to help the attendees with their Linked Profiles.

Here are a few things that I learned that helped me raise my profile from 80% to 95% in a matter of 30 minutes.

1) Upload your picture. Adds a more personal touch to your profile. (Chuck’s Tip: The picture should be professional looking)
2) Change your “Linked In” url link to have your name instead of the default link assigned to you.
2) Complete your summary profile. The more information you add to this, the better. However, Chuck had recommended to make your summary more personal and do not make it look like a resume.
3) Make recommendations of others that you know. Write the recommendation from your personal experience with this person and write with integrity.
4) Ask others to connect with you - be sure that the person knows who you are so it doesn’t seem as spamming. Chuck’s tip - make it a personal note instead of using the default note that Linked In provides. Someone is more likely to read and connect with you.
5) Spread the word - On your blog or website, please sure to let people know you are a member of Linked In and encourage them to join.

Then Heidi interviewed Tina Su of Think Simply Now talking about how she raised her blog subscriber list in a short amount of time.

A few things that stuck out in my mind about this interview:
Tina talked about writing her posts about those things that she really connected with and things she felt would possible be of interest to others.

She mentioned that even if you are not an outgoing person, blogging is a great way to share your thoughts, ideas and suggestions (along with your business knowledge, products or services) with everyone because it is all about the writing.

Tina also recommended Stumble Upon as one way to increase the exposure for your blog too. She mentioned Blog Log as well. She said get listed on both and visit the sites at least once a week.

Thanks to Chuck and Tina for their time and expertise on these subjects. And thanks to Heidi for always having informative and helpful guests at 1st Fridayz(tm).

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Filed under: Writing Lessons