Thanks to my friend and seminar marketing pro, Jenny Hamby, I can now say, “I co-authored a book with social media superstars.” Today’s post features an excerpt from my chapter. I’m the book’s LinkedIn expert.

Jenny’s the one who suggested I talk with Mitch Meyerson about contributing to his book, Success Secrets of the Social Media Superstars. Published by Entrepreneur Press, the book includes about 20 social media authors and will be in bookstores this summer.

Mitch is the author of eight books, including Mastering Online Marketing and Guerrilla Marketing On The Internet. Featured as an expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Mitch has trained and certified over 350 coaches in his acclaimed Guerrilla Marketing Coach Certification Program.

Mitch and I met up in Chicago where he presented a program on how to boost your sales with online marketing, sponsored by Entrepreneur Magazine.

Read more about Mitch Meyerson on Amazon. A talented author, coach and musician, Mitch also publishes the blog,Mastering Online Marketing.

12 Steps to Transform a LinkedIn Profile Into an Always-on Networking Hub by Barbara Rozgonyi cross-posted from Mastering Online Marketing

1. Use Keywords to Help People Find You.
Keywords are the search terms people use to find information online. The keywords people use to find you and your business might point to your profession, service, location, area of expertise or even the problems you solve. Optimize your LinkedIn profile with keywords in your headline, summary, expertise and your job title and descriptions.

2. Upload a Flattering Profile Photo that Matches Your Image
Worth at least 1,000 (maybe 100,000) words), a LinkedIn profile picture conveys your business image to the world. Are you casual, relaxed, authoritative, intellectual?

3. Write a Catchy Headline that Grabs Attention
Your headline describes who you are and what you do. This isn’t necessarily the title on your business card. Sort of a personal tagline, your headline stands out when people see your profile.

4. Summarize Your Talents into Sound Bites
The summary section is the place to make your personal brand statement. Given that attention is shrinking down into text-message and tweet-size sound bites, it’s important to be concise, informative and engaging. Use bullets to make your main points.

5. Cover Every Position for Maximum Exposure
Expand your connection potential by listing all relevant former companies and positions. Break up your current experience into categories like speaker, consultant and author to broaden your skill set. Then, people can recommend you for each individual position.

6. Route Traffic to Three Destinations
In addition to a place for your twitter ID, LinkedIn lets you list three websites. Consider including your company website, a link to your Facebook page and another to a landing page that collects database information. Use the URL or, better yet, a phrase that describes the site.

Check out six additional LinkedIn profile networking tips over at Mitch’s blog.
Find Mitch Meyerson on LinkedIn.

Preview Barbara Rozgonyi’s LinkedIn profile.

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Learn how to leverage your LinkedIn profile into a powerfull business and social network.

Update: Thanks to Office Depot WebCafe for featuring me as the LinkedIn PR Expert – listen to the webinar. Sign up for a complimentary 7-day LinkedIn PR ecourse.

Tomorrow I’m presenting a LinkedIn webinar for Office Depot – here’s the registration information. Hope you can join us!

Tuesday, April 27th at 4pm ET
Leveraging LinkedIn: 5 Power Strategies to Stand Out and Be Sought Out (60min)
What You Need To Do To Raise Your Visibility And Influence
Why You Need A Social Media Strategy that Supports Your Business
How to Maximize Your Efforts and Minimize Your Social Networking Time

Leveraging Linkedin: 5 Power Strategies to Stand Out and Be Sought Out

– What You Need To Do To Raise Your Visibility And Influence

– Why You Need A Social Media Strategy that Supports Your Business

– How to Maximize Your Efforts and Minimize Your Social Networking Time

– Where to Find Connections that Get You Closer to Your Goals

– Leadership Strategies that Position You As An Expert

Barbara Rozgonyi
CEO/Founder of CoryWest Media

About Barbara

Barbara Rozgonyi owns CoryWest Media, LLC, a Midwest-based strategic marketing consultancy founded in 1990, whose client list includes Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, nonprofits and small businesses. As the publisher of www.wiredPRworks.com since June 2006, Barbara reports on ways to grow business, build brands, and connect communities with marketing, social media and public relations. Listed on Alltop and AdAge Power 150, Wired PR Works houses over 700 posts. The founder of Chicago’s Social Media Club chapter, Soho Magazine featured Barbara as “Chicago’s Social Media Maven.” Wired PR Works’ best-read post, “How to Quickly Become a Subject Matter Expert Using LinkedIn” was recently selected for inclusion in the “You’re the Expert” section in Larry Weber’s new book “Sticks & Stones: How Digital Reputations are Created over Time and Lost in a Click. Named as one of the top 30 PR experts to follow on twitter by ereleases.com, Barbara is a keynote speaker and an educator on the topics of leadership, communications, marketing and change. Barbara earned her marketing degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and lives in Chicago’s western suburbs.

We’ll cover theses topics in our hour long webinar. Thanks so much to Office Depot for the opportunity to present to their audience. Disclosure: this is a free event for attendees. The speaker receives no monetary compensation, but does benefit from exposure to Office Depot’s web audience who will receive a complimentary LinkedIn personal PR guide and an invitation to subscribe to a LinkedIn and PR newsletter. [Want to sign up for the free ecourse? Email linkedinpr @aweber.com.]

Recommended LinkedIn Reading

Top 10 Ways to Quickly Become a Subject Matter Expert Using LinkedIn

Leverage Your LinkedIn Profile into a Powerfull Business Network

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How does social media affect the news? A new study gives us insights and answers. Because one of the participation incentives was a copy of the results, I participated in the 2010 PR Week/PR Newswire Media Survey. Released recently, the survey measures the uses and applications of social media by PR practitioners and journalists. You’ll find a few results here including how blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn and twitter factor into news making, reporting and placement.

A few of the more fascinating [to me] overall findings.

A new question to the survey, but an issue that appears important to success: When asked if building a personal brand was a consideration in their work, the majority of US (52%) and Canadian media (60%) responded either “extremely important” or “important.” The majority of bloggers now view themselves as journalists – 52%. This is a marked increase from 2009 when just one in three had the same opinion. Yet, despite viewing themselves as professional, only 20% derive the majority of their income from their blog work; a 4% increase from 2009.

2010 Media Survey of Journalists and PR Practitioners Readers Guide

Source for all information and quotes.

Sponsors
PR Week/PR Newswire

Media Respondents
1,568 traditional and non-traditional media

PR Respondents
1,670 PR practitioners

Canadian Connection
CNW Group

History
Third annual

Objective
Gauge the attitudes and ideas of traditional journalists and bloggers, as well as PR professionals, to gain an understanding of the present state of the media profession and the trends that are continuing to shape the industry.

Published Article
PRWeek April 2010

Price
$19.95 for article only

PR Practitioners who pitched a journalist via social media

43% yes
57% no

PR Practitioners use these social networks to target journalists

76% twitter
49% Facebook
30% LinkedIn
5% other

Journalists tell types of company blogs that are most useful

51% not useful
23% employee
19% product
7% CEO

Journalists answer to: Ever quote a blog in a story?

55% no
45% yes

Journalists answers to: Have you ever been pitched via a social network?

2009
31% yes
69% no

2010
43% yes
57% no

Journalists have social networking profiles on theses sites

Facebook
79% 2010
58% 2009

LinkedIn
64% 2010
53% 2009

Twitter
58% 2010
22% 2009

Journalists received pitches on these social media sites

Facebook
62% 2009
61% 2010

LinkedIn
42% 2009
34% 2010

Twitter
18% 2009
44% 2010

How often journalists use twitter for research

48% never
27% rarely
21% sometimes
4% always

How does your social media and PR approach compare to the survey’s results? Thanks for your comments!

Barbara