On November 15, I’ll be presenting a LinkedIn and Recruiting webinar for Ragan.com. If you’re looking for ways to increase your recruiting results using social media, you’ll want to check out this two day, four session, program.

I’m pleased to be presenting with Mike Dwyer of CruiterWorks on day one. Anthony Scarpino, Senior Director, Talent Acquisition at Sodexo and Brad Warga, Vice President of Corporate Recruiting at Salesforce.com will present each company’s case studies on day two.  Thanks to Kristin Hart-Maravich, Ragan’s webinar content producer and marketing manager for inviting me to present. Here’s what we’ll cover.

Social Media Recruiting Best Practices Webinar

Register for Ragan’s Social Media Strategies Best Practices webinar here.

Day One Session 1:
LinkedIn recruiting essentials: A guide to scouting and placing star performers
Barbara Rozgonyi, Principal, CoryWest Media, LLC

Day One Session 2:
How to use social media to target passive candidates and hire top talent
Mike Dwyer, CruiterWorks

Day Two Session 1:
Sodexo‘s 5 secrets to creating a best-in-class social media strategy
Anthony Scarpino, Senior Director, Talent Acquisition

Day Two Session 2:
How Salesforce uses social media and candidate relationship management to recruit, build social profiles and save time
Brad Warga, Vice President of Corporate Recruiting

All webinar content from ragan.com, copied here for your convenience.

• Avoid the BIGGEST mistake recruiters make on LinkedIn: If you’re doing it, you can fix it immediately
• Apply the 3 keys to make your company a leader on LinkedIn
• Expand your definition of “search” on LinkedIn—Why this gives you a competitive edge
• Integrate LinkedIn strategy with other social recruiting methods—on Facebook, blogs, YouTube, Twitter
• Use LinkedIn groups for recruitment—and what they can do for your business beyond the talent search
• Measure results and manage your exposure
• Shift your traditional recruiting tactics to online
• Target passive job-seekers
• Engage current employees as brand ambassadors
• Integrate internal and external communication strategies
• Avoid developing a “Ghost Town”–(an online community nobody visits)
• Make social recruiting part of your daily “workout”
• Meet your goals with a shoestring budget
• Identify the key elements of a business strategy through social media
• Set social media goals
• Integrate your social media and your strategy
• Choose the right tools that allow recruitment of select candidates
• Create long-term candidate relationships by building your own Candidate Relationship Manager (CRM)
• Identify and develop recruiters’ alternative skill sets
• Think strategically, not reactively – How to think a step ahead when finding new talent
• Find the best platform to do the job. Is it LinkedIn, Branchout, Data.com, Radian6 or Google?
• Build a social profile for candidates by pulling information from many social channels
• And so much more!

Reflecting on Recruiting Communications

One corporate recruiting project, for Anderson Consulting, now Accenture – my client at the time, enlisted the services of 15 people worldwide. We met over conference calls, in board rooms and even on the back porch of our project manager’s two flat. My assignment was to write the draft for an MBA strategy recruiting brochure.

The war for talent was on and Anderson wanted to win.

To do that, we would be inventive. We would position the company as a leader. And, we would set the pace.

How? One major initiative was to add a link to the recruiting website in the brochures. It seems almost an afterthought today when QR codes and social network icons are de riguer. Back then, in the late 90s, sending people online to find more information was a remarkable early adopter strategy.

Companies were only beginning to discover how to package information, products and services for the screen.

Around the same time, I contributed to recruiting projects for Sears as an internal communications consultant.

We wanted to feature success stories, but there was some hesitation. What if the leaders we featured now left to pursue careers somewhere else? Then we’d have to incur the cost of reprinting new brochures. Would we want to do that?

This strategy, too, now seems so outdated. Yet, even with all the innovation going on out there, there’s always room to keep improving. Because if you’re not, your competitors are.

I’m honored to be included with this group and look forward to sharing tools, ideas and a 3D strategy for scouting and placing star performers. Register for Ragan’s Social Media Strategies Best Practices webinar here.

Want a preview? Here’s a video Mike and I made. You’ll also pick up some great improv tips! Yes, and . . .

It’s Fourth of July weekend here. Why not set off some LinkedIn fireworks? Check out 13 ways and listen to Katy Perry, too. Happy Fourth!

13 Ways to Use LinkedIn to Light Up Your Career or Company

The first 12 come from my LinkedIn chapter in Success Secrets of the Social Media Marketing Superstars by Mitch Meyerson, published by Entrepreneur Press.

1. Use Keywords to Help People Find You on LinkedIn

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 LinkedIn 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.

7. Hail Alma Mater to Connect with Other Alumni

Listing schools you attended pulls in connections from students and alumni. Even with decades of distance in graduation years, a common alma mater opens the door to a shared experience in LinkedIn alumni groups.

8. Spice It Up with Specialties and Interests

Like a dash of spice to adds flavor, your specialties and interests lists spark up your profile with keywords and tangents that set off your personality.

9. Make it 100% complete

Complete profiles rank higher in searches and let you make the most of LinkedIn’s profile opportunities. Is yours 100% complete? If not, see what you need to do to fill in the gaps.

10. Add Applications for Personalization and Promotion

Applications update and round out your profile with presentations, blog posts, free articles, travel plans, book reviews and events. You can also use applications to collaborate and share files.

11. Promote Events and Invite Guests

LinkedIn’s event center lets you create, RSVP and comment on events. Event creators can invite contacts, edit details, see who’s interested and monitor comments. Events show up on search engines inside and outside of LinkedIn.

12. Upgrade Your Account and Get More Features

A basic, free personal LinkedIn account gets you started. Investing in an upgraded personal or business account improves functionality, reach, access and customer service. To see the options, check your account settings.

13. Study LinkedIn and take a class

While I love teaching and training people and companies about how to use LinkedIn to increase visibility, generate leads and advance careers, I also like to refer people to other leaders in this space. Lewis Howes is one of them. We’ve even spoken at the same conferences. I like what Lewis has to say and I just found out his LinkedIn training is on sale this weekend for only $97.

To help you get the most out of all that LinkedIn offers people and companies, LinkedInfluence covers four modules: Laying the LinkedIn Foundation, Growing Your Audience, the Next Level and Building Your Company.

Disclosure: This blog contains ads and affiliate links, which means I get paid when people buy products or services after clicking on a link on this site. http://cmp.ly/

Hi there! My name is Barbara. One group of friends calls me that. Another calls me Barb. Once, on a conference call, someone asked if the could call me Barb because they like shorter names. Why don’t you just call me B? I suggested. Is shorter better? After reading the latest report from LinkedInsights on success and names, you may be inspired to make a permanent name change. How do you think names impact career advantage?

According to LinkedIn, Peter is the top name for CEOs.

When we named our first son Peter, we weren’t thinking of his CEO potential. We liked the meaning of the word – “rock,” the ties to literature and music, and the length. Plus, it sounded good with his Czech last name. Now a skateboarding college student who’s majoring in film, Peter’s looking more at being a cinematographer than a CEO.

My husband, whose name is Bruce, is an EDI guy, also not a CEO. Still, it’s nice to have two well named men in our family. For the record, our youngest son’s name is Warren and our daughter’s name is Phoebe.

According to the LinkedInsights data, the top five names for male CEOs globally are:

1.     Peter

2.     Bob

3.     Jack

4.     Bruce

5.     Fred

According to LinkedIn Insights, the top five names for female CEOs globally are:

1.     Deborah

2.     Sally

3.     Debra

4.     Cynthia

5.     Carolyn

Really? Did Deborah/Debra have to be on the list twice?

“It’s no secret that people often associate their title, employer and even their education as part of what defines them and their professional brand,” said Monica Rogati, LinkedIn’s senior data scientist. “What’s interesting about this data is that we were able to discover a correlation between a professional’s name and the industry or functional area in which they work.”

How Top Professionals Names Stack Up on LinkedIn

Sales professionals tend to have shorter names, around four letters.
Engineers have longer names, around six letters.
U.S. professionals in the food industry have tend to have longer French names.

Men and Women Leaders Prefer Different Name Lengths

“It’s possible that sales professionals in the U.S. and male CEOs around the world use these shortened versions of their name as a way to be more approachable and accessible to potential clients. Interestingly enough, female CEOs appear to prefer to use their full names and not nicknames, which could signify that they want to be taken more seriously and want co-workers to think of them in a more professional light, said Dr. Frank Nuessel, the editor of NAMES: A Journal of Onomastics (a publication of the American Name Society) and a professor of classical and modern languages at the University of Louisville.”

Thanks to LinkedIn for sending this information via a press release – along with these tips on how to stand out on LinkedIn.

1 . Claim Your Name with a Customized LinkedIn Profile URL

Does your LinkedIn profile URL still have a string of meaningless numbers? Turn it into a URL that says who you are, like this one – http://linkedin.com/in/barbararozgonyi – by making the change on your LinkedIn Edit Profile page. Your name will come up higher in searches and the link will look much better on your business card.

2. Show Off Your Skills on LinkedIn

When I found this, I was so excited that I could tell people how to show off what they do. Just make sure that you really can perform at the level you say you can and that you have the number of years of experience that you say you do.  LinkedIn Skills to place skills on your profile with just a few clicks.

3. Complete a LinkedIn Profile Checklist

Disclosure: I added this one with a link to recent and popular post on this blog.

4. Make Sure You’re Connected on LinkedIn

You know you need connections. What I found interesting is that LinkedIn said 50 is the magic number of contacts. Wow – that’s a really low bar that everyone can reach. What if you looked at the top 50 connections in your network and followed them?

Want more tips? Read the top 10 ways to quickly become a subject matter expert on LinkedIn.

To learn more about LinkedIn’s listings of top names for professionals, check out this blog post.

Methodology for Research

To come up with the top names, the LinkedInsights data team took a look at the most over-represented names in the more than 100 million LinkedIn public profiles.

About LinkedInsights
LinkedInsights aims to uncover valuable trends and patterns in the workplace that help professionals reach their career goals. The LinkedInsights team analyzes the aggregate movement of LinkedIn’s massive member base in order to find actionable insights that help professionals around the world better manage their careers.

Interested in leadership – even if you don’t have one of the top five names? Take a look at this video about how to develop the CEO in you.

Image: courtesy Shutterstock.com

By the way, what IS your name?

You might call this week a LinkedIn hat trick. With two media interviews and a LinkedIn personal and corporate branding training session, this trio of events got me thinking about how it was time to update the checklist I use in my workshops. I’m sharing it with my readers – will you let me know what I’m missing?

Personal Branding Profile LinkedIn Checklist

No matter where your profile is in its stage of completeness, this LinkedIn checklist can help you not only get to 100%, but also truly present your professional credentials in the most accurate and attractive way possible.

Photo
Upload a JPG, GIF or PNG file up to 4MB and then choose to make visible to My Connections, My Network or Everyone

Need some tips? Check out how to look good in profile pictures.

Name
First Name
Last Name

Display Name choose your last name or first initial.

Professional Headline-Your Tagline
Include keywords such as industry, location, customers, projects, certifications, ect.

Country

Zip Code

Industry

LinkedIn Profile Summary

Your professional portrait goes here. While the style and format is up to you, think of this as the place to display your ideals, passion, philosophy and gifts you give to the world. Match your style to your industry. For example, corporate profiles need to be more conservative than those of an artist. You may include a call to action or contact information to request more information.

Specialties
List everything you’re good at here. It’s okay to inject a little personality.

LinkedIn Work Experience

Each position will have its own listing. You will need to complete these fields.

Position One

Company Name

Title

More information about this company
Website
Industry
Title

Time Period

Description

Position Two
Company Name

Title

More information about this company
Website
Industry
Title

Time Period

Description

Position Three
Company Name

Title

More information about this company
Website
Industry
Title

Time Period

Description

Listing Websites on LinkedIn

You may enter the name of the site or a title, along with the link for up to three sites. Do this. For example, “real estate sales news” is more descriptive than blog. Think about additing your site, blog and Facebook page.

Twitter
You may add more than one twitter profile, but only one will be displayed on your profile.

LinkedIn Public Profile Address

Change the standard LinkedIn assigned name to one like this:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/yourname
You may also choose to redirect another URL to your LinkedIn profile.

Adding LinkedIn Profile Applications

Choose from several apps that will post presentations, travel plans, events, reading lists and blog feeds. Take a look and make your selections.

Requesting and Giving LinkedIn Recommendations

To add validity to each position on your profile, you can request that people write a recommendation describing your work. You may also recommend others. When you receive a recommendation, you may review it before you approve it. Once you’re okay with it, the recommendation goes up on your profile. And, it shows up on the profile of the person who recommended you. Return the favor and recommend them as well.

Additional Information

This section includes interests, groups and associations, honors and awards.

Publications
Add excerpts of published works here.

Listing Skills on LinkedIn

You have two ways to add skills your profile. From the edit view, you can type into a search box, find the skill and then select from level and number of years. Or, you can go to LinkedIn’s skill site and search for skills. Each skill has its own profile page where you can review statistics, read a description and see a few of the leaders.

Certifications
Have a professional industry certification? Then you’ll want to add it to your profile.

Adjusting Privacy Settings on LinkedIn

Accessible from the upper right corner in the drop down menu when you mouse over your name, the settings section will allow to control access to your profile, manage updates and upgrade to a paid subscription that open up the door to better features and analytics.

Making Connections and Sending Invitations on LinkedIn

Now that your profile is all ready, it’s time to invite people to connect! Clicking the Add Connections link on the upper right corner of your profile next to the search box is the direct route to a bigger network. You can click to add people or you can make a list of who you would like to invite. Add a brief and personal message to each invitation to remind the recipient of your in real life relationship and then send.

Congratulations! You’re on your way.

What would you add? Do you need personal attention or group lessons?

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.com

Why yes, that would be my name on the same page as the Wall Street Journal. Thanks so much to Marla Tabaka, a fantastic success coach for women entrepreneurs who writes The Successful Soloist column for inc.com, I got assigned to write How to Launch a LinkedIn Company Page. On Marla’s blog, this quick how-to guide has over 380 tweets to date.

In addition to inc.com, wsj.com, firebellymarketing.com and forbes.com,  How to Launch a Stellar LinkedIn Page in 30 Minutes also appeared on BusinessInsider.com where it has 92 shares on LinkedIn and 81 tweets. While this guide is written for solopreneurs, many of the basic principles apply to companies and organizations of all sizes. Is your company’s page on LinkedIn?

How to Launch a LinkedIn Company Page

Your LinkedIn profile is at 100%. You know how to make connections. You belong to groups. But, if you don’t have a company page on LinkedIn, you’re not taking full advantage of all that LinkedIn can do for you and your business. With over 100 million members, LinkedIn is the top business social networking site. Your LinkedIn company page gets listed in Google’s and LinkedIn’s search engines, allows others to follow your company’s updates, gives you a place to promote services and products and even reports analytics.

Here’s a quick guide to help you get started.

How to Set Up a LinkedIn Company Profile for Successful Solopreneurs

Before we dig in, you must meet one very important requirement: you need to have an email address with your company domain. And, this email address must also be listed on your profile. Addresses tied to free email services like yahoo, gmail and hotmail don’t count.

To add your company, click on “Companies” in the navigation bar near the top of the home page. At the Companies page, click the “Add a Company” link in the upper right. If you’ve never been to LinkedIn’s Companies site before, here’s a quick introduction to how this site works.

Did you know LinkedIn allows people to follow company updates? When you to go the Companies page, updates for all of the companies you follow will be here. This is also a good place to search for new clients and connections.  A link to follow each company appears when you mouse over the space in the upper right corner of each search result.

How to Complete Your LinkedIn Company Listing

As a successful solopreneur, you already have everything it takes to set up your company profile in 30 minutes or less. Read through this checklist to save time and make sure you’re ready to complete all the information when you log in. In addition to the company overview page, you’ll see tabs for career, products and services, and analytics. Here’s the information you’ll need to complete your company overview page.

Company Name
Make sure the company name listing matches the name you use in your profile. For example if you use LLC or Inc. on your personal profile, your company site must be the same.

Admins
LinkedIn wants to know who will administer your company profile. You have two choices: either all employees with a valid email address registered to your domain or designated users only.

Logos
Logos can be uploaded as a standard logo as well as a square logo that will be used for network updates.

Company Description
In the company description section, you have the opportunity to describe who you are and what you do. Think big[ger] picture. You may be a successful soloist now, but if you’re planning on growing your business or going after big companies, present your company as an entity.

Specialties
Include keywords that describe what you do in this section. You have 256 total characters to describe specialties. Two or three word descriptions are okay.

Twitter and Company Blog RSS Feed
Bringing in your twitter updates and blog feed keeps your company page active, relevant and current.

News Module
Adding in the news module displays search results that share news about your company. But, be prepared to see stories that don’t relate to your company, except in search terms. If your company is not making news, it’s best to select “don’t show news about my company.”

Company Type, Size, URL
Under company type and company size, you’ll select from the options that describe your status. Your company website URL link can go to your home page or to a services or gallery page.

Industry, Operating Status, Year Founded
Main company industry allows you to choose from any within the LinkedIn categories.  Then, you will select company operating status and the year founded, which is an optional entry.

Locations
The last step is locations. You can add up to five different location addresses, then click publish and your LinkedIn company profile is active.

Careers
If you ever want to add employees, you can post a job on your company’s careers page.

Promoting Your Products and Services on LinkedIn

The next tab, products and services, gives you the opportunity to promote who you are and what you do in the course of 11 steps. Only the product/service option, category, name and description are required.

First, you’ll choose between a product or service. Next, you’ll select a category. Then, you’ll name your product or service, add a logo, write a description, list key features, post a disclaimer, add a URL, list a company contact, add a promotional link and link to a YouTube video.

While you don’t have to complete every step, you can see how much opportunity LinkedIn gives you to promote your business from within a company page. The best part is you don’t have to pay someone to design it or write it, unless you want to.

Monitoring Traffic and Audience Analytics on LinkedIn

The last tab, analytics, is a rich resource and adds insights and value. Here, you can track page views and unique visitors for your overview, careers and products and services pages. You can even compare how your company is doing with similar companies.

Inviting Connections to Follow Your Company on LinkedIn

Now that your page is all set up, you’re ready to invite followers. You can add a follow button to your website or blog. LinkedIn makes it easy with a line of code. If that seems too complicated, you can always add a “follow our company on LinkedIn” call to action with the company page URL to your email address and in other promotional materials.

Congratulations! You and your business are on your way to being found and followed in a network with over 100 million members. How’s that for being a Successful Soloist?

How about you? Do you play LinkedIn the company way?