In order to get the most out of your LinkedIn presence, optimize every part of your profile, including your LinkedIn Professional Headline.  This appears under your name on your profile.  This space is auto-filled the “title” from your last place of employment, but you can change it to say whatever you want. You have 120 characters (letters and spaces) to write a powerful and descriptive headline that speaks to your ideal client. There are four different ways most LinkedIn users choose to write a headline. 1. Your Job Title as Your LinkedIn Professional Headline Some people feel that they need to use the name of their firm and a fancy position in their LinkedIn professional headline

Here's the answer to another question I've been asked this month. Question Where do you get the symbols you use in your title on LinkedIn and throughout your LinkedIn profile? Answer I use symbols and lines and such because it differentiates different sections of my profile and makes a profile easier to read. And we all want our profiles read, right? I gathered those symbol since 2004 from a variety of places online. You have my AOK to copy and paste the symbols and use them on your profile, too. Here's my profile www.LinkedIn.com/in/mariamarsala You can create them, too. When you're on your computer, open a document, you hit control >alt and some numbers, you'll create

When you joined LinkedIn, their system  automatically assigned a Public Profile URL to your account.  It looks something like this:  http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/yourname/0/123/123 Make it shorter. Extra letters and numbers make URLs harder to remember. Sometimes, advisors who aren’t allowed to have their own websites (yet), use their LinkedIn address as a substitute for a website.  I often see those long random URLs on business cards.  It bears repeating:  Every extra letter or number in a URL makes it harder to remember (and type in correctly) when someone attempts to contact you. You can do better than that! Currently, LinkedIn allows you to change the URL for your LinkedIn profile.  But if you’re been using that URL throughout

Every financial professional needs a LinkedIn profile.  This is not a “should have” -- this is a “must have”.  Why?  What most financial advisors don’t know is that when someone types your name into a search engine, your LinkedIn profile will often rank higher than your own website! Years ago, the financial industry was light years ahead of every other industry when it came to technology.  My first job on Wall Street, in 1973, involved computerizing a division of an operations department. Today, most financial firms are 15-18 years behind anything Internet-related.  If you’re a financial advisor, there is a chance that you don’t have a website (yet), have a very generic website, or are not

Robert is just another Microsoft Partner. Or is he? Robert is special because his niche is the financial industry. He’s also the first MP I’ve ever come across that “gets” the industry. An Microsoft (MS) Partner is an independent company that provides MS products, offers services that back up those products, and helps customers with IT solutions. Here’s more on MS Partners: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Certified_Partner In addition to what I described above about MS Partners, Robert teaches RIAs, advisors, planners, etc. how to best use the products. One of his virtual courses is called “Office 365 and Compliance”.    If you don’t yet have an IT specialist on your team, I recommend that you contact Robert.  While his office is in the Tri-State