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With Lori Ruff

The LinkedIn Diva joined LinkedIn on July 14, 2005, upon receiving her third invitation. Yes, I even needed to be prodded a few times to look at the then new, self-described “Professional Network” site. At first, I thought it just a nice step above Plaxo, which at the time was useful to stay connected with your professional network. Though in a few short years of active networking in my local region, I’d crushed the 1,000-connection limit Plaxo imposed.

Yet, after I accepted the invitation, created a login, and added the expected contact information and professional affinity, LinkedIn continued to ask for more information, like someone you meet at a BNI luncheon who genuinely wanted to get to know you.

Beyond “My Title at My Company” and the date I began, it wanted a position description in a free-form text field that provided plenty of room, if not to be verbose, then at least tell a great story or two of how I addressed and solved a critical problem at work!

“I felt as if I had entered a large networking event and was moving from person to person without ever leaving my office!”

Lori Ruff

Then “Former Employers”, “Education”, and “Volunteer Experience” were offered as well as a few more fields in which professional people involve themselves. Yet the fields that struck me most were the “Summary” and “Specialties” options.

I considered what I might include: a summary of my work, who I was as a professional, and what I wanted when networking in this new environment from the people I might meet here. That phrase struck me as the thought went through my mind: from the people I might meet here.

Who might I meet here? What people were attracted to this environment and how would they find my profile?

I could easily find the profile of the person whose invitation I had accepted. I also quickly found the two other invitations I had been sent in my inbox. It was easy to accept them and to view their profiles. As I viewed each profile, I could easily find others who had connected to these professionals as well as those who had recommended them. I felt as if I had entered a large networking event and was moving from person to person without ever leaving my office!

I also saw the power of using this easily updated profile as a dynamic online resume in the days of Word 2000, from which people could not easily convert their resumes to the PDF files that recruiters and hiring managers began requiring by email. The easy updates allow you to make not only instant career changes, but regular updates relevant to your professional presence via post or article.

Staying top of mind is the reason many people wanted to meet at the water cooler, the coffee shop, daytime or evening networking events.

I was in the Charlotte, NC region—a US Airways hub where Textiles and Tobacco were once king of the economy—resumes, electronic resumes, and an easy way to apply for jobs was certainly a dire need.

At the time, I owned and operated Document Solutions of NC, a regional business offering on-demand project support, computer training, writing, and resumes. Helping people find employment while simultaneously assisting businesses and their recruiters to find the people was an interesting dynamic. One that allowed me to refine the way I recommended to audiences and private clients how to represent themselves appropriately yet truthfully.

They had to now align online profiles with sometimes multiple versions of paper resumes representing expected skills, attributes and abilities companies sought. Before 2005 was over, I and my team had added more than 300 professional profiles onto this new, powerful networking platform. That’s an average of three a day in under six months!

“It can be assumed, like every professional, that YOU have experience; I want to hear the story of YOUR experience; I want to read your profile and feel like I have met YOU.”

Lori Ruff

Along my journey, circa 2008, I partnered with Mike O’Neil, The LinkedIn Rockstar (now you know where my Diva title originated!). He was tackling his first book when we met and we joined forces—in business, too. We decided to make two books. “RockTheWorld™ with Your Online Presence: Your Ticket to a Multi-Platinum LinkedIn Profile” and the second on the topic of LinkedIn to empower sales.

Although long before “Social Selling” became a thing. Mike had developed formal training on using LinkedIn to empower sales success, we continued to refine and use it to teach sales-people, recruiters, and marketing teams how to use LinkedIn to impact their bottom line ever since.

Individually and together, we also trained and inspired over 150 other LinkedIn and social media trainers, speakers, and consultants, only a few of whom include: Holly Clere, Joel Comm, Grant Crowell, Lissa Duty, Petra Fisher, Marc Freedman, Brad Friedman, Melony Dedaro, Shawn Elledge, Richard Geasey, Rob Gibbs, Jeffrey Gitomer, Glen Gould, Chuck Hester, Lewis Howes, Jeff Kaye, Chris Kiersch, Chris Kovak, Holly Kolman, Deb Krier, Nancy Laine, Chad Massaker, Ken McArthur, Ian McCleary, Rob Melendez, Jeff Mills, Nile Nickel, Lucinda Ruch, Haydn Shaughnessy, Paul Slack, Doug Stern, Terry Sullivan, and Olivier Taupin.