Did you resolve to find a person or a job to love this year? If so, you are not alone. I have already been hired to revamp two JDate and two LinkedIn profiles in past two days! Is your profile going to spark the interest of a prospective suitor ~ either your next boyfriend and/or your next boss?

Less than 12 hours after launching a revamped dating profile, one client called to report that her inbox was filling up with responses to the introductory emails we sent out! I love it when people trust my instincts, and allow me to meddle in their dating lives ~ and this client did! Together we initiated a few conversations and many of them wrote back right away.

While not a matchmaker by trade, I do have one marriage under my belt! I introduced one of my former dates to my college friend, and they’ve been together for 5 years and welcomed their first child last summer! (His name is Jamey, I like to think he’s named after me!)

Doubly blessed! Two JDate success stories for me - one match for me, one for a friend!

I get excited when my clients share good news with me, so of course I had to tell someone…or the world!  I gave a shout to @Jdate on twitter. We’ve established a relationship and participated in an ongoing dialog for months, since that’s where I reconnected with my husband. JDate also invited me participate in a trivia contest on twitter, and they get that engagement is the name of the game! (I can’t help myself, I love puns. Get it? Social media is all about engagement, and so are dating websites!)

I love helping people find love online!

Whether you vowed to be a more active dater, or to network more in the new year, here are some basic conversation starting techniques that everyone can benefit from. Are you ready to fill your social calendar with conversations?

How to Add Personality to Your Profile and Initiate an Introduction on a Dating Site and/or LinkedIn.

1.  Do us all a favor, take the time to fill out your profile.

Don’t leave out the juicy details, please! The details are what gets people interested in you…as a date or future employee!  So tell us about yourself, this is your chance to put your best foot forward, online! As I like to say, “there is no such thing as a blind date anymore, and there is no such thing as a blind meeting.” You have Google to thank for that, but you can control what information people see, and LinkedIn usually ranks among the top searches for an individual.

2. Questions are great ice breakers!

On a dating site, they ask you what type of relationship you are looking for and they provide multiple options including: A Date, Friend, Marriage, Marriage & Children, Activity Partner, etc.  When they give you multiple choices, check as many as apply to you.  When it comes time to fill out the open ended questions be generous with details.  It will give the person reading a reason to engage in conversation with you.  Use the valuable profile characters to express what you love with a brief story and a follow up question.

Instead of saying: My biological clock is ticking, and I want to get married and have kids right away.

You could say:  I love my nieces and nephews, and just got them a pass to Great America for Christmas.  I love spending time with my family, and can’t wait to have kids with Mr. Right. In the meantime, I will be first in line for the Superman Ultimate Flight roller coaster.  What’s your favorite amusement park ride?

On LinkedIn, take the time to fill out your profile, especially the summary and work history sections. If you have a professional bio, use that as a starting point for the summary, and be sure to include a few sentences or bullet points about your previous work history and experience.  If you have a resume, that is a great place to start finding content to include on your LinkedIn profile.

3. The World is Your Oyster. Open Up!

Honesty is always the best policy.  There are many benefits to being upfront and transparent about your life experiences and professional history. This is your chance to tell the story you want the world to know ~  play up the projects and/or activities that you enjoy the most in order to attract more of them into your life!

4.  More Information Leads to More Opportunities.

You are more likely to appear in LinkedIn search results when your profile is filled out with keywords about your responsibilities and/or accomplishments, plus it allows for more opportunity to pique someone’s interest.

5. Info-gather then get-together.

Before contacting someone, do your homework! Read someone’s profile, paying attention to their hobbies, interests and things you have in common.  The more information people include, the better for everyone!  For example, whenever I see someone mention that they are a Michigan Alumni, I find a way to work that into the conversation.  Dropping a quick “Go, Blue!” is a great way to establish common ground from the get-go!

6. Introduce Yourself!

When making an initial contact with someone, be sure to personalize your approach.  If this is a LinkedIn request, instead of using the generic pre-populated connection request message, personalize the introduction with a few sentence about how know the recipient or the reason for contacting.

For a dating site initial contact, giving someone a question to answer doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get a response, but it sure gives you a better chance!

They say: I love to travel.   You reply saying: I also love to travel, where was the coolest place you visited this year?  I hiked up Masada, went leaf-peeping in Vermont, and just returned from New Year’s Eve in New York City! Do you have any vacations coming up?

They say: I love concerts.   You say: I’m an avid concert goer too! What shows did you catch this year?  I had a blast at North Coast Music Festival, and highlights for me were seeing the Disco Biscuits, Grace Potter and De La Soul.  I also saw my favorite band, Phish ten times this year!  Are you going to U2 at Soldier Field this summer?

7. Get them talking about what they love!

See the conversation examples above.  What do they have in common? The key is: its all about the questions you ask and building rapport.  In all of these examples, the basic approach was the same.

Ta Da…. and now my unscientific Formula for Online Connection Success: Prepare your profile > make note of something you have in common with person of interest > initiate conversation, drawing them in with a thoughtful question about shared experience > request for permission to follow up.

Picture an inbox full of “Let’s get to know each other better” phone calls, coffee talks and event invitations.  It’s all about conversations.  Now go ahead, it’s your turn to start some! (just don’t forget to report back!)

Related posts:

1. Share the Love! Who Have You Connected With Online?
2. What's in a Name? Personal Branding & The First Year of Marriage
3. There is No Such Thing as a Blind Date Anymore, And There is No Such Thing as a Blind Meeting!

I am a JDate success story, two times over!

InteractiveAmy is a Jdate Success Story!

In addition to reconnecting with the first boy I ever kissed (and marrying him) I also was the matchmaker in another Jdate wedding!

Twice, really? How does that happen?  Before finding my man I was an avid dater, I love meeting new people and I approached dating with a sales mentality.  It’s all a numbers game! The more people you meet, the greater the chances of finding a love connection!

After going on a date with a very nice person it was clear there were no sparks…where others would just end it we parted as friends and continued to hang out. He was a great catch, just not right for me.   I set him up with my friend, and they were engaged less than a year later!

My pay it forward attitude payed off one month later when I found Josh online.  With one round of JDate instant messages we established that we were each other’s first kiss, from summer camp in the early 90′s!  After a whirlwind romance he moved from Boston to Chicago to be with me, and we were engaged the following year!

Last month I was asked to participate in a special JDate Success Stories Twitter giveaway! @JDate partnered with @PopJudaica on September 23, 2009 to give away free 1-month JDate memberships and t-shirts from PopJudaica to Twitter fans.

I was chosen as a Twitterer who represented a JDate success story and was fortunate to give a month of Jdating away to the first person who correctly answered a trivia question!  I got to share my favorite story (how I met my husband!) with a new audience and give people hope that the will someday meet the partner of their dreams!

Jdate twitter contest

I believe in connecting people, and I was honored to give others the chance to find love and friendship.  The Internet brings people together everyday. Whether you are looking to buy or sell a product or service, need a question answered or are looking to grow your personal and professional network, you never know who you will meet online!

Have a great online connection story you’d like to share, please do!

Related posts:

1. LOVE Your Personal Brand
2. I Love Public Speaking, and I Get to Do It Twice on the Same Day!
3. Why I love facebook, and Jewish geography!

Is  it possible for a weekend at WordCamp to turn someone into a blogger?

Yes, I am living proof!

This past weekend, I attended WordCamp Chicago to immerse myself in the world of WordPress.  While not an entry level blog conference, this blogging newbie was on a mission to learn from the best.

I will follow up with more WordCamp Chicago highlights and presentation recaps in posts to come, but in the meantime here are some takeaways that inspired me to log into WordPress and create an account before heading home after my first day at WordCamp Chicago.

Liz Strauss, founder of SOBCon and blogger extraordinaire kicked off WordCamp Chicago with a lesson on how to make your blog stand out.  With over 100 million blogs out there, any and all tips will certainly help!

If you’re still thinking about what you’re going to blog about  – choose something that you love! Blogging about your passion will attract like-minded people, and you will also look really smart!

People can find information anywhere, blog your experience with your information.

• For example – if movie critics only blogged information, all of the movie reviews would be the same.

(And speaking of movies, if you are a movie buff with a small bladder, check out RunPee.com, it tells you the best time to run to the restroom mid-movie, just heard about that site and had to share!!)

So now that you have something to write about, how does one build online influence?

According to Micah Baldwin, founder of #FollowFriday, if you truly want to be influential online, just influence one person.  He even provided a formula to back that up:

• Influence = Reach [Brand*Expertise*Trust], where reach is a multiplier of influence.

If I lost you at #FollowFriday, here is the run down – each Friday on Twitter, users recommend interesting and exciting people to follow, and people follow them back.  Talk about extending your influence, a recommendation from someone you trust goes a long way!

WordPress can do just about anything…So where does one begin?

A great way to learn is by example, and seeing how other people have used the platform is a great place to start! Luckily, Doug Hanna’s session was about “Showcasing the WordPress Showcase.”

In order to be included in the WordPress Showcase:
-    you have to use WordPress in a unique and innovative way,
-    have thousands of regular readers,
-    be written by someone famous, or notable in his/her particular field,
-    or represent notable organization, government entity, corporation as an official blog or website.

If WordPress is good enough for Martha Stewart, Sir Richard Branson, Harvard Law School and I Can Haz Cheezburger, it is good enough for me! Check out the showcase, what are your favorite WordPress sites?

You didnt have to attend WordCamp to have great advice to share – so tell me, what are your tips for new bloggers? Please share some pearls of wisdom, resources or words of inspiration for those who are just joining the world of WordPress.

Related posts:

1. What I Learned at WordCamp 2010
2. Becoming an Internet Celebrity – Erin Blaskie at WordCamp Chicago
3. WordPress.com is the Gateway Drug!

Within my first 24 hours on WordPress I got a shout out from Matt Mullenweg, the founding developer of WordPress, during his “The State of The Word” keynote at WordCamp Chicago!

Matt Mullenweg and interactiveAmy at WordCamp Chicago

What precipitated this occurance?

It is the Law of Attraction in action, my friends. Simply put, you attract your dominant thoughts.

I attracted this amazing experience and I want to share with you how it came to be.

My Goal – to be a blogger.

My Thoughts – desire to start a blog, imagine myself blogging, seek knowledge, follow my passion, belief that I can do it!

My Actions – register for WordCamp, go with open mind, receive knowledge, launch blog.

My Thanks – to Matt Mullenweg for envisioning and developing WordPress! Matt, thank you for giving the world a platform on which to blog! Thank you to everyone who visits my blog, and to the community for your help, support, and encouragement along the way!

It is no coincidence that this experience is a perfect segue to a subject I plan to explore in greater detail; using the Law of Attraction in business, in life, and within social media.

How does the Law of Attraction work?

* Set a goal that makes you very excited
* Visualize your goals
* Take Action
* Express gratitude

Starting a blog was my goal. Examining the ways people are using social media to meet their goals is just one of the subjects this we’ll explore together.

To kick off the conversation, in the comment section please share with me what goals excite you!

You are the only one that creates your reality.

Related posts:

1. WordPress.com is the Gateway Drug!
2. What I Learned at WordCamp Chicago
3. To Blog or Not To Blog