Minnesota bloggers rock. I know because I spent Saturday with 150 of the best, brightest and kindest people at the 2nd annual MN Blogger Conference.

Talk about a recharge! There is no way I can capture the energy in black and white print (Kate Hopper could, but not me) so I am going do the next best thing - introduce you to a few of the people I had the pleasure of talking with, learning from and being inspired by.

Among the people I met were Lee Svitak Dean, Food editor for the Star Tribune and author of Come One, Come All as well as Amy Peterson, writer of Green Your Plate blog. Do you see a trend here? 2 people - 1 topic . . . food. There is an amazing network of food bloogers in town and frankly, this sounds much more interesting than human resources, leadership and growth. I am a far cry from a foodie but that doesn't mean I can't add a few food blogs to my reader for inspiration, right?

Two non-foodies I met were Emma Wilhelm, an author of 8 Dimensions of Leadership, DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader and Christy Eichers, an old band leadership camp buddy of Charlie Judy, HRFishbowl. Go figure!

The inspiration continued in the sessions:

Lee Oden, Top Rank Marketing. With nothing more than a blog and some savvy community building techniques (think hub and spoke and meeting the needs of your customers) he created a globaly recognized online marketing business.

Paul DeBettignies, HireCast Consulting. After warming the crowd up he dished about networking, using the back of your business cards, being nice to others <karma always comes back to you> and the difference between lurking and stalking.

Communities may develop around a website or a blog, but they don't stop there. Led by Kate O'Reilly, Clever Kate, panel members Jen Emmert, Prior Fat Girl, Meghan Wilker, Summer of Dresses, Stephanie Meyer, Fresh Tart Steph, and Ian Schwartz, St. Paul Tweetup shared their commuity building tips: people will hate on you and you get to decide how to respond, invite people to participate in the community, and there is not best approach to community growth.

I'm a Squarespace girl. I've felt a little alone in the Wordpress world, but no more. Enter Josh Braaten, Big Picture Web. He's my very own Squarespace connection. If you use Squarespace, think about using it or want a side-by-side comparison of Squarespace and Wordpress, he's your guy.

I heart Kate Hopper. Have you ever written a blog post that felt flat? Um, yes. Kate shared ways to ground your stories in details and bring people to life by describing tastes, smells, sounds, textures and touches. Her first book, Use Your Words: A Writing Guide for Mothers will be out in Spring 2012.

The taco bar rocked, the location was superb and the parking was free. Wait, the entire event was free thanks our sponsors Top Rank Online Marketing, Allina Hospitals and Clinics and KARE11. Yes, free!

Not sure how Missy Berggran, Arik Hanson and the planning team will top this in 2012 but I can't wait to find out!

Is your LinkedIn profile serving you and your career well? I thought so. Neither was mine.

Think of LinkedIn profile maintenance like spring cleaning. No, not like it's something you want to avoid at all costs but like this: there is no right or wrong way to do it and just when you think you are done, you see a cobweb here or a dust ball there, and know there is more to do.

Wait, let me put my dust brush down.

What you do with your LinkedIn profile is a matter of opinion and of choice, and Miriam Salpeter gave me a lot to think about in her book, Social Networking for Career Success.

Miriam devotes chapters to social media networks and tools in a straight forward, easy to follow way. Social Networking for Career Success is a virtual roadmap to success and a book I know I'll keep handy as a resource for myself and others.

Knowing my LinkedIn profile has been in dire need of a spring cleaning, I scanned the chapters and jumped right to those on LinkedIn. Yes, you can do that - you can go from front to back or jump around. Use it as you need to.

Of the most value to me were the LinkedIn tips on looking at profiles from others in your industry for ideas for strong key words <yes, that was my popping into your profile> and not overlooking the headline, the summary section or specialties.

What does Miriam say about each tip?

"Use your headline to describe what you offer - your value proposition."

My headline was my current position. It's what I do but it's not all that I offer. So, instead of Human Resources Director, my headline now reads Human Resources - Leader - Writer - Trusted Advisor.

The summary is one of "the most important sections of your profile. The most important factor to consider is how your summary appeals to your target audience."

My summary does not yet answer the 3 important questions Miriam poses, Who are you? Who do you want to help? How are you going to help them? but I now have something to work towards.

The specialties section "is another fairly basic section; all you need to do is include relevant keywords."

My specialties section was sorely overlooked. I may have gone overboard adding 5 lines of specialties. Things I had not considered were including my maiden name and my full name "to ensure everyome who finds your profile has access to your name, even if they are not connected to you."

What else did I do? I clicked through each and every privacy control and setting option for my profile as well as email preferences and group settings.

So, how is my LinkedIn profile today? Serving me better today than it was yesterday and always a work in progress. Take a look, let me know what you think.

What tips do you have to share?

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Lisa Rosendahl