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Caroline Hess

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Caroline is a born and raised Seattlite, as well as a marketer, journalist, and creative who is passionate about acting on the phrases "communication is key" and "hard work pays off."

The Great LinkedIn Challenge has come to a close. The competition was fierce. The challenges were tough. The competitors were tireless in their pursuit of the long-awaited donut cake prize. 

All of that being said, I am happy to announce our winner (at last!). 

Congratulations, Melissa!

Melissa is our Associate Editor here at LexBlog with a passion for storytelling, journalism, and helping others. As I was reviewing her completed LinkedIn profile, I noticed a comprehensive theme that truly spoke to her interests and passion for what she does. She also fulfilled all of the challenges – not an easy feat! 

Because LexBloggers put a tremendous effort into making their profiles shine, I chose two runners up who also did a great job getting their profiles to all-star level. 

Well done, Jaime and Josh!

They will also receive a donut prize (a bit smaller than the cake, of course) for their dedication to completing the challenge. 

I hope you enjoyed following along on this fun competition with me. It’s great to see LexBloggers work hard to make a name for themselves online! 

If you’re wondering, Melissa’s infamous donut cake will arrive at the LexBlog office for celebration in mid-January when we’ll have some of our remote LexBloggers in Seattle for the week. Pictures will follow!

Send your congratulations to Melissa, Jaime, and Josh with a connection on LinkedIn!  

This is an exciting week at LexBlog. Not only do we have our amazing Editor-in-Chief, Bob Ambrogi, in town and a new Associate Editor joining us (Welcome, Melissa!), we have a truly thrilling, exhilarating, and delicious challenge facing us. 

What exactly is this exciting trial we must confront, you ask? I give you LexBlog’s Great LinkedIn Challenge! While this is not exactly what one would call an exhaustive marathon run or New York’s infamous Hot Dog Eating Contest, we take this challenge very seriously at LexBlog. To explain why, let me give a little background. 

If you’ve ever been to our CEO, Kevin O’Keefe’s profile, you know he believes in the important place of LinkedIn within a person’s professional development. LexBlog itself had a tagline, “Make a Name for Yourself,” to encourage lawyers and other legal professionals to embrace blogging and networking online. We still hold strongly to that principle for our network – so why wouldn’t we do our best to embrace it ourselves? 

This is how The Great LinkedIn Challenge was born. Earlier this week, I was thinking through ways to inspire a passion for networking and growing online influence among my fellow LexBloggers. I decided that the two things that universally motivate people are 1.) Fierce competition with proximate peers and 2.) Donuts (especially at LexBlog, obviously). And with that, I created this challenge for my coworkers. 

Before a deadline of December 19th, we are each tasked with completing a list of challenges. Each challenge, in some way, improves the LexBlogger’s LinkedIn presence. Some challenges are easy, such as uploading a header image. Some are more difficult, like listing bulleted details about past work experience. 

The most exciting part occurs on the last day of the challenge. In the true spirit of the sweet-filled gluttony of the holiday season, whoever completes all 11 of the challenges by the deadline receives a giant donut cake from Legendary Donuts! Just take a gander at their menu. Who wouldn’t want to win one of those? 

And so, in this time of intense rivalry among us here at LexBlog (not really), we ask that you encourage us as we embark on this journey of improving our online presence. We take donations in the form of non-cake-sized donuts and LinkedIn recommendations. 

*Updates on the winner will most definitely follow*