The My Profile component of My Site is absolutely critical to the effective use of SharePoint for recruiting a project team. Here are 10 tips on establishing your profile for maximum effect:

1. Make your areas of expertise interesting, not generic. A rich description of who you are and what you are interested in is much better than using generic terms. So don’t write “Marketing” as an area of expertise; write “Marketing strategy for expanding into new international markets”. Someone doing a search on the term “marketing” will still find you, but you will have provided much more at-a-glance information than the person just writing “Marketing”.
2. Be exhaustive and list everything. One of the real powers of your profile is the matching that happens between you and your visitors, to show things that they hold in common with you. If you only list 3 or 4 items in each area, the possibilities that matches are found are greatly reduced. Err on the side of more, not less.
3. View your profile as your online resume. We used to keep our resume locked inside a text document, but those days are gone. Your My Site profile is going to become the most up-to-date and most widely looked at statement of who you are.
4. Be professional. Your colleagues and managers in your firm will be reading your profile, so keep it professional. By all means list personal interests, but only if they are socially acceptable within your firm.
5. Actively seek new colleagues. Who you know, and by implication who knows about you, is really important to the effectiveness of your work in the firm and the opportunities that will come you way. Look out for people that share common interests with you, and reach out to them. Learn about their work, their perspectives and their challenges. Get to know them, and earn the right to call them a colleague.
6. Ask a trusted colleague—or your manager—to review your profile. They will notice where you have left out things about yourself that should be there, and will give insightful feedback on how to best describe your accomplishments.
7. Don’t be bland. Don’t settle for doing the minimum with your My Site profile—listing a few words and phrases here and there. Go for the top! Aim to make your profile the best statement of who you are.
8. Keep your profile up-to-date. Make a recurring appointment with yourself to revisit and update your profile every month. If you have projects that change on a weekly basis—as in projects where you are making a good contribution, update it more regularly.
9. Become a My Site champion! Encourage other people you meet in the firm to establish their profile in My Site, and to keep it up-to-date.

What would you list as number 10?