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If you have a subscription to Veranda magazine...or home-design-related boards on Pinterest...or love watching HGTV — today is your (D4S) day — because today, we're talking office style.

There's probably no better way to project a polished professional presence than having a good brand. Today we're looking at what that means exactly, and exploring ways to improve yours.

Your Brand Is Your Promise to Your Client. If you Google 'branding' you'll find many different descriptions of what it means. But at the heart of it, your brand is how others see you based on how you present yourself and the characteristics that define you. This is your personal brand.

Your professional brand adds the context of your work to that equation, defining your unique value proposition in the marketplace.

And your firm brand is about the reputation and value proposition of your firm as a whole, not just you (unless you are a solo lawyer).

"Knowing who you are, what you stand for, your professional strengths and what clients can expect when they hire you - as well as being able to communicate this clearly and effectively - will be key to your success both in terms of becoming better known internally (within your law firm) and externally (with your clients)." - The Importance of Personal Branding for Lawyers, Stephanie Solakian Goldstein

Today's challenge is to create a more thoughtful out-of-office ('OOO') message, also called an automatic email responder, to better serve and delight your clients.

An Easy Way to Extend Your Customer Service. Picture this...it's the end of the day the Friday before your week-long vacation. You're about to shut down your computer when you remember - shoot! - I need to let everyone know I'll be out next week. So you log back into Outlook/Gmail, spend 60 seconds updating your last (generic) OOO message with next week's dates, and 2 minutes later you're out the door.

Sound familiar? If so, you're not alone.

And while just the basics will suffice, it's certainly not taking advantage of the opportunity to create a positive memorable experience for the reader. You've worked hard to develop client relationships and deliver exceptional service while you're in the office. It's time to extend that to your client touches when you're out of the office as well.

The Bare Necessities. A professional OOO message should at minimum cover the following 3 items:

Welcome Desk4Success-ers to Week 2: Polishing Your Professional Presence! Today we're exploring proper LinkedIn etiquette for better business networking.

LinkedIn is for Business (Only). LinkedIn differs from other social networking platforms in that it's only meant for business. So those family photos, political comments, and videos of you puking rainbows — all that should stay off of your LinkedIn profile.

Not on LinkedIn? Check out these YouTube videos on creating a LinkedIn account and updating your account for 2017.

The Golden Rule. The most important thing to remember when using LinkedIn is to treat your connections online the same way you would IRL. Build rapport. Be respectful. Don't overstep.

Making and Accepting Connections. 'Connecting' is to LinkedIn what 'Friending' is on Facebook. Once you've 'connected' to another person — either by their invitation or yours — you are considered a 1st-degree connection. And, like the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, you have an extended network of connections made up of people that your connections know. (Learn more here.)

Here are our some common do's and don'ts when it comes to connections: