Building your networking and thinking about your personal brand are hard, so here is a quick guide….
Hi, I’m Zara, I run EXT MKTG (External Marketing) and my business is four years old but as I do marketing for creative agencies, it’s important for me to have good marketing and practice what I preach.
I would say like with any project I undertake, let’s look at how things are – how visible are you? How often are you posting? Where are you currently spending your time doing self-promotion? Which events have you been to in the last year? Where are you a member? Have an audit of your current networking efforts. If you like goals, give yourself a score out of 5. It’s a starting point!
Spend some time on your LinkedIn bio and any other bio pages you may have- use up as many characters as you can! In the right way, preferably! Creator mode in LinkedIn allows more options and think about your headline, your summary and what you say for each of the ‘Experience’ sections. Where possible, include your personality and if you’re funny – be funny, if you’re scientific – be scientific. There are lots of articles out there to help you make your profile look better so try a little research if you need some help or ideas.
Expanding your connections – if you’re in a community in Slack and someone new joins – reach out and say hi! Ask for their LinkedIn profile and hit connect. You never know where that digital connection to someone may lead- hopefully, you can make referrals to one another one day, or even work together but if you have greater connections, you are broadening your reach for when you publish content.
When it comes to Events, look at your role within your agency (1), your sectors (2) and your personal/ company deliverables (3) – these are your verticals. Take on a research project for yourself – and find events via Eventbrite, LinkedIn, search hashtags on Instagram, use Google and ask within existing communities. You’re looking to find the right size and type of event that suits your growth goals in these three areas. And when it comes to attending an event – there are 3 pieces of content you can generate here – the preamble, live at the event, and post-event. Ask people in your communities who are going too, message people who might be there, and do not be afraid- everyone is looking for connections in this very digital world.
And if you can’t find the right event, make it! I’ve recently started some female founder brunches and it’s bringing together a wonderful group, and they always ask ‘When is the next one’.
If you don’t carve out some time to look after your visibility and your network, then who will?!
You have to be empowered to take on building your network but it can be powerful for your career, new business and your company. Get in touch to find out more.
