It was such a pleasure to participate in WBII’s September networking event, where the theme was ‘Speed networking’. The event, thanks to its unique format in gathering participants in groups of 4, enabled us to experience a special evening, where everybody had the chance to exchange detailed information about their individual businesses and LinkedIn profiles, taking the opportunity to get to know each other better during deeper conversations.
The event was moderated by our lovely vice-president Dymphna Elsink, who brings colour and vitality to each event by sharing many inspiring videos and music, making our coffee-tea breaks truly special. This time she shared with us a video named ‘This is Me’ from ‘The Greatest Showman’ focusing on the concepts acceptance and courage. She also introduced us to Beatrice Betley’s great voice by playing us her recent song ‘Sunshine’ for all who want a bit of sunshine in their lives, especially in these challenging times.
To start with, we had one of our members, Petra Fisher in the 10 minute highlight session. She introduced us to her business focused on getting noticed, mentioned and being remembered on LinkedIn, guiding us on how to create a wicked LinkedIn presence. She helps service-based entrepreneurs grow their businesses by becoming visible and attracting their motivated target clients. I enjoyed her talk and admired her genuine and outspoken way of presenting and will take her valuable tips on board about making comments on LinkedIn.
What made last month’s networking event different from the previous ones was that this time there was no main speaker. This meant that all of us with our variety of different skills and expertise were equally on stage. It was a magnificent opportunity to get connected, as well as see new and familiar faces. Inspired by Petra’s topic on LinkedIn, Dymphna suggested that we discuss and give feedback to each other about our LinkedIn profiles, trying to get to know who we are, what kind of business we have, just based on what we see on our online presences. I was lucky to have Petra in my first breakout session, and Nicoline Huizinga in my second one, both experts in the field. They shared some very valuable and simple tips that can make a big difference, such as:
- The profile photo, banner and tagline working in unity reflecting your company’s house style (in terms of colours, design, language)
- The importance of winning the viewer in just a few seconds on LinkedIn by using the banner space effectively.
- Mentioning on your profile what makes you different and what you want to be known for
- The importance of using hashtags to be noticed, to increase visibility and to start commenting!
- Remembering that the viewers looking at your profile are not always experts on LinkedIn, don’t be shy in giving constructive feedback to others, just trust yourself and keep on improving your profile and make most of the opportunities this platform offers
As we all want people to check our profiles more often, I will take all the information on board and take into account that even these simple steps and changes make a big difference to achieving our goals.
Thank you Petra Fisher, Nicoline Huizinga, Natalie Carstens, Nira Satguru and Vjerana Stipetic for your valuable feedback and mutually exchanging ideas on the topic.
Looking forward to our next networking event!
Cigdem Guven
Crocusfield Graphic Design
