Spec Finish

Education www.thefis.org 17 especially when it is to do with your business as I certainly felt that I was being judged more and I know that people have also felt that this is the case”. By overcoming the challenges mentioned and recognising the potential of LinkedIn Jon obtained the job he wanted and built a business using the content and the network he had at his disposal. His business is successful, continues to win business and grow its network. What Jon didn’t mention is that he didn’t have a company profile for DCL on LinkedIn until very recently. He built the business from personal branding on his own LinkedIn account. In my experience, by doing it Jon’s way people appear worried about coming across as being unprofessional and would rather wait for their website to be perfect and have the branding matching across all platforms. In my opinion, if you are a 10-year-old company with over 10 employees and an established brand it is probably a good thing to do. However, when you’re getting started and you want to get your business out there look no further than your personal brand and the platforms available to you. This gives you the ability to tell a story as it happens, and when you hit milestones with your business such as your first, fifth or tenth year trading, you don’t have to hunt for content to show your audience and customers your journey you can simply look at your profile and share the stories of the past. I would suggest starting to post: • what’s going on in your business life. • make your profile personal by posting a snippet into your life. • if you have purchased a new piece of equipment. • maybe your new branded t-shirts came from the printer. • perhaps you’re on your way to a meeting and you document the trip. Start with something as simple as finding out what your connections like best, a milky tea or builders brew. I mentioned in my previous article on page 16 of the March 2023 issue of SpecFinish, that these platforms don’t want company page admins talking to admins, they want people talking to people, decision makers coming together on one network to get stuff done, this is what makes platforms like LinkedIn so valuable today. Gone are the days when it was a platform you kept up to date as a digital CV it’s a fully functional network that is built around the prospect of making strong business connections and engaging with people that matter to your business. Example of a post on LinkedInwhich has an impressive 18,174 impressions Imaginative post on LinkedIn which has an amazing 25,889 impressions