Self promotion is very important when it comes to either work for somebody or running your own business, especially in out era.
There are 2 types of people: the ones that have an Internal Locus of control, which means that they feel in control of their opportunities and future and make things happen. The second type, believe that things just happen to them and there is nothing they can do about it.
Exercise 1:
- Work on your own
- Write down every step you took (so that we can replicate what you did).
- Write down how you ‘validated’ that you would like to work with the person. Ie how did they build your trust.
- Find an individual who you would like to collaborate with on your next project. Must be someone who you have not physically met (yet).
This exercise was really interesting. When done, we were asked: where did you start? who did you dismiss along the way and why? how did the person build trust?. The answers that kept popping up were social media, professional website, positive reviews etc. To led us realize how important it is to have social proof and how this can influence other people’s decision in wanting to work with us or not.
Exercise 2:
- Work in pairs.
- List what is good, what is bad, what can be improved.
- Use different platforms, google, linkedin, Instagram, twitter etc
- Imagine you are either an employer or a potential collaborator, what can you find out about the other person based on their name and knowing that they are a textile designer/surface pattern designer.
It was very interesting to see how some of us had some difficulties finding the other on social media or how the different social media were not coherent to one another almost as if there were different people, not one.
Exercise 3:
3 things to improve your profile: (three things by the end of the day) 3 things before i leave uni, 3 things to change yourself on. After the previous exercises I found it much easier to understand the things I had to change to improve my social presence:
- Instagram: Change photograph on main page
- post regularly to create more trust
- Post more work in progress images, especially or carousels of photographs
- Post short videos of what you do, these seems more captivating and have better rate of succes in bringing new people to the profile
Today, people search people online. If they don’t find you they’ll dismiss you, if they find you and don’t like what they see they will dismiss you as well. I personally use on a daily/weekly basis Instagram that is connected to my Facebook page so every time I post something, it goes to my page as well. I have also set a profile on LinkedIn that I keep up to date, it is the most important social presence to have when looking for a job. Blogging have become almost routine for me, and knowing how important it is to give content to people, I plan on having a dedicated blog space in my website where I can write relevant content for my customers.
Next step: I will participate to Countdown to Launch from 10-14 June with the Centre of Entrepreneurship. It is a great opportunity to do a 5 day intensive workshop going through many different aspects of running and expanding a business. There will be the chance for pitching to get 1000£ that I am very excited about. I remember how scary talking was for me when I started my first year. Now, even though it still doesn’t come natural to me, I feel confident in saying I will definitely do it.
Anda Avramescu 