A large part of networking is now done online. I want to develop a strategic journey to get myself noticed, meet others and find opportunities to get involved with my passions.
To do this, I will use mainly Instagram, LinkedIn, and my blog. For each of these websites, I am going to plan a strategic way of using them.
I already had a modelmaking Instagram account set up, but I have not used it since the start of the pandemic, which means I had a lot of work that I could advertise myself through. To organise my come-back, I used my Google calendar to schedule posts and stories. I chose to post at least once a week on a Monday/Tuesday, and to add stories throughout the week, at least once on a Thursday/Friday. I will post roughly around 6.30pm as that is when people interact with my account most. This should be frequent enough to keep a stream of visitors to my account and interactions with my posts.
Moreover, I also planned out what work I will post first. I decided to do a mix of chronological posts and current live projects. This means that I started my come-back with the last model made before the pandemic – my Wraptor pun model. On the day of the come-back, I also planned to post a close-up of the model on my story, titling it as a ‘teaser’ of my official post later in the day. This was to draw up a little bit more attention to my account so that my come-back post could reach more people.
Lastly, for my profile photo I chose a picture of me in the process of making a model. I also wrote my profile summary to reflect my personal brand of curiosity in making and highlighted that I am looking to work with people by ending with the phrase ‘DM for a chat!’. I want my Instagram to reflect the light-hearted side of my professional brand.
On the other hand, I would like to utilise LinkedIn to reflect my professional brand in a more formal manner. I have decided to sign up for the course Social Tree Global which guides you in establishing an online brand for yourself. Along with this, I have started to fill out my LinkedIn profile. I am planning to link it to my blog – I will be able to highlight articles I have written on my blog on my LinkedIn page. This will give people more of an idea of what I am passionate about as a maker. I have also made sure to start setting up my LinkedIn profile in Polish as well (my native language) to reach a wider audience, and to make my profile more accessible.
I have chosen to use my Wraptor as a headline photo, and my profile photo will be more formal than my Instagram picture. The Wraptor will highlight my interests as a maker, while the profile photo will highlight myself as a professional.
Finally, I will also continue to use my blog after graduation to explain certain parts of my projects and passions. The format of a blog means I have more space to write – Instagram emphasises pictures while LinkedIn is essentially a detailed CV. I will also add a section to my blog for my portfolio images.
Alicja Makes 