Has there ever been a time when you have thought to yourself “I’m not good enough to take on that role” or “ I want to pursue my passion but I am nervous about leaving my corporate job”? As humans, I think it’s natural for us to experience self doubt with all of us having varying degrees of it and coping mechanisms in place to keep us in a positive mindset. No? Or do some of us stay safe and let the self doubt cloud remain over our heads preventing us to propel forward and take more risks?
Over the last few years living in Singapore, I have observed that networking events of all types are extremely popular. I love meeting new people but never really gave “networking” much thought back in Oz because there really wasn’t any need. But as an Australian Expat running a start-up e-commerce business, networking is an essential part of my life. And I find it a great way to combat some of that “self doubt” as learning from others’ can give you quite the confidence booster as you realise that there are people going through the same motions.
Singapore has such diverse culture of people who are open to meeting up and it’s one of the things I adore most about living here, and women in particular who want to connect with other women, learn and be inspired by others journeys’ and experiences in business and in life.
There are many groups and organisations in Singapore that give women in business and women exploring entrepreneurship the opportunity to come together. One such company is called Work Play Connect who are a boutique marketing and events agency in Singapore, who run a a series of female networking events called
Girls on Top (GoT). theWYLDshop.com were invited to showcase as a Pop-Up store at their 2nd event held at
The Working Capitol on 7
th of May. It was not only an awesome opportunity for us to connect with potential customers, but myself and my team had the pleasure of hearing insightful information and personal tips / tricks on ‘
How to stay on top online’ from some of Singapore’s leading entrepreneurs and social media experts.
To be honest, in this day and age where some of us are feeling a tad left behind as social media platforms and digital marketing have such an enormous importance for businesses, the speakers offered useful information that was relevant and below were my key learning’s from the evenings’ speakers: Hana Marsalkova - Google, Rachel Lim -
Love, Bonito, Vicky Truong -
Hootsuite, Saranta Gattie - The Working Capitol.
Hana Marsalkova - Google +
To be honest my team and I hadn’t really looked into social media app Google + as we have been focused on building our other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram & Pinterest however, Hana’s presentation gave us a great insight into how Google + could be used effectively for different types of businesses but showed us an example of how other fashion e-tailers used the app to build their following and personalize online shopping. She certainly left us with a few things to think about.
Understand your audience & the platforms your using as well as:
1. BE REAL
2. Find your hook - what's your story? - tell us something!
3. Mess with the format
4. Play well with others - work with talent who know your audience.
5. Keep a good thing going - is it sustainable? - can more content be created around it?
Rachel Lim, Co-founder of Love, Bonito gave us a run down on her personal social media journey and explained how popular social media app Instagram was used as a branding platform for both her personal profile and her business. She shared that her personal profile allowed her to stay in touch with her followers “ they feel they know you and are closer to you” she said.
She also mentioned that the success of her social media online growth for her business was due to social media influencer seeding to both local and international celebrities. Also explaining how nowadays Facebook marketing is becoming harder to reach your target audience, with each post only reaching about 1%!! (I would have been curious to know how many women that night actually knew this?) So she stressed the importance of allocating a significant marketing budget if you are predominately an online business.
She spoke about her key learning’s as a young entrepreneur and shared with us some great tips.
*Know your followers
*Get out there and network
*Find good mentors
*Don’t be afraid to make mistakes
*Read books that are inspiring and useful
The next speaker Vicky, from Hootsuite gave a very detailed presentation and reminded us that “ Right now, with social networks and other tools on the internet, all of these 500 million people have a way to say what they’re thinking and have their voice heard”. WOW. Pretty intense stuff! Quite extraordinary I thought….
She introduced Hootsuite as a Social Media Management dashboard platform, I was like that truly sounds amazing! But honestly, I had actually looked at it before and it scared me… so it was great to have her explain the platform in a simplified way. However, she did mention a few new tools i.e Buzzsumo, Trendspottr and O Funnel that I had never heard of which scared me again and I was thinking “ am I supposed to know all these?” but as I looked around the room I thought no, that’s exactly what we are here for… to learn!!
Here are a few thoughts and tips Vicky left us with:
1. Each day billions of conversations are taking place across the social web. Social Media lets you listen to those conversations. SO LISTEN
2. Talk to your community - Be Proactive not Reactive
3. Know the power of #hashtags
4. Amplify your brand not your expenses
5. Tell your story to captivate your audience
6. Post pics directly to twitter there is a 35% increase in retweet
7.LISTEN – ASSESS –ENGAGE –MEASURE –REFINE #REPEAT
8. Be genuine
9. “The ROI of social media is that your business will exist in 5 years” – Erik Qualman
So the evening proved a very successful one. Not only did we meet some great women, enjoy delicious food and beverages by sponsors Coriander Leaf, Cupplets, and Rekorderlig Cider but we also learnt and took away useful information that will aid us in our business journey to 'stay on top online’!
Stay tuned for my low down on the next Girls on Top Event!
Live WYLD Live Free
Kb xx
All images taken by ENSOF Photography.
