Images Magazine Digital Edition October 2018

www.images-magazine.com OCTOBER 2018 images 23 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT visitors with information on your core skills, services and how you help businesses; make them want to reach out and engage with you. ■ Find your target audience LinkedIn’s search facility allows users to search by company, job title, location and much more. Use this to target individuals who may be interested in your products and services. ■ Join LinkedIn groups Joining a group of like-minded people presents your business with the chance to network with your target audience. Build up a rapport and earn referrals for your products and services. ■ Earn referrals Earn some LinkedIn kudos with referrals and endorsements. This is where an existing connection endorses your skills and leaves reviews of you, your products and your services. Engage with your existing customer base, ask for referrals and endorsements, and boost your LinkedIn profile. Andrew Langridge is from ETrader, one of the industry’s leading suppliers of websites to garment decorators across the UK. www.etraderwebsites.co.uk FESPA: NETWORKING WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY I am at heart a printer. For more 30 years I’ve been screen printing and, for a little less time, digital printing. I have a broad understanding of garment decoration, roll-to-roll fabric, graphic and industrial printing. My role at Fespa as technical support manger is to support the organisation’s aims to provide a higher level of technical support to our global community. As a printer I’m very keen to promote learning, technical best practice and awareness of technological shifts and their commercial opportunities for businesses across the sector. I am in a privileged position to attend and present at many technical seminars run by the Fespa community around the world. Having recently returned from events in Greece and Portugal (see my Fespa blog for reports), I found printers who were very happy to share their successes and frustrations in a bid to improve business performance and find potential commercial partners. Here in the UK, the Fespa UK Association team works hard to organise relevant, useful events across a broad range of topics. Fespa’s annual Global Print Expo and our regional events Graeme Richardson-Locke is technical support manager at Fespa, a global federation of national associations for the screen printing, digital printing and textile printing community. If you have a question for Fespa, please email editorial@images- magazine.com with Fespa in the subject line. www.fespa.com globally offer the chance to productively meet with all the key technology developers in this ever-changing world. It appears to me that there is much to be gained from getting together and taking time to share challenges and learn from each other. I have benefitted from taking part in conferences and always step away with new ideas and contacts. It’s worth broadening our horizons and developing a spirit of abundance to make progress. I encourage you all to take some time over the next few months to engage with your industry colleagues, swap ideas and make new connections – and enjoy discovering where it takes you and your business. W ith over 450 million users, LinkedIn is the largest online professional social media platform – can your business afford to not be using it? What separates LinkedIn from the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is the fact it is a B2B social media platform, dedicated to professionals, business owners and businesses alike. The platform provides several sales and networking opportunities for your business, and the chance to engage with key decision markers. It enables you to chat and engage in a professional manner, sell your business, its brand and your values, and build up a trusted network of contacts you can continuously grow. It is not just about winning new business Do not forget existing customers: LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to connect with them and improve the chance of winning a repeat order. Existing customers also have the power to ‘endorse’ you to friends, colleagues and other connections. This referral is as close to online word of mouth as possible; it is a big tick in the box and a seal of approval. LinkedIn is predominantly used on an individual basis where professionals network with other professionals, but it also provides you with the opportunity to create a business page where you can create content, connect with customers and your target audience, and enhance your business‘s brand. To achieve LinkedIn success, here are a few quick pointers: ■ Optimise your profile Complete every aspect of your profile including images, background, skills and experience. Provide Why garment decorators should be linked in to LinkedIn