What?

My connect skills quiz results showed me that I am a bold beginner, I am just starting to build confidence and develop connections with others online who I share interest with. I tent to lurk in the background and not contribute much. I have never tried to reach out and connect with colleagues, with the exception of a few that I added onto Facebook. I have many friends I schooled with on Facebook and Instagram.

Even though I had these accounts and had friends and colleagues on them I always tended to sit back and observe rather then add comments, likes or even my own content. Most often I had accounts with my name on them that anyone who knew me could find but it was mostly empty. I had alias accounts too where I could be more myself with the groups, pages and people I followed or liked.

So What?

Connecting online is important as it allows for new opportunities. For small businesses like mine I don’t have a shop front and only sell online, so connecting with customers or potential customers is very important to for business sales. Personally, connecting online helps me improve my business with new ideas as well as being able to bounce ideas with others who share the same interest. If it wasn’t for online connects my business would not be what it is today. I have connected with other professionals that do similar things at I do, and we talk about the ins and outs of an idea and can it be possible to create.

What Now?

Until I started studying at Charles Sturt University I had never had a LinkedIn account. To me it was always something only real professionals used, and I did not think of myself as a professional. I realise now that if I had of had my LinkedIn account, I may have been able to find myself better job opportunities. I used to work in mining in a very specific field that I know has few people in it.  If I had of made those connections back then before I was made redundant, I may have found more work in my field again, instead I had to take work elsewhere and now a decade of skills is wasted.

I have changed what my future career will be, so I am going to start using LinkedIn to help me gain a foot in the door for getting a job in my future field of study.

I did not realise that blogs were useful, I have never invested much time into them as I do not read them myself and only thought hippie city goers or travellers would ever read them or write them. Having asked around to friends and family I have found out that I am the odd one out when it comes to reading blogs. I blame this on my very hermit like nature when it comes to interacting online. I plan to start to put myself out there a bit more when it comes to contributing online. My business page has a section for blogs on it. While there is only one on there at the moment, I am quite keen to try and add more to it. The anxiety I have about putting myself out there online is easier to manage when I am being the professional businesswomen.