3 LinkedIn Tips - For the LinkedIn Beginner

As I move further down the freelancing path, LinkedIn is becoming more and more valuable. I've always been on the site, but it's only the last few years that I have started to realise exactly how valuable the network that I've built can be.

How can you maximise the potential of your network of connections? There are so many answers to this question. I've compiled three of my favorite beginners tips here, but I would love to know your own tips for utilising the features of LinkedIn.

This is the very first tip I share with my recruitment clients. One of the best things about Linkedin is that it is a permanent, ever expanding contact list. For every job I've had, every email I've received from a business, every name that has crossed my path in a professional capacity, I've added them to my Linkedin network. This has three benefits. Firstly, it expands your network into different industries. It's easy to create a network of 100 people within the same industry that you work in. What's harder is expanding your reach into other industries. You never know when these contacts might become useful. You may need to put a call out for work some time in the future, you may find yourself selling a product or service that has a use outside of your own sector.

Some opportunities to add to your network:

• Job interviews - it pays to look up who will be interviewing you anyway, to get a grasp of their standing in the company, their role and their background. Adding them to your network is a step up from this - it forges a permanent connection that could prove valuable later on down the line.
• Customer service emails - I like to add supervisors and managers that I end up conversing with over email to my LinkedIn network as an 'in' to various industries. Dependent on the status of the persons LinkedIn account, you can't add 3rd degree or further connections without InMail. These names and contacts are valuable for expanding your reach into untapped sectors. Plus, they are quite often part of the recruitment process, and you may see them advertising jobs you otherwise wouldn't have known about.
• Customers - whether you work for yourself or within a larger company, you will be having contact with clients in some capacity. Reach out to them on LinkedIn and you may be able to utilise them in a later role - be aware that some companies won't like this, but your LinkedIn account, so long as your company isn't paying for premium membership is your own and no company can make a claim on your contact list.

There are thousands of industry specific groups on LinkedIn. I take a few minutes each day to browse and join relevant groups. 

Don't limit yourself to groups just for your role. For example, I am a member of many Social Media groups, Marketing groups, Digital Marketing...but my client base is actually small business owners and job seeking individuals looking to create an online brand. For this reason I also look to join sole trader, start-up, job seeking and small business owner groups. 

I use these groups to advertise the posts that I make on LinkedIn Pulse - adding my links to two or three a day has increased the views on my articles three-fold. They are also a great place to browse and answer questions. Small business owners are always looking for answers to basic social media questions, I can answer these, it only takes a few seconds and I've highlighted my skill set to a potential client. This is 'the long game' as often it won't be immediate that you will see a benefit from this type of action. However making yourself as visible as possible to a relevant, engaged audience is obviously going to be beneficial in the future. Watch your profile views, connection requests and contact list rocket when you start engaging with the community in this way!

Linking your profile reminds people to look you up on LinkedIn, and there are loads of places you can do it that aren't intrusive. Here are eight places you should have your LinkedIn profile displayed...

• Your resume - recruiters and employers can see your profile, endorsed skills and bio and may add you for later reference.
• Bio on your website/blog
• Facebook page
• The end of articles or blogs
• Instagram bio if you use it for business
• Google+ account - you can also share your profile on this platform to a wider audience
• Email signature - don't underestimate the power of this link!
• Twitter bio

Easy right? You probably already have the link in many of these. Don't forget, to get the right link to share, go to your profile and you will find the sharing URL directly under your profile.

I hope this has given you the motivation to increase the power of your LinkedIn account. I plan on sharing more in-depth tips on how to utilise LinkedIn and it's features in the near future. In the mean time, feel free to add me as a connection - my profile is here.

The Road To Success

When I was younger, this poster was hung in my house. It got taken down and probably thrown away when my parents moved, I spent a number of years trying to recall exactly what it said...

It's pretty intense, so many ways to end up in Failure River, only a few tiny stick figures reaching success. 

The poster was originally printed in 1913 for the National Cash Register company, one of the first examples of a 'motivational poster'. I definitely prefer this to a generic picture of some balancing rocks, a sunset or a snow-capped mountain - I hope you like it too.

The Dash live at The Monarch, Camden

I've met so many amazing, interesting people this summer. After a chance encounter at Titan Studios in Watford, I was invited to see The Dash play live at a venue in Camden a few weeks ago.

I'd occasionally seen the band name come up on my Facebook feed but I didn't know much about them, so I deliberately didn't listen to any of their stuff online so I could experience them live with no bias. So, I wasn't really sure what to expect :) 

I traipsed the entire length of London (or so it felt) in the rain to reach the top end of Camden High Street where The Monarch is situated. Despite the rain and the fact it was a weekday, Camden was buzzing, it turned out The Libertines were launching their album just up the street!

I'd never been to the Monarch before, and I nearly strode right past it, but eventually hustled myself into the warm and got a gin and tonic down my neck before braving the pavement again to talk to the band - Marc, Dan, Gareth and Aiden.

Here's a terrible, blurry photo of me and Aiden, if you think this guy has good hair game, wait until you see the rest of them :) Now that I see this shot on my computer screen rather than just my phone, I think he might not thank me for it. But it's all I have. 

In fact, full disclosure, I was completely at the mercy of my washed-out phone camera this night, so I'm going to steal a photo from their Instagram feed (@wearethedash) to show you the whole band.

And then they started playing. I was pretty much blown away almost immediately, they absolutely rocked through their set, with lots of jumping about and synchonised hair flicking in time with some awesome guitar-playing. Apparently they are "notorious for leaving the stage in a storm of broken bones, hearts and guitars" and I can kind of see where that quote came from, I a bit fell in love with Dan the guitar player, owner of my favourite hair of the bunch - second from right above.

I've searched for the best video I can to share here, but you'd be better off clicking over to their youtube page where there's a long playlist of incredible live performances from all over the UK and Europe.

I can't wait to go along to their next London gig which is at The Monarch (follow them on twitter here for gig news) on the 4th November. Check them out online at their website by clicking here, or go along to their Facebook page and give them a like for live dates and photos.

I'll be posting my round-up of the summer later in the week, for now, I'm off to enjoy the beautiful Indian Summer everyone said we wouldn't get...

Katy x

Croxfest With The Turner Brothers

7 days after Victorious and the band had an even more important gig, a hop, skip and jump from their front door and likely to be ram-packed with friends and family expecting a great show, and they definitely got it.

Croxfest is held on the green in Croxley Green, just down the round from the Turner Brothers house. It's an annual day-long free music festival, and it's pretty popular locally. I've never been before, even though it's only about 8 miles from my house, so I wasn't sure what to expect - I kind of envisioned a village fete-style set up, but boy was I wrong...

We started the day at the house, eating another beautiful spread by Mrs Turner and listening to some new T-Bro tracks in the garden...

This is one of my favourite photos that I have of the band from this summer - two original Turner Brothers and two new-generation Turners, and little ole me, determined to wedge myself into the photo!

We set off down the road to the green. It was filled with people and stalls, much more than I expected as well as a big stage and large backstage area. There were throngs of people with blankets, picnics, drinks and huge smiles, as well as the cheeky ones who had bought gazebos (I really must get one for future rainy events) We staked a spot in the packed crowd and got everything ready for the set...

I'm not sure who that grouchy looking fellow is there, but here's Tony T and Isaac sporting Turner Brother jackets and looking slick....

And here is a sneaky backstage photo of me, Patrick and Sim, the saxophonist who seems to be about to spill his coffee down me...

I was so excited to hear the set, the last big gig of the summer and with so many of the boys family supporting them, the atmosphere in the crowd was really fun. They stormed through the set with the whole crowd cheering and dancing, it was a pretty great end to the festival.

Thanks Jonny Atto for letting me use your fab shot of the boys closing the festival, along with the pyrotechnics and streamer cannons, so much fun to be in the crowd when that happened, with everyone reaching their arms up to grab some.

Every time I've gone with them this summer they have had a slightly different mix of instruments. They started with a trombone player, a sax and a trumpet at Hogsozzle and sounded incredible, and finished at Croxfest with two trumpets and the sax. I really love how much the brass section adds to the sound they have though, especially when you get a little wild sax solo at the end of a track. I think Sim is such a talented sax player, I'm secretly jealous. I used to play the saxophone, although obviously nowhere near to the same level. I kind of wish I had carried that on, maybe once I've mastered the keytar ;-)

The crowd absolutely loved the band, and there have been so many wonderful comments since the weekend. They even got gifted some personalised cups by a fan, how cool is that?

We finished the evening off with a beautiful curry and a houseful of fans, followers and family. It was really great to be a part of, I'm so excited to see where things go next for this band that welcome people into their lives and provide so much fun and party spirit everywhere they go.

This posts a bit gushy. It's only because that was the last festival of the summer and I feel a little sentimental about it, although it might be for the best since it's starting to take me three or four days to recover from these late nights with slightly too much wine...

Keep an eye on the Turner Brothers Facebook page for details of their next gig, or pop along and sign up to their mailing list at www.theturnerbrothers.co.uk.

Thank you to all the Croxfest crew for such a fabulous end to the summer festival season, especially the guys in charge of the great stage effects that really finished the evening with style and Mr & Mrs Turner for such lovely hospitality.Photo credits Johnny Atto, Isaac & Ian Frost.

I still have a write up of @wearethedash at The Monarch Camden coming this week, as well as a round up of the summer, but for now I'm off for a serious detox.

Katy xx

Victorious Festival with The Turner Brothers

Well, where do I start?

We knew all summer that this was going to be the big gig of the year, and boy, did Victorious deliver. I'm kind of overwhelmed by all the amazing support, photos and feedback from the bands two sets, and I'll do my best to sum up the day here...

We headed off on The Party Bus super early on Saturday morning. I, like many, weren't fully convinced that we were going have everyone together when it was time to set off (we were pushing the time frame a little already at this point) but in the usual Turner Brother way, everything came together, everyone went to the loo and we hit the road with high expectations. The Turner Brothers took about 40 people on that bus, and most of them were fully in the T-Bro spirit, wearing the t-shirts and singing Turner Brother tunes. We listened to Laylow four times on that journey. Seriously.

And then we arrived at Victorious! You'll have to excuse the weird jumble of photos I have for this post, the camera on my phone is seriously dire and my point and shoot has given up the ghost (genuine request - if you have a cheap point and shoot camera you don't need, please let me know, I'm desperate for one and the budget won't stretch right now). So the photos that I have here have been taken by Jay, who is pretty much my saviour when it comes to gig photos, with his fancy phone and great eye for shots, and Richard Allen, who was the official videographer for the day and from whose footage all the performance stills have come apart from one.

Thanks guys! ♥♥

Time for the big performance! We got all the equipment backstage, set up and it was time to play, opening the second biggest stage that Victorious had to offer...

Here's a sneaky, overexcited photo of me and Jay getting to hang out backstage.

I rushed back round to the field to watch the boys, and they absolutely smashed it. Two guitars, two trumpets, Parry on percussion and the brothers giving it their all, there was a substantial crowd gathered by the end and a whole coachload of marauding fans dancing to all the songs they knew off by heart.

Look at the size of that stage!

After their first set, we had a six hour break to explore the festival and see some of the incredible acts lined up. We explored and went a little feral on overly expensive cider. I ate a very large amount of food and failed to take pictures of any of it at all. Because I'm a good blogger like that ;-)

A real highlight of the afternoon for me was seeing one of my favourite female artists, Laura Mvula on the main stage. She was pretty awe-inspiring, with her beautiful voice and a serious energy that I'd love to experience in a smaller setting. I'm listening to her right now :)

The second Turner Brother set was at the Mayfield Studios Real Ale Stage, a packed, tented stage with rain cover, perfect as the heavens opened just before their slot, meaning even more people crammed in to experience what turned out to be my favourite Turner Brothers performance ever...

That tent was so hot, all our Turner Brother t-shirts were soaked with sweat. The guys did a shout-out to their coachful and a whole section of the front of the tent went absolutely wild, there was an incredible atmosphere and the crowd even convinced them to play "one more" which turned out to be my favourite Turner Brother song of all time, one they keep promising me they will play and keep forgetting, 'Janine'.

And then it was all over :)

I abandoned ship and went to see Primal Scream on the main stage, they weren't everything I dreamed they would be, to be honest, but the rain coming down and the sun setting and the stage lights and the crowd and the mud up to our knees pretty much made all my other festival dreams come true!

A seriously unforgettable day, and the boys have had so many incredible comments and new fans over the last few days, it's been hard to keep up with. They play Croxfest on Saturday if you fancy catching them live at a free gig before summer finally gives up the ghost and leaves us wintery and crammed into dark pubs instead of rolling around in sun-drenched fields or at least enjoying warm summer rain.

On a side note, I have a couple of other posts coming up this week. Last night I went to see a truly awesome new band, The Dash, in Camden and I promised a little write-up, I really believe they are destined for big things so I'm glad I got to see them in such a close-up setting.

Big thanks to Nick Courtney et al at Victorious, David Horrocks Photography, Richard Allen Photography, Isaac from Liquid Lens Productions and my lovely friends for coming along and getting involved at the gig, love you all ♥♥

The Indie Sermon With The Turner Brothers

Okay, so I'm seriously late writing this, in fact most of the day is a blur now I look back on it, but I wanted to show off some of the great photos we got of the band smashing it at St. Peter's Church, Sudbury last month.

I don't think I've attended a Turner Brothers gig where they showed up with the same band members yet, and this was no exception. That's Simon Parry on percussion, Dom standing in for Harry on the guitar and no drum kit or trombone at all - but they still rocked, not many bands could do that :)

The venue was a disused church in the very centre of the village. We spent most of our time inside rocking out to the various bands that were on the line-up, so I didn't get a shot of the outside, but it looks exactly like you would expect a small village church sitting in the centre of a forked high street would.

It was a bit of an odd day. There weren't a huge amount of people initially, I think the guys at Indie Sermon could have indicated to village visitors that there was something going on a little better, we didn't see any signs or anything coming into the high street and there was nothing other than some Portaloos crowding the main entrance to indicate anything was going on inside at all. I think they missed a trick there, as there were two beautiful wrought iron lampposts at either side of the door that would have looked great with some bunting or lights strung between them - I put this idea to the Indie Sermon organisers, so maybe next time :)

Some of The Turner Brothers and crew.

Great shots huh? Thanks to Jay for taking these on your phone, they rock!

We are heading to Portsmouth for Victorious festival this weekend, and excitement is building! If you are hitting the festival, be sure to catch The Turner Brothers opening Castle stage on Saturday morning at 11.25, and later on in the Mayfield Studios Real Ale Tent at 18.30, see you there!

Win 2 Tickets To Victorious Festival to see The Turner Brothers live!

The Turner Brother's biggest gig of the year is approaching and they are giving away two tickets to come along to Victorious Festival in Portsmouth on 29th August!

Check out the names that The Turner Brothers will be sharing a stage with!

If you want to enter to win the tickets and join the band for the festival as well as see some other great acts, it's pretty easy. Just share the below graphic on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #theturnerbrothers.

Right click and chose 'Save Image' to save the file to a location on your computer. There's also a square version for Instagram...

Then pop along to the website, www.theturnerbrothers.co.uk, and add your email address to the mailing list.

That's it, you are in the running. Competition closes on the 20th August and the winner will be contacted on 21st. The winner must be available to travel to Portsmouth on 29th August - travel isn't provided in the prize but there will be some extra Turner Brother goodies for the winners :) There's also a kids ticket available if the winner have a little one to bring.

I'm kind of excited about launching this competition, I designed the graphic myself and my festival besties are all in the crowd! I'm the one with the scraggy brown hair.

Good luck :) xx