Building A Network Of Talent Around Your Business

For a business that needs to enlist people with specialized skills often, but not often enough to have them as part of your staff, building a network of talent will help to streamline your processes and improve your workflow. Need a skilled writer to create just one article for you? Hire someone to write your blogs occasionally and keep them within your network of talent so they’re always in close reach. This approach also works for businesses that prefer to run lean.

Networking is about building relationships and connecting with people to get things done and achieve mutually beneficial business goals. Building a network of talent with writers, designers, illustrators, photographers, and filmmakers or videographers, etc. is similar to the sort of business networking you’re already used to. The difference is that you’re focusing on people with creative talent who you’d like to work with rather than peers.

IMAGE: UNSPLASH

So How Do You Go About Building This Network?

First, identify your needs. This will help you to narrow down your initial search for talent. Let’s say, for instance, that your blog has been a bit neglected lately. Maybe things have been busy, or you ran out of topic ideas, or maybe you know you need a blog but aren’t sure where to get started. The quickest and easiest solution is to hire someone to write your blogs.

In this case, having a professional writing agency within your network of talent will give you easy access to talented writers and content creators. Professionals in these organizations will seek to understand your company and your business goals to create content that informs, inspires, entertains and – most importantly – converts readers into customers.

Chances are that the first creative talent you source will be a steppingstone to help you grow the rest of your network of talent. Creatives tend to have pre-existing connections with fellow freelancers and creatives, and there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to tap into that network once you develop a working relationship.

Another way to build your network of creative talent is to ask internally. Your coworkers or employees are a great source of information. Each person will likely have their own web of professional connections. You could also look to your partners and suppliers for creative talent they recommend. Tapping into these connections by asking for their suggestions of creatives whenever you need to hire someone to write your blogs, create graphics or media, etc., is a great way to build a network of talent for your business.

You could consider these steps as part of the exploratory stage, where you’re still gathering information and building a list of potential creatives to work with. The next step would be to check out their social media profiles and websites to see if you like their past work. It doesn’t have to be related to your industry or niche, but you should at least like what you see.

Finally, reach out to one of the creatives on your list and see if they’d like to work together. From here, it’s simply a matter of continuing to build that relationship and adding to your network as you anticipate future needs.

As you’re building your pool of creative talent, be sure to keep in touch with your contacts. Make them aware of your content needs and opportunities to collaborate.

Like any other network, you’ll need to actively maintain your connections for the best results. In return, you’ll see an improvement in customer engagement and conversions through the work produced by the creatives in your network.

If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.

IMAGE: UNSPLASH