Held on the morning after the night before, the timing wasn’t exactly fabulous, but the quality of the guest list and discussion quickly expelled Brexit ‘to the corner’ as over 20 leading women from the industry joined together for the Ladies Executive Club in London on 24 June.
Held at the stylish Ampersand Hotel in South Kensington, the event focused on the theme of social media, with social media guru, Sarah Kerrigan, supplying the expertise and education to an extremely engaged, if ‘mixed-ability’ group of social media users. It is evident that some of us ‘tinker’, some of us are simply overwhelmed, but all of us recognise the vital role that social media plays in our lives.
And, following the event, we now understand the power of Google+, what Twitter users don’t want to read and the preferred communication styles of Generation X and Y compared to the baby boomers and the veterans.
The event provided us with an excellent opportunity to share ideas, compare practices and concerns and to network with other women in our sector. But what did we learn and what did I personally take back regarding how Brightstar’s approach to Twitter might evolve or change?
For me, I am 100% convinced that our use of social media has to be a shared responsibility for everyone at the company; from the directors to the marketing team. Furthermore, while social media presents an opportunity to ‘market’ the business, it’s certainly not just about ‘pumping out’ endless brand messages that have been deliberately scheduled and put through the ‘compliance sieve’.
On the contrary, all directors of the business hold Twitter accounts and have messages that we want to convey and real-time activities that we want to share. Our social media activity therefore, should provide us with opportunities to engage others, to create and develop relationships and partnerships and to enhance our profile and business reputation.
For Brightstar, the sponsorship of this particular event sat perfectly with our values and business culture. We value and embrace diversity, we genuinely support equality of opportunity in the workplace and we champion flexible working, which has inevitably supported working mothers and professional women back into the workplace after career breaks.
Our own staff profile reflects this belief and it is a reality rather than an aspiration. Women are well represented at director and management level and their qualities and skills are both valued and utilised to bring balance and improvement to the business. Therefore, the opportunity to support and champion the Ladies Executive Club reflects what we believe in, that being that there are many talented and valuable females across the industry in key roles whose work should be held up and recognised.
