The Royal Connection – a regal business thing

Thought it was about time I went a bit more in-depth to talk about the #QueenOf and #KingOf day competitions that I run on Twitter.

Royal Inspiration
To begin with, let’s start at the beginning. It was mid 2012 and by this point Aqua Design Group had won by Theo Paphitis #SBS (Small Business Sunday) and Jacqueline Gold #MOM (Men on Monday) and the followers numbers for the main business Twitter account @AquaDesignGroup were at a pretty healthy level.

Whilst having lunch one day, put the TV on and The Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant was being shown on the BBC and I had that classic lightbulb moment and thought why don’t I start a competition for women in business called #QueenOf day on Twitter. Simple premis, help promote small business and promote myself by showing off my design in the form of digital award badges. The #KingOf day competiton for men in business was introduced shortly after the Andy Quinn @ADG_IQ was activated to be the primary administrator for the competiton, so the main account would be less cluttered.

Award badges with a bit of bling

This is an image taken from #QueenOf #KingOf #OrderOfFabulous winner @Amshire Amshire Solutions Ltd and as you can see, the winners badge aren’t subtle but thats the point, the personalised badges are also free as I don’t believe in charging for that sort of thing.

Let’s get talking
Fast forward a few years and there are now a healthy number of #QueenOf and #KingOf winners but no platform to help them network, so on Twitter #RoyalConnectionHour was introduced as a weekly networking hour for winners to follow one another and to learn about new things happening within the network.

theroyalconnection.co.uk
This was a long time coming and had a few false starts for reasons I won’t go in to, but the intention of the winners website and still remains to help promote #QueenOf and #KingOf winners.

Getting your profile up

This is the view of initial registration, pretty straight forward. The invitation code is given to winners via Twitter DM after their win to ensure non-winners can’t create a profile.

Winners directory

So you’ve got registered and your profile is up on the website, this is what you can expect. There is a float snippet profile with whichever crown be you a #QueenOf or #KingOf winner along with your winning title and some text from your profile.

Winners profile

You can have some fun with this. You can add all your business social media links, website link, four product or business related images and of course an overview of what your business does through text.

Monthly promo

Winners are chosen randomly with two #QueenOf and two #KingOf winners picked each month to be showcased on the front of the winners website with a promotional slider showcasing their business. These winners also get shoutouts throughout the month from both @AquaDesignGroup and @ADG_IQ and mentioned in the newsletter that goes out to over 600 winners each month.

Facebook and LinkedIn groups

These were set-up to help winners connect with one another and promote their businesses, their seasonal offers, new products or services and help support one another when needed. Closed groups to ensure non-winners don’t benefit from not putting the effort in to take part in the competitions in the first place.

In the press
This is still a thrill to see when #QueenOf and #KingOf winners get in the newspapers or magazines talking about their business and mentioning the win.

#QueenOf winner Small Prints Photography

#QueenOf winner Diamond Dazzle Hair

#QueenOf winner The Jam Horse

#QueenOf winner Ribbon of Hearts

#KingOf winner Hi Viz Safety

#QueenOf winner Adventure Accessories

If you’d like to get involved in the weekly #QueenOf and #KingOf day competitions, the rules of entry can be found on the winners website http://theroyalconnection.co.uk/rules-of-entry/