UPDATE: This post highlights our use of the LinkedIn tool ProFinder. In January 2017, we learned our team member Mike O’Malley was named a 2016 Standout ProFinder User!
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What is Reify? We get that question a lot, right after being asked how to pronounce our company name. Reify (Ree-uh-fy) means to take the abstract and make it real (or, to reify). Simply put, tell us your idea, and we’ll make it happen. Many of the ideas we “make real” require different skill sets and expertise. Our swim lanes are web, multimedia, graphic design, and training—we create everything from instructional corporate videos to WordPress sites for non-profits.
Our female millennial founder Sarah Glova started this business several years ago as a part-time consulting gig to get her through graduate school. When describing what success looks like to the team and how it has allowed us to grow from one to three to now seven team members, Sarah credits implementing a family friendly and flexible work culture. Sarah uses the terms “connected partnership” and “care,” which all of us on the team strive to embody with each other and our clients.
We face many of the same challenges as other small business: finding the right resources, negotiating tight timelines, hunting for new business, and making payroll, just to name a few. But with the right client and community partnerships, we can collaboratively bring an idea to life, and doing so can make a real impact. Each year, we select one non-profit in the community and build them a web site pro bono. Last year we worked with InStepp to launch a new site so they can better reach more women and adolescent girls with their support services to improve lives.
Co-working and working virtually is part of the Reify work culture
A company like ours needs wide connections to find success and we’re always looking for different ways to stay digitally connected. Recently, two members of the Reify team spoke at a conference in Seattle and wanted to videotape the session. Because we didn’t know any videographers in Seattle, we turned to LinkedIn ProFinder, which launched earlier this year, and hired Motio Media, who did an excellent job. We were able to create some original content about Trainer-Designed vs Learner-Designed Pathways.
When we work with a person or group who does an excellent job, we like to leave a testimonial. Of course, LinkedIn ProFinder doesn’t have its own LinkedIn profile like people and companies do, so we thought we’d leave our recommendation here:
“We have been working with LinkedIn ProFinder for almost 6 months now. Our instincts to try out ProFinder were soon confirmed after we “won” our first project and then our second. We also found a great videographer in Seattle. We would not have found these new opportunities and resources without it.”
Whether you use LinkedIn or have other favorite social media platforms and sales tools, we have found success by increasing our connections and growing our network, recommending others, and learning from other small businesses and non-profits that are doing some really cool things out there.
This story was also published on LinkedIn Pulse at linkedin.com/pulse/staying-connected-reify-media. Be sure to follow Reify Media on LinkedIn for exciting updates, blog posts, and project examples.
