About Louise Bunyan

MY STORY

A slight obsession with education:

- BA in Media, Communications and Geography (University of Limerick)

- Post Graduate Diploma Public Relations and Event Management (Public Relations Institute of Ireland / Fitzwilliam Institute of Ireland)

- CELTA /Cambridge English Language Teaching to Adults

- Train the Trainer QQI Level 5

- Diploma Legal Studies (Dublin Business School)

- Post Graduate Diploma Creative Digital Marketing (University College Cork)

NEW ZEALAND

In 2009, during the Irish recession, I took voluntary redundancy and bought a one-way ticket to New Zealand. I travelled the North and South islands for a few months and then settled in Auckland, where I taught English to International students for 2 years. I even worked at the New Zealand Rugby World Cup on the Media and Press Centre team.

IRELAND AND RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY

I moved back to Ireland, completed a Creative Digital Marketing PostGrad. Diploma course in University College Cork, and secured a role as an online marketing specialist in a global recruitment agency with HQ in Cork.

A great role working across 9 global offices with over 17+ websites, learning all about the business of recruitment, website project management, SEO, content and coordinating a team of web developers.

SaaS & CONTENT MARKETING

Then, a move to a tech startup in the project management software space, where I specialised in content marketing. And we won Best Marketing & Communications Blog at the Irish Blog Awards.

REDUNDANCY

After sudden redundancy in October 2016 I interviewed for many months. A tough process with many first round, second round interviews, coffee chats and disappointments but building up resilience along the way!

p.s. If you are a jobseeker and going through this at the moment - I feel your pain! And this is why I work with jobseekers on how to get the MOST from the free LinkedIn plan. Check out a few free online courses here.

BECOMING AN ADVANCED LINKEDIN USER

I kept thinking, "there has to be an easier way, than the black hole of job application portals?" and "How do I use my digital marketing and SEO skills to win at LinkedIn?"

Night and day I researched and investigated advanced methods for using LinkedIn as a jobseeking tool. I tested various everything, noted what worked and what did not work. Eventually, I figured out a winning formula.

USING LINKEDIN TO SELL

And then one day, recruiters and talent acquisition executives started finding me on LinkedIn, reaching out to me and offering me more interviews. I went from stalking job websites all day long with endless applications to being a person in demand!

I realised the problem had been that I was using LinkedIn as a marketer and not as a sales professional.

Not only did I have to write and shape my profile to sell and jump off the pages (hard for us marketers to do) but I had neglected to use my search engine optimisation skills (SEO) and keyword background to properly optimise all 9+ sections of my LinkedIn personal profile.

Once I saw where the gaps were, it all became clear. No wonder I wasn't getting found by the right people on LinkedIn! 

HELLO SMARTFOX

Next, I decided to give self-employment a try and in 2017 I founded SmartFox Ltd.

Initially specialising in digital marketing projects, employer branding and social media training across LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram / SEO / Writing for the Web.

LINKEDIN INBOUND LEADS

But through my unique approach to LinkedIn by using marketing foundations across personal profiles, building up my network and then creating genuine content, I started to generate 70% of my sales leads through my LinkedIn activity.

That's right - no cold calling, no prospecting and no advertising.

LINKEDIN EXPERT

And then my unique and very successful methodology and approach to LinkedIn started getting attention, and demand for my training went through the roof.

Why? Because of my teaching and training background, I can break down my successful strategy into a step-by-step guide that focuses on both marketing foundations and technical know-how.

Now I work with sales and business development teams, jobseekers, students, even training people globally through 1:1 online training.

In addition, I am a LinkedIn keynote speaker and deliver talks at conferences and webinars. 

And, the next piece was the creation of my own online school to allow me to deliver my successful training and approach to a global community of jobseekers and sales professionals. Hello Smartfoxtraining.com

And I have a feeling there is a lot more to come.

If you would like to join my LinkedIn community, just connect me on LinkedIn here :)