Social networking site links local businesswomen

OK, so you’re starting a new business… by yourself… in a new industry. You’re trying to build your professional network from scratch. What do you do?
If you are Kathy Onwezen, you launch one of Columbia’s hottest social networking Web sites, Girl Talk (www.gotogirltalk.com).

Girl Talk provides an online gathering place that is all about women, especially women in the professional world. The site bills itself as “… a place where intelligent, ambitious women can come together to share information, guidance and personal experiences through blogging to help us enhance our well being, and achieve personal and professional goals.”
When Onwezen left nursing to start her own business, The Cherry Hill Event Center, a set of challenges accompanied the move and eventually led to the launch of Girl Talk.
“My office went from being in a hospital, where I had a lot of resources, to the basement of my house, just four walls and me,” Onwezen said. “I was doing everything on my own, and then I thought, ‘There are enough people in Columbia who have started businesses, who are working at home, who have been through what I’m going through, why should I reinvent the wheel?’
“It started with just e-mails I’d send to people, asking questions about how to do things or where to get things,” Onwezen said. “The Web site came together as a blogging resource, and from there it took wings.”
But Onwezen wanted to create something special, something more than what she might be able to do on her own. “I’m not a Web designer, and I decided I wanted it to be more appealing to the eye, to really make it a more professional Web site.”

She went to the IDP Group, a Columbia marketing and advertising firm that has since become Caledon Virtual, and shared her thoughts on the project.
“We just talked and talked about the vision and how we might make it work,” Onwezen said. “That’s how the whole Girl Talk site came about.”
From its beginnings as a way for Onwezen to answer her own business questions, Girl Talk has evolved into an online community where members can read and blog about pretty much any aspect of their lives.
“I tried to create a holistic view of the woman, not just looking at the professional or the business side,” Onwezen said. “I wanted the family side, the wife side, the single girl side, the health side. I call it the holistic approach to the female.”
Categories include Career & Finance, Beauty & Style, Health & Fitness and others. Onwezen said one of the most popular parts of the site is the review section, where local women offer their thoughts on local restaurants and other businesses.

Most subject areas host an expert whose job is to blog about issues and answer questions posed by the site’s members and visitors.
Brenda Haynes, who owns Columbia-based child learning center “Kindermusik with Brenda,” is Girl Talk’s “Child Development Specialist.”
“I’d been approached by several other Web-based marketing opportunities but this one was the best fit for me,” Haynes said. “I think Girl Talk is special because it is specifically for women who are raising families and being professional. It seems like most people are there for one of those two reasons.”
The Bank of Missouri’s Lindsay Beard is Girl Talk’s expert on investments and retirement planning. She is hopeful about the future of Girl Talk, “The more membership they get, the better it will become. There isn’t as much traffic and feedback on some of the pages as I would like to see. But it’ll get more. The launch here at the bank had a really good turnout.”
Beard is referring to the fact that Girl Talk is more than just an online presence. It meshes virtual and real-world communications, holding group get-togethers as often as once a month. Onwezen said that the combination of online communications and real world interaction has been key to the group’s growth.
“About 60 women showed up to our launch at Bank of Missouri,” she said. “Now we have a little over 500 members. It has really grown into a one-stop resource place for mid-Missouri women.
“It continues to grow. It continues to be a great resource for the women of the area. I’ve been asked if I want to take it out of the mid-Missouri area, and the answer is ‘not at this time.’ Right now I just would like to continue to focus on all of us in this area. We’ll just see where it goes. It’s fun.”