I was out for dinner with a couple of friends earlier this week. We were having a conversation about how scary it is nowadays that children are online so much, with access to goodness knows what, and how so much of their social lives revolve around social media.

Not like the good old days of having to sit on the stairs and use the house phone to talk to your friends about all the deadly serious stuff in your life, like which was the best Nirvana album.

“It’s fine though,” said one of my friends, “I have a friend who has teenage daughters and she regularly hacks into their Facebook accounts to see what they’re up to.”

My jaw may have dropped a little bit.

“She hacks into their accounts?!” I said, sounding horrified.

“Yeah, she somehow always manages to find a way in!”

Cue awkward laugh and anxious face from me.

“It’s different though,” she said, trying to back up her friend, “because her younger daughter went through a phase when she was about 15 of going out a lot and getting really drunk…”

Well dur!! That is what being 15 IS. As a parent you surely just have to accept that and get on with things, knowing that they’ll soon enough grow out of it and be a sensible person again?

I was stunned, and said so. “I would never hack into any of my children’s social media accounts!” I said. “Isn’t that just like reading their diary?”

Seriously, I care about my children as much as the next mum, but there is caring and caring. I follow Bee on Twitter and occasionally she pops up in my feed talking about feeling sick or how awesome How I Met Your Mother Is, but I would never, ever go into her account and read things she didn’t want me to read.

Isn’t parenting meant to be about building up a respectful,  trusting relationship with your children so that if they do have an issue they really want to share with you that they can come and talk to you face to face about it, or am I just being terribly naive?

Would you ever hack into your child’s social media accounts?

The post Would you hack your child’s social media accounts? appeared first on Slummy single mummy.

“I haven’t had time!” I protested.

“So why has this post about a breastpump appeared then?” she asked accusingly.

“It was scheduled!” I said.

You can see the pressure I’m under. 

Here then is a picture of the gift Belle made me this week. It is a ‘special box for me to keep precious things in’. It has been lovingly hand-decorated with tissue paper in the shape of a bear’s face, and has a picture of Belle and I in the lid.

Inside there was a surprise waiting for me too – a delicious Lindt bunny that has been lying around in Belle’s room for barely any time at all. And a five pence piece.

We do tease Belle for her habit of wrapping up things from her room as gifts but actually it is quite adorable.

I think you will agree that I am a very lucky Mummy indeed.

The post “Can you blog about this Mummy?” appeared first on Slummy single mummy.

Ah, the stories I could tell you about my cracked nipples.

When Belle was a few months old and the cracks were healing nicely, I started training as a breastfeeding counsellor, and breastfeeding became a big part of my live for a long time. I won’t bore you with the details, but you can read a bit more of my story over on the ARDO blog if you feel so inclined.

I was absolutely thrilled to be able to help ARDO by hosting this competition for them and I really hope that even if the prize isn’t relevant for you, that you will show your support for the boob by sharing this post and telling all your pregnant or new mummy friends.

In 2010, ARDO launched a totally new range of breastfeeding products including manual and electric breastpumps. All products in this range have been designed with the involvement of International Lactation Consultants, healthcare professionals and by consulting with groups of breastfeeding mums. ARDO are very proud of their ethical trading policy and strict adherence to the WHO Code on Breastfeeding; we are the only UK supplier of breastfeeding products to do so.

Enough of me waffling, here’s what you can win:

To enter, all you have to do is show your support from ARDO where you can. You will get an entry for each of the following:

• Like ARDO on Facebook
• Follow ARDO on Twitter
• Tweet the following – ‘I’d like to win an electric breastpump from @ardobreastpumps and @mummyblogger http://ht.ly/kPIOC’

Just leave me a comment to tell me which you’ve done.

Good luck!

The competition will close on 31st May 2013 and full T&C can be found here.

The post COMPETITION – win a Calypso electric breastpump from ARDO appeared first on Slummy single mummy.

“What’s with all the posts you’ve been writing lately?” one asked, referring to the rather extensive range of blogging tips I’ve been sharing lately. “I couldn’t even understand half the words.”

“Ah yes,” I explained, “it’s all to do with this new job with Collective Bias you see, supporting my blogger community and all that.”

I can see though that it would be a bit dull for those of you who aren’t especially interested in wordpress plugins. So how about this – today I weighed myself for the first time in about six months.

Dum dum dum!!

I had to take the scales down into the kitchen as the rest of the house is carpeted, (what loon puts carpet in a bathroom?), and stood for a while looking at them, looking at Boyfriend, and then looking back.

“I’m not going to weigh myself with you stood right there,” I said, which is ridiculous as he sees me naked every day and isn’t suddenly going to say ‘blimey, you’re really chubby, I hadn’t even noticed!’ Still, it felt weird.

I can’t get in these obviously. They just look pretty. If I could, imagine me on one side and a heffalump balancing me out on the other.

He relented, after some mild complaining, and I stepped on. (I had made sure to go to the toilet first obviously, and take my phone out of my dressing gown pocket. It all helps.)

The scales strained beneath me.

I looked down, hopefully.

I gasped. I was ONE WHOLE STONE heavier than I was expecting to be. A whole stone! I don’t just mean a stone over my ‘perfect’ weight, I mean a stone over the weight I was guessing I might be, which is already just a tiny *ahem* smidgen over the ideal.

It was a bit of a shock. I knew that I’d probably put on a few pounds – you can’t keep a jar of sweets on your desk and not get a little bit chunky – but a whole stone?? How did this happen? If I keep up this pace then one of my 40 things to do before I’m 40 will be to be airlifted from my own bed and nobody wants to be the star of a Channel 5 real life documentary.

Action was required. A banana was eaten, a calorie counting app downloaded. I even had skimmed milk on my cereal. Gross.

I wish I’d stuck to counting Twitter followers.

The post A post that isn’t about blogging or competitions appeared first on Slummy single mummy.

That could be you!

OK, I can’t guarantee it will turn out quite like that, but you can have a good go at it if you win this competition. I’ve got £40 of vouchers to spend on any workshop you like at Recipease, Jamie’s food and kitchen shop where ‘anyone can learn to cook and make great food.’

They have all sorts of courses, from kids’ chocolate truffle making to grown-up Vietnamese street food. You can even take a class dedicated to improving your knife skills if, like me, you are a bit cack-handed in the kitchen.

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me what your favourite dish is to cook. For a bonus entry, you can tweet the following:

I have just entered to #win vouchers to cook like Jamie Oliver with @mummyblogger http://ht.ly/kNzir

The competition will close on 31st May and full T&Cs can be found here.

As featured on ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions

The post COMPETITION – learn to cook like Jamie Oliver appeared first on Slummy single mummy.

After much muddling along, I’ve picked out my five favourites to get you started…

Spam protection

The very first thing I needed was a wordpress plugin to protect me from all the comments I was suddenly getting from kindly sex toy salespeople.

“I thanks a lot for sharing this excellent information. I always want as well as love reading quality items. Keep sharing. Best wishes for your own further efforts.”

Well that’s very kind of you Cash-for-Gold man, but no thank you.

To save your site from spam, get Askimet on the case.

Share and share alike

You’ve written an amazing post. Seriously, it’s the best thing you’ve ever written. It’s sure to be viral within minutes. If not seconds.

Excellent.

In that case you definitely need some sharing buttons to make it easy peasy for your readers to tell every single person they know right away.

Shareaholic is a great wordpress plugin for sharing, giving you easy to customise buttons from literally dozens of networks. Just pick the ones you want and it will do the rest. Shareaholic also helps to increase engagement by showing readers other related comment from across your blog.

Get social

You’d be amazed at how many blogs I visit who don’t link to their social media accounts. It is one of my top PR-friendly-blog fails.

There’s really no excuse when you can use something as simple as Tipsy Social Icons. Just pick the ones you want to feature, link them to your profiles, choose a style and bam, job done.

Comment Luv

Now it might not be the cool thing to say, but one of the reasons a lot of people leave comments on other blogs is to attract new readers. This is fine. Get over yourself. If you are blogging because you want to build up a following and earn money from it there is no shame at all in putting yourself out there.

You can make it even easier for your fellow bloggers to share their content, and encourage comments, with Comment Luv, a plugin that allows bloggers to link to one of their recent posts as part of their comment. It’s interesting as a blogger too to get a little nudge from my readers about the kinds of things they are writing about.

Pimp my blog

I have to confess I’m not that hot on SEO. I remember to alt-tag my photos, but that is about it, so I recently downloaded Yoast (I liked it because it rhymes with toast) to try and give my SEO a bit of a kickstart.

Initially I was terrified by all the options, but at its most basic level it can help you write a meta-description and keywords, show you what your post will look like in a search engine and give you the option to customise social sharing descriptions. It also scores your post against your chosen keywords so you can easily see areas for improvement.

If you install any of these I would love to know how you get on! What are your favourite wordpress plugins?

The post Five wordpress plugins your blog shouldn’t be without appeared first on Slummy single mummy.

I am one of those people, which is why on June 29th I will be abseiling down the Avon Gorge to raise money for Home-Start Bristol. Just to put that into a little bit of perspective for you, this is the Avon Gorge:

And this is me:

Not a brilliant match as you can see.

Still, it’s for a good cause.

I started working for Home-Start in Taunton when I returned to work after Belle was born, and saw first hand the amazing difference one volunteer can make to a young family. When I moved to Bristol then I was keen to do what I could to support my local scheme.

You can help support my Crazy Cliff Leap, as I am thinking of calling it, by donating or sharing my fundraising page. Go on, do it now! You only have to give a pound if you want to, I don’t mind. If you’re feeling really brave, you could even sign up to take part yourself.

Thank you!

P.S. I did once do a fundraising skydive and this happened… http://www.bridgwatermercury.co.uk/news/1252347.print/. Whoops.

The post The one where I launch myself off the Avon Gorge appeared first on Slummy single mummy.

We’ve all been there with friends, either asking for dating advice or offering it, but this way you get to potentially swap your dating expertise for £400 of vouchers to spend on the experience of your choice with Virgin experiences. There are two runners up prizes too of £200 each, so well worth a go!

All you have to do is click on the image below or the link here to be taken to the competition. You’ll then be able to watch a short video from John, and be asked to give him advice on three key questions ready for his date this weekend. On Monday, you can check back and here from John how it went!

Good luck!

The post Solve a dating dilemma and win £400 of Virgin experience vouchers appeared first on Slummy single mummy.

First up then, why should you use video as part of your blogging? Well…

• You can make money from it
• You can learn new skills and reach new audiences
• More and more people are watching videos and watching them via mobile
• Youtube is the world’s second largest search engine
• You get to develop your own voice, showcase your presenting talents and create opportunities in traditional media

You can use video in all kinds of ways:

• To tell a story and convey a wider range of emotions
• For show and tell, demonstrating DIY, crafts and recipes
• To communicate and help people to get to know you and your personality

You might even create a video in partnership with a brand to be used externally, like this one from a series I did for Hyundai and Tesco. Being able to include video content as part of your media kit gives you something above and beyond what other bloggers might be offering and helps you stand out from the crowd.

A lot of people are scared of video as a means of communication, partly because they worry about not having the skills, but also because of that thing of seeing yourself in camera, which can be a bit squeamish. As with most things though, it’s all about practice. As you make more video, you will learn about what works and what doesn’t work, even if it’s just about what colours you look good in you on camera. You don’t need fancy equipment either. You can take perfectly good quality video on your phone, simply holding it out in front of you, or propping it up on a surface or using a mini tripod.

There are a few basic things you should include in your video to encourage engagement. Firstly, include your name. This could be as a caption, but you can also introduce yourself at the beginning as part of the video and then sign off at the end. Make sure you include a way for people to find you by mentioning your blog address or Twitter handle. You should also treat a video like a blog post and ask questions that encourage people to leave a comment. For example, if you’re doing a make-up demonstration, tell people you’re struggling to find the perfect mascara and ask them which brands and products they love.

Keep your videos simple and short. Danielle recommends 2.5 – 3 minutes as a maximum. Pretend like you are just talking to a friend and no matter how nervous you are or how much information you have to convey, DO NOT READ! It looks lame. If you are still feeling shy, experiment initially with other forms of video such as filming friends or family, doing a voice over or an interview.

Here’s an example from Danielle. Watch it and have a look at how natural and relaxed Danielle is. Watching other people’s videos is a really great way to learn, as you can get a good feel for what works well, what makes for interesting content, and what is just dull or distracting.

Danielle’s 7 day video challenge

If you are new to video and want to increase your confidence, how about taking Danielle’s 7 day video challenge? Here’s what you have to do:

Video yourself every day for 7 days in a row. You can pick any topic, be anywhere, wear anything – all you have to do is talk for 1.5 – 2 minutes as though you are just chatting with a friend. DO NOT watch the video back at the end of each day.

And the end of the week, watch all of your videos in a row in one go. This way, you learn two things – firstly you get to see how your confidence and comfort levels have improved even just in the course of a week. You should be able to see that after 7 days you seem more relaxed and that your conversation is more natural. You will also be able to pick up on blanket quirks or mistakes that you are making, such as hair twiddling, fidgeting, or other little bad habits. Danielle gave the example of noticing that she started every video with the word ‘so’. This is only something you notice if you watch several videos back to back.

Do you have a Youtube channel or use video in your blog? If you have a video you’re especially proud of, please do leave a comment with a link and I promise I will watch and share it for you.

Photo credit - popturfdotcom

The post How to incorporate video into your blog + the 7 day video challenge appeared first on Slummy single mummy.

The topic is essentially change. Marketing, advertising, connecting with customers - it has all changed dramatically over the last few years. More and more people are turning to social media for news and information, and individuals are looking online for reviews and recommendations. Expectations are high and companies who fail to adapt their traditional Mad Men style advertising model will find themselves left behind.

According to Tami, there are three things that you have to think about as a brand in order to create that consistently excellent customer experience.

Build a data rich view of your clients

As much as we may resist, companies are gathering data about us every time we make a purchase. They’re not just watching what we buy, but how we buy it. Airline companies for example don’t want to know just how often you fly, they want to know where you’re going, where you prefer to sit, what films you watch, what snacks you buy – the opportunities for building a picture of an individual are endless.

As a brand, you need to be gathering as much data as you possibly can, at every stage of the shopping process. More importantly, you need to use that data to make your marketing interesting and relevant and make your customer feel like you know them. (Because you do.)

Imagine you are a pet shop. You can’t send the same email to a dog person and a cat person can you?

Build a client centric system of engagement

Have you noticed how the internet seems to be able to read your mind? I looked up a handbag recently and now my margins are full of handbag ads, every day giving me a little nudge about something they think I might be interested in. This isn’t an accident.

As brands become more accessible and personal online, individuals have very high expectations of their relationships with them. Shoppers are looking for relevant and interesting information, engaging content that speaks to them, not just a hard sell. Although we’re in the US, Tami gives the example of Boots and their Advantage Card system. Not only does the Advantage Card give you discounts on your shopping, but it targets these offers based on your spending patterns so that individual customers get offers that are relevant to them.

Define the core character of your brand

Knowing your customer is crucial, but you also need to know yourself. What, as a brand, are your core values? If you’re not sure, ask your staff. Why do your employees work for you? What do they like about the company? What is it that you really stand for?

You don’t need to be the cheapest, the fastest, the most hi-tech, but you need to be clear and passionate about what it is that makes you special so that your staff and your customers know exactly what you are about and can advocate on your behalf. Yeo Valley is a great UK example of this. Despite huge growth over the last few years they remain at their core a family business that cares about producing a great product. As a blogger, I have had great experiences with Yeo Valley, and know that they are one brand that bloggers trust. This strong identity and commitment to developing long term relationships and loyalty makes their blogger advocacy programme extremely successful. (You see? I am advocating right now…)

What do you think of these principles? As a consumer, what brands do you love and loathe for their marketing and customer service?

The post The 3 secrets of next generation marketing appeared first on Slummy single mummy.