Becoming a Digital Mum: finding your perfect fit (and then losing them)

Like many others before me, I came to Digital Mums because it appeared to offer the elusive Holy Grail: a flexible job that truly fitted around your family, but which didn’t involve low pay, pyramid schemes or the feeling that you were wasting your potential. Some people raised their eyebrows at me, thinking it was too good to be true, but I felt confident in my ability to sniff out fakery and really believed this was the panacea.

I still believe that.

I wavered a few times before finally paying up, I must admit. I already found it hard to break free of social media and I was only really on Facebook, so how would I manage if I was working across multiple platforms??? How would I actually make the time for my precious child whilst keeping up with the speed on Twitter? So I spoke to a few graduates about what it was really like doing the training and fortunately got the honest answer that yes, it’s 6months of late nights, family stress, and sheer exhaustion. And yes, you have to be strict with the time you spend online, and be upfront with your clients about when you will be available. But that it is also so, so worth it.

So I did it! I joined the course and felt rather smug through the first 6 weeks as I submitted assignments early and completed all my work within half a week. This was easy! I had loads of spare time! And then came week 8… and with it, 1am finishes and frenzied attempts to snatch a few minutes here and there while also childminding, being a mother, and trying to run my own businesses. Week 9 was the same, and week 10, and every week after that. Sheer exhaustion was about right!

But I had one less thing to worry about than most of the others in my cohort, and certainly within my wonderful, amazing peer group. I had the Perfect Programme Partner.

My client was Nappy Love, a brand new online retailer of reusable nappies, run by a passionate and intelligent new mum called Simona. As a “non-mainstream” mum myself I have tried reusables and I am an active member of Natural and Attachment Parenting groups, promoting extended breastfeeding, babywearing and generally believing that coconut oil or breastmilk will solve every illness known to man. So I was really really familiar with the target market — they were basically my mum friends and me! I even named my 3 user personas after actual mums I knew. Already I had a head start over many of the others doing the training, and a lot of common ground with Simona.

Then there was the fact that she was 100% on board with the programme and never once gave me a hard time if I made a mistake (like when I started treating other retailers as my key influencers), or was late getting an email to her due to family commitments. She understood about being a Mum first. And she trusted me to use my judgement on her channels. She didn’t require complete rewrites of strategies, personas and pie charts; nor did she insist on pre-approving content plans, but she also wasn’t someone who didn’t read it and then complained later. She liked what I was doing, was happy with my ideas and gave the ok to take a few risks in the interests of learning.

In some ways I got a very easy ride with Simona and certainly didn’t need to use even half of my relationship management skills learnt in previous jobs. But as one of my peer group pointed out, my experience is a lesson in how important it is to choose your clients carefully; because when it fits, it works. I now know that I want to work for businesses that interest me, because my posts are so much more genuine and motivating when I really believe in what I’m saying. I also know that local really isn’t necessary when the relationship is right because there are no demands to somehow meet face to face. I also learnt, rather sadly, that many of the businesses that I would really love to work are start ups who simply won’t have a social media budget.

But some will, and once I’ve recovered from the weeks of hectic scheduling, analysing, and creative marketing I can get looking for my next Perfect Fit. Though I’m afraid Simona has set the bar rather high…